Valley High School Junior Earns Highest Score in State on National Spanish Exam

Media release:

West Des Moines Valley High