January 2015 national poll & small school poll results

[Matt Weiner]

The results of the first new high school poll are out.

The improved methodology of this poll involved assembling a panel of experts (high school coaches and non-coaches who direct high school tournaments) from across 12 regions of the United States as well as Canada and international quizbowl. Each panel member nominated schools from his or her own region for inclusion, then the entire group voted on a Top 25 as well as a Small School Top 10.

The panel is as follows:
High school coaches: Dennis Loo (VA), Sharon Lorinskas (IL), Steve Frappier (FL), Michael Harvey (Singapore), Jon Pinyan (NJ), Kristin Strey (IL), Joshua Rutsky (AL), Paul Smith (NC)
Tournament directors: Scott Blish (NY), Joe Su (Quebec), Ben Herman (DE), Sid Dogra (MI), Rob Carson (MN), Fred Morlan (KY), Adam Silverman (GA), Victor Prieto (TX), Ankit Aggarwal (CA), Stephen Eltinge (MA), Ben Smith (Ontario), Matt Jackson (DC), Andrew Nadig (PA), Nick Conder (KY), Nick Collins (LA), Jason Cheng (CA), Ben Zhang (NY), Alex Dzurick (MO)

Some voters participated in nominations but not the final vote. 22 total ballots were cast.

The full results are available at http://www.hsquizbowl.org/jan15poll.htm . The basics are reproduced below:

TOP 25

1. Liberal Arts and Science Academy (Austin, TX) - 550 (22 first-place votes)
2. Detroit Catholic Central High School (Novi, MI) - 499
3. Arcadia High School (Arcadia, CA) - 440
4. Auburn High School (Rockford, IL) - 410
5. Maggie Walker Governor's School (Richmond, VA) - 409
6. Western Albemarle High School (Crozet, VA) - 407
7. Chattahoochee High School (Johns Creek, GA) - 398
8. Richard Montgomery High School (Rockville, MD) - 394
9. Colonel By Secondary School (Gloucester, ON) - 371
10. Northmont High School (Clayton, OH) - 358
11. High Technology High School (Lincroft, NJ) - 335
12. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (Aurora, IL) - 298
13. Farragut High School (Knoxville, TN) - 257
14. Harmony Science Academy- North Austin (Pflugerville, TX) - 235
15. Bethlehem Central High School (Delmar, NY) - 221
16. Charter School of Wilmington (Wilmington, DE) - 200
17. Centennial High School (Ellicott City, MD) - 192
18. Bellarmine College Preparatory (San Jose, CA) - 187
19. Bloomington High School (Bloomington, IL) - 149
20. Carbondale High School (Carbondale, IL) - 144
21. Saratoga High School (Saratoga, CA) - 107
22. Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring, MD) - 83
23. Paul M. Dorman High School (Roebuck, SC) - 68
24. State College Area High School (State College, PA) - 60
25T. duPont Manual High School (Lousville, KY) - 58
25T. University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (Chicago, IL) - 58

SMALL SCHOOL TOP 10

1. Harmony Science Academy- North Austin (Pflugerville, TX) - 217 (20 first-place votes)
2. Advanced Math And Science Academy (Marlborough, MA) - 190
3. Hallsville High School (Hallsville, MO) - 165 (1 first-place vote)
4. Glasgow High School (Glasgow, KY) - 141
5. Richland High School (Richland, MO) - 100
6. Hubbard High School (Hubbard, OH) - 89
7. Russell High School (Russell, KY) - 83
8. West Point High School (Cullman, AL) - 70
9. Baconton Community Charter School (Baconton, GA) - 63
10. Cooperstown Central School (Cooperstown, NY) - 42 (1 first-place vote)

[ryanrosenberg]

I'm a little surprised that two voters chose not to rank Northmont, who finished 7th at NSC last year and return all of their scoring. Especially since those voters ranked DCC at least 13th, given that Northmont and DCC have been essentially neck and neck all year.

[AKKOLADE]

I'm a little surprised that two voters chose not to rank Northmont, who finished 7th at NSC last year and return all of their scoring. Especially since those voters ranked DCC at least 13th, given that Northmont and DCC have been essentially neck and neck all year.

Especially since they averaged ~8th on the other ballots. If they had continued that, they would have gained one spot, so it's not like some grave injustice has been carried out.

I voted for Pikeville, but maybe I shouldn't have since they're pretty darn close to a pretend team.

[Ndg]

I voted for Pikeville, but maybe I shouldn't have since they're pretty darn close to a pretend team.

Yeah, I left them off by default since they haven't played this year.

I'd be interested to hear the arguments for leaving the defending SSNCT champions out of the top ten small schools, and for ranking Cooperstown first.

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

I'd be interested to hear the arguments for leaving the defending SSNCT champions out of the top ten small schools, and for ranking Cooperstown first.

