RMS students excel at math competition

By Staff
Melissa Cason, Franklin County Times
Fourteen students at Russellville Middle School placed in the top ten at an international math competition.
The competition, a part of the school's Math Voyager program, had 250,000 students in 11 different countries, local sponsor Claudia Askew said.
The Math Voyager program is designed to help struggling math students improve their math skills. Eight other Alabama Schools are piloting the program in addition to RMS, , administrative assistant George Harper said.
The program helps struggling math students achieve success through a unique learning environment.
There are two parts to the program. The students receive instruction from one of five participating teachers at RMS and complete online assignments such as tests, and games to make the activity fun for the students.
"We have only started implementing the technology portion of the program in the past month or so," Askew said.
The students compete with other students on their level on a weekly basis, and the top scorers worldwide are listed each week.
"The program has helped build our students' self esteem because they are starting to succeed in an area where they had not had success before," Askew added.
The top scorers in the program are Leslie Hutchins, Jose Cortez, Jose Juan-Sebastian, Kaula Howard, Cree Hamilton, Dania Chavez, Hugo Castro, Ashley Aquino-Rocha, Jesus Alvarez, Cainen Fleming, Brandon Cothrum, Cody Pinkard and Michelle Hiatt.
"We are proud of the students' success under this program," Askew said.
The students' classroom performance and their motivation have increased since the start of the program, Askew added.