Six Scarborough High School students were among the top 50 scorers on the Maine Educational Assessments last year, the highest number of any high school. Cape Elizabeth had one student who scored in the top 50.

The six Scarborough students are Seana Bamford, Chandler Blodgett, Douglas Endrizzi, Nicole Gonyea, Kimberly Stoddard and Brian Van Dam. Joe Geoghegan was the Cape student.

The students were recognized for their work on Monday during an “Achievement Celebration” at the Augusta Civic Center where the students were able to invite a teacher mentor and their parents.

All of the students said their teachers and school districts provided them with the necessary tools to be successful.

“It’s a testament to the Scarborough system and the teachers here that there were six of us in there today,” Van Dam said Monday.

The MEAs are standardized tests administered by schools to determine what students are learning in the classroom and whether schools are properly addressing the state’s Learning Results, which are education guidelines dictating what students should know and understand at certain grade periods.

Each student took the test last year and had the highest combined scores in the reading, writing, mathematics and science technology tests. The students were told about their achievement earlier this year.

“I was completely surprised when I found out because I just sort of took the test,” Van Dam said.

The tests are administered in grades 4, 8 and 11 and do not have any effect on the student’s grades or class ranking. Still this handful of students took the test seriously.

“It was definitely an honor to be in the top 50,” Stoddard said.

Geoghegan said he took the test seriously because he wanted to help Cape Elizabeth High School achieve a high overall average score, which he was told could have an effect on how colleges view the school district.

“I wanted to make our school look good,” he said, adding that Cape’s high MEA scores are proof that the district employs high quality teachers.

Students had mixed opinions on the benefits of the MEAs. Van Dam said they are not necessarily a good indicator of what a student can do. He also said the test might hamper what teachers can do in the classroom since they must teach what will be included in the MEAs or their class score could suffer.

Stoddard said the tests are helpful to teachers and school administrators in finding out how much students learn and remember during the year.

The six Scarborough students who scored in the top 50 on the MEAs last year (left) Doug Endrizzi, Chandler Blodgett, Brian Van Dam, Jr., Kim Stoddard, Nicole Gonyea, and Seana Bamford. Doug Endrizzi presents Scarborough High School French teacher Pat Brawn with a rose during a recognition celebration for the statecarborough students in the top 50 scorers.