Hallsville's best player, Jared Lockwood, hasn't played much this year due to other commitments, so that's probably/possibly why. Not saying that's a good reason, but a reason nonetheless.

[djones]

I'm a little surprised that two voters chose not to rank Northmont, who finished 7th at NSC last year and return all of their scoring. Especially since those voters ranked DCC at least 13th, given that Northmont and DCC have been essentially neck and neck all year.

Yeah, quite frankly that is a joke. We have beaten two of the top five in the country. Would love to know who on this "expert" panel didnt rank us.

[alexdz]

I'd be interested to hear the arguments for leaving the defending SSNCT champions out of the top ten small schools, and for ranking Cooperstown first.

Hallsville *is* ranked in the top 10 small schools. Third place, in fact.

EDIT: Never mind, I assume you mean the people who left them unranked. :/ I can read.

[Ithaca Cricket Ump]

I voted for Pikeville, but maybe I shouldn't have since they're pretty darn close to a pretend team.

Yeah, I left them off by default since they haven't played this year.

I'd be interested to hear the arguments for leaving the defending SSNCT champions out of the top ten small schools, and for ranking Cooperstown first.

I have no idea who voted Cooperstown first. They're from my region, and even voting them 10th, as I did, is a stretch. They may not even be the best small school team in their COUNTY (Milford, 6 miles away and also qualified for SSNCT, just beat them in a tournament only open to Catskill-area consortium schools on Tuesday.) I actually think that the #5 small school "team" in the country was a team that wasn't nominated - Lehigh Valley Academy (PA), which is Alex Schmidt, the defending Middle School History Bee national champion and History Bowl national runnerup, playing solo. He had plus-.500 records (and in the latter case, nationals qualifications) at both PHSAT (where he played as Connections Academy and went 7-3) and BrainBusters Fall (where he finished 5th behind Lisgar, Delaware Valley, a Bethlehem team that was pretty much just Eric Wolfsberg, and Ithaca - none of these teams suck). And he's only a freshman. I couldn't nominate him because he wasn't in the region I was assigned (upstate New York and New England), and none of the Pennsylvania nominators pegged him. We also couldn't "write in" teams on the final ballot, or I certainly would have written LVA as the #5 small school. After seeing what I saw Tuesday, I would also have substituted Milford (NY) for Cooperstown and voted them 10th.

--Scott

[Everything in the Whole Wide World]

As a person covering that region, I did not put Lehigh Valley Academy down for the small schools only because I did not realize they qualified. They have not been marked an SSNCT qualifier on the NAQT website. I concur that Alex is excellent and LVA is as high as 4th or 5th best team in the state of PA. I will be sure to put them forward on the next ballot.

[1992 in spaceflight]

I'd be interested to hear the arguments for leaving the defending SSNCT champions out of the top ten small schools, and for ranking Cooperstown first.

Hallsville's best player, Jared Lockwood, hasn't played much this year due to other commitments, so that's probably/possibly why. Not saying that's a good reason, but a reason nonetheless.

Jared's played 2 out of 4 tournaments that Hallsville has been to. They've only missed Jared and Josh at 1 of the 4 tournaments they've been to this semester. Not including them because he missed a tournament or two when they're the defending small school champions and return all of their scoring is kind of....unusual, to say the least. (Granted, Nationals will let everyone settle any grievances they have with the rankings, but still.)

Stat Lines with Jared and Josh: BELLOCO at Centralia (http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... detail/#t0).

Just Jared: New Trier Uber Division on DEES (http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... detail/#t4). Just Josh: Missouri Fall ( http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... etail/#t24).

[Ithaca Cricket Ump]

As a person covering that region, I did not put Lehigh Valley Academy down for the small schools only because I did not realize they qualified. They have not been marked an SSNCT qualifier on the NAQT website. I concur that Alex is excellent and LVA is as high as 4th or 5th best team in the state of PA. I will be sure to put them forward on the next ballot.

They qualified from BB Fall (in fact, Alex was the Small School champion of that tournament), but he's not attending SSNCT due to the NHBB Nationals conflict. He will be at HSNCT from the looks of things, where I would say he'd go a solid 4-6 and put a scare into some of the teams he lost to. At SSNCT, I would predict a top 8 finish but not title contention, since he currently has literature and fine arts weaknesses he needs to work on, and the top teams at the tournament could and would exploit them. On history and geography, though, he outclasses every other small school in the country with the exception of AMSA (he probably has the slight advantage over them on history, but AMSA has a substantial one in geog due to Abhinav), and he is also an outstanding science player. I think that only Harmony, AMSA, Hallsville and possibly Glasgow, among small public schools, should be favored in an IS-set level quizbowl game (which is basically what the SSNCT set is) against him. If he can learn literature and fine arts (or find a teammate or 2 to cover them) over the next couple of years, watch out.

