“Who” is the American Scholastic Achievement League?
The American Scholastic Achievement League was formed by a committee of middle school teachers who organized and operated a local annual competition for the purpose of challenging their students to demonstrate knowledge and thinking skills, and to recognize and reward excellence. The “contest” evolved into a state wide competition in New York in 2001, and became a national contest in 2002.
Who may enter the contest?
The contest is designed for eighth grade students; however, many teachers enter students from seventh grade, especially those at smaller schools since the minimum fee is for up to 30 students. Students beyond eighth grade are ineligible. There is no minimum number of students required to participate.
Who makes up the questions and how can I prepare my students?
A group of experienced middle school teachers from all subject areas, with the help of their students’ input, submit a variety of questions every year. The ideas and concepts from these questions are used to form the questions found in each of the six sections. The sections include: General Knowledge ( i.e. food, art, sports, music, current events, entertainment, mythology, etc.), Language and Literature, Geography, History, Science, and Mathematics. The questions are not related to a specific curriculum, but are selected to reflect the general knowledge and educational levels expected of eighth grade students. Therefore, it is not necessary for teachers to prepare their students specifically for this contest. Questions vary each year so previous contest questions are of little help and will not be made available.
How and when is “Scholastic Challenge” administered?
Every teacher registering their students will receive a contest "information and codes" email by mid January. Contest supervisors will administer the one hour competition at computers, in their school at a convenient time. The contest consists of 100 questions that range from easier, to medium, and harder in each section. The contest may be scheduled at each school’s convenience, but must be completed by March 1, each year. Results, answered test copy, certificates and awards, will be mailed to participating schools by early May.
What can I do if my contest package or final results package has not arrived on time?
If you have not received your contest information and codes by the end of January, via email, or your results’ package by the end of April due to mail delays, email us at info@amschoolschalleng.com and we will help make sure that all deadlines are met.
How are student scores used?
The contest scores are computer generated at the completion of each school's one hour session. Scores are only used to identify the national, state and school champions and Certificate of Merit winners, and the school team champions. The only results made available to all participating schools are those of the individual national champion’s score, and the school team champion's score. All other scores remain confidential unless teachers receiving their students’ scores make them available to their students.
Who should I select to participate in this competition?
Scholastic Challenge is intended for eighth grade students, from the average student at a typical school to the most gifted student at any special learning center. Also, many seventh grade students have demonstrated remarkable achievement in previous years. Special needs students with learning or reading disabilities could have difficulty experiencing significant success. Past results indicate that many students who are not necessarily academically inclined but who are logical thinkers and have an awareness of the world around them, have produced surprising scores.
What are the technical requirements?
Your school's computers need at least Internet Explorer 6, with cookies enabled. The system has been designed, programmed, and tested in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. We cannot guarantee that it will work in other browsers like Safari or Navigator. A teacher that has a "Mac" computer lab can download both IE and Firefox for their Mac computers if they do not feel safe enough to use other browsers. We recommend teachers only use IE or Firefox as using other browsers would be risky.
What do I do if students are absent the day of the contest?
Students absent on the day of the contest may compete on a different day if proper supervision is made available to them for the one hour duration.
What do I do if a student has an emergency timeout or a computer glitch?
Students that may experience an emergency timeout or a computer glitch are able to resume the contest by reentering their user name and password when the timeout problem has been resolved. Answers and the timer will be restored to when the interruption occurred.
Students' responses will have been received by the system if a "Congratulations" message appears after they click SUBMIT.
What if I have more students than computers?
If a participating school has more students than computers, the school convener may divide the contestants into appropriate groups, and administer the contest separately to each group, as sequentially as possible.
What types of payment are accepted?
We accept payment by check or money order. We are teachers and do not have the capacity to accept credit cards. Some school districts prefer to send purchase orders, and we will respond to those by providing invoices.
