The media release was yesterday, but I couldn’t find any information about SFs at my son’s school website or the local paper website. You can, however, scroll down the twitter feed and see all kinds of congratulations for different students and teams for athletic achievements over the past week. These kids scored in the top 1% of the nation, but so many students haven’t even heard from their guidance counselors that they made it to SF! I can’t even find any mention of my state’s SFs anywhere online. What’s the deal?! - I guess that’s the problem - it isn’t a big deal.
That is a shame. Fortunately my kid’s school does make a big deal out of the nmsf’s because they make a big deal out of any achievement. However, seems a lot of schools don’t even know what National Merit is and others worry about making students feel bad! For some reason that sentiment is never mentioned for any other type of competition (athletic or academic or in the arts).
There might be a difference of sorts because no one is making an athlete or a mathlete actually compete - those are extra-curricular activities - while in many districts everyone is supposed to take the PSAT. The argument is that everyone has to take it, so if you don’t do well you “might feel bad about that.” (which practically NEVER happens. The ones who feel bad are the ones who missed by 1 or 2 points, as you would expect). My response is that everyone also has to take gym but some take the extra step or three and train for a specific athletic achievement. It’s really no different with the PSAT/NMSQT. Most kids don’t care, a very small few DO care, and those who put forth the extra effort and saw the resulting achievement should be recognized.
There are also kids who are innately superlative testers and who don’t study - but you see those natural talents also in athletics, in debate/speech, in other academic competitions, in NHS and high honor roll . . . There will always be innate talent that rises to the top. Again, no reason to single out the nmsf’s to be ignored or worse.
It likely comes down to people just feeling conflicted about allowing one standardized test to determine the outcome in a national competition. Folks have real problems accepting some of the aspects of standardized tests, of course, especially those who suspect there is a correlation between strong testing and innate cognitive ability. Interestingly, some of these same folks deny that these tests reveal anything of the sort. But then, in that case, why ignore the nmsfs?
I had to make peace with the fact that the announcement will vary by district priorities each year. In many years prior to my kid’s NMSF/NMF achievement, it was announced within a week or two. His year? It finally made the school newsletter in November. However, the NAs and NMFs were announced within a week. Last year, the NMSFwere acknowledged same week as the announcement. This year, remains to be seen. But whatever - my kid got an awesome scholarship, is spending this year abroad thanks to it, and I no longer care who does or doesn’t know. 
It is a shame that some schools do not make a big deal out of making NMSF. It is an accomplishment and should be acknowledged. Our school has a large NMSF program and takes out a full page ad in the local newspapers that has a picture of all the kids and a list of their names.
@Proudpatriot - that’s nice of your school. My daughter graduated last year (wasnt NM) – and while we had heard there were some NMF in her graduating class, we still have no true idea who they were. I’ve thought about writing to admin about this as they always publicize the sporty kids accomplishments. maybe i still will send in a little suggestion/encouragment.
Our local paper published names of public high school students, but omitted private and homeschool students in the community. Why?
I also dislike how sports accomplishments are given so much more recognition. Seems unfortunate. For many, sports accomplishments are not long lasting. Education stays with you forever.
In Iowa ACT tops PSAT/SAT. In fact our school limits the number of children that sign up to take the exam to the first 100 of junior class of 250 students. Given this, they give little publicity to those that are semi finalist/finalists. At first, I was upset. Then O realized 2 things. First, perhaps my son wouldn’t have made it, if there was more interest and second, he will benefit greatly from it long after high school ends! Congrats to all the students that haven’t been recognized by your high school!
Our school hasn’t even told the kids yet, at least as of this morning. I don’t know if they take it for granted because there are so many kids each year or what. Eventually it will show up in the school paper and the community paper. I don’t have any problem with kids in sports being recognized, but it does make me aware how many of us (myself included) place too much emphasis on sports. You can be sure that if 40+ football players from the school were offered scholarships worth over $100K they would be shouting it from the rooftops.
@11827pat They probably used a press release from the public school district.
Our school hasn’t notified their 4 kids yet, and the district hasn’t done a press release yet. They usually do one; perhaps they are just slow this year. They are busy with the 50th anniversary of the school this year.
At my DD’s HS it has become less and less every year. When my older DD received the honor, there was a article in the local newspaper and her picture on the website. Last year with my youngest, no article in the newspaper and nothing to acknowledge it to the general public. All you can do is be proud of your own child and their accomplishments.
Name of NMSF appeared in local paper a few days ago. Kid congratulated her friend. Only problem–friend hadn’t been told yet by guidance or administration!!!
I think the issue is the assumptions people make based on the results of these tests. The prevailing view seems to be that the SAT and ACT are IQ tests and the students who do well on them are inherently smarter than those who don’t. If obtaining a high score is a function of genetics, like physical attractiveness is, why is it noteworthy of extra attention? If it’s not, then those who get a high score aren’t necessarily smarter than those who don’t. They may be more prepared for college than students who didn’t score as well, but they’re not smarter. We can’t have it both ways. If we want our children recognized for their hard work, we have to be willing to acknowledge that the scores aren’t simply a result of native intelligence.
It is a combination of both just like sports. High achievers in sports have a natural ability to do well but they also work very hard at their sport to achieve great things. Same thing with academics. They have A natural gift but they also work hard at academics by studying and doing the work.
Previous posters have observed the difference in recognition at schools between athletes and NMSFs. Our high school had a recognition assembly in the gym where the entire student body (1100) was required to attend. After enthusiastic congratulations for many individual players the 5 NMSFs were called to the floor and told to do 30 push-ups. Seriously! Unbelievable!
^^Unbelievable. And people wonder why other countries are cleaning our clock in academics.
My son was the only one to make NM semi finalist and finalist from his public high school.No one really cared or at least it seemed that way and that did bother me a bit.
Meanwhile the principal from the private catholic high school gave the names of his few students that made it to the local paper.
However eventually the public school district published his achievements along with 3 other high achieving students in their end of year newsletter and almost all or all were NMSF or finalist so it did count for something.Also my son was eventually chosen to give one of the commencement speeches at graduation.I guess by itself it is not enough to merit attention by some schools but definitely adds to overall achievement.
@Oregon2016 , that is a sad example of institutional bullying (jocks vs. nerds, but the administration speaks for the jocks). Disgusting. Of course, those jocks will eventually be working for those nerds.
@MatzoBall -Not funny nor fair. My son is a NMSF and an athlete.
I think the absence of media publicity is a sign that the campaign against high stakes testing is gaining traction in the press. Where I live, the political fight between local vs. state control over governance of the schools now overshadows all other education topics. In the old days, publishing the list of NMSFs in the local paper was seen as a nice hat tip to the kids who did well on the test. Now, publishing the list is seen as supporting the concept of high stakes testing and state education department intrusion into the local operation of the schools. (Those state intrusions often take the form of a mandate to administer a high stakes test).
@RustyTrowel I get what you are saying as I see that in our state as many protest against Common Core and Smarter Balance testing. But I think this lack of recognition is also part of the anti-elitist and anti-intellectual mood propelling a certain presidential candidate.