--Scott

[jonpin]

As a person covering that region, I did not put Lehigh Valley Academy down for the small schools only because I did not realize they qualified. They have not been marked an SSNCT qualifier on the NAQT website. I concur that Alex is excellent and LVA is as high as 4th or 5th best team in the state of PA. I will be sure to put them forward on the next ballot.

They qualified from BB Fall (in fact, Alex was the Small School champion of that tournament), but he's not attending SSNCT due to the NHBB Nationals conflict. He will be at HSNCT from the looks of things, where I would say he'd go a solid 4-6 and put a scare into some of the teams he lost to. At SSNCT, I would predict a top 8 finish but not title contention, since he currently has literature and fine arts weaknesses he needs to work on, and the top teams at the tournament could and would exploit them. On history and geography, though, he outclasses every other small school in the country with the exception of AMSA (he probably has the slight advantage over them on history, but AMSA has a substantial one in geog due to Abhinav), and he is also an outstanding science player. I think that only Harmony, AMSA, Hallsville and possibly Glasgow, among small public schools, should be favored in an IS-set level quizbowl game (which is basically what the SSNCT set is) against him. If he can learn literature and fine arts (or find a teammate or 2 to cover them) over the next couple of years, watch out.

--Scott

As another regional voter for the North Atlantic, I also didn't realize they were eligible, as most schools that could be classified as "charter schools" have a selective policy. If they are confirmed by NAQT as eligible for the small-school designation, then I would most likely nominate them at the next poll.

[Ithaca Cricket Ump]

LVA qualifies as a small school for NAQT purposes since their student selection process is open, then by random lottery if the class in question would be full. It won't matter for SSNCT purposes this year, but it might for future years, and it certainly does for poll purposes.

--Scott

[Important Bird Area]

We had initially determined that Lehigh Valley was *not* small school eligible. (Their admission policy instructs applicants to submit two years' worth of report cards and current standardized test scores, which we would normally take as evidence of selectivity.)

We will be reexamining the issue this week and notifying the coaches involved if we need to change SSNCT invitations.

[Antrobus63]

Sorry you guys are spending your time on this issue. It's not that big of a deal right now. Alex won't be going to the small school tournament in Atlanta because it is the same weekend as the History Bee/Bowl, and PACE has correctly listed LVA as a small school--but no, Lehigh Valley Academy is not selective. The standardized scores are not required for the purposes of admissions but for placement; also, we're not talking about SAT's--simply the normal state test scores. LVA is focused on maintaining an Inter-Baccaulareate program for the kids of predominantly middle- and lower-income parents who are determined to get their children a solid education, free from the usual public school distractions, and then, hopefully, into college. One proof of the school's philosophy is that, despite his high PSSA scores, Alex was waitlisted at the out-of-district lottery last spring until a month into the 2014-15 school year; this is why he competed at Princeton as a member of Connections Academy cyber school, which would have been his scholastic home this year if LVA had not finally admitted him. Believe me, if the school were a selective magnet school, I wouldn't be having so much trouble stirring up interest at the school or finding even a single kid there who wants to join Alex. Neither the school nor any of the parents have any idea yet about quiz bowl--LVA doesn't even field a team for the local TV "Scholastic Scrimmage" show! Hopefully, since Alex is a freshman, we can change that over the next few years.

Meanwhile, thanks for caring. For those of you pollsters who have not seen him play, but are curious about his numbers, Alex has played at the following competitions so far this year: (as Connections:) PHSAT; (as LVA): Brainbusters, the Northern NJ History Bee and Bowl, the Henderson HS Invitational, GSAC, and the Mountain Lakes Invitational [stats not yet posted]. He will be competing at the GVQBT II and QuAC tournaments over the next two months and then at the national events later in the spring.

[quizbowllee]

Out of curiosity, how often will these polls be done? Will it be monthly?

I appreciate that everyone chose to vote for us in the Small Schools poll. I'm hoping we can move up a few spots over this semester.

[Matt Weiner]

Out of curiosity, how often will these polls be done? Will it be monthly?

The poll will be conducted six times per year:
*A "preseason" poll at the end of August
*A "fall" poll after the first few large tournaments, conducted around the last week of October
*A "winter" poll after the last major tournament of the fall semester
*A "spring" poll in late March
*A "pre-nationals" poll in mid-May
*A final poll after the last tournament of the year. The #1 team in this poll will receive a plaque.

I will also be happy to mail a physical letter to your school congratulating you on your ranking upon request, if anyone thinks that will help them line up funding/etc. Let me know.

[Mnemosyne]

Is anyone going to be taking this over or is it dead?

[jonpin]

An email thread has opened up among the voters. My personal opinion is that it is likely we will have a pre-nationals poll, but unlikely we will hold one this month.

[Victor Prieto]

Jon Pinyan and I will continue the panel, although we will be skipping the planned March poll and only hold a pre-nationals poll (early May) and post-nationals poll (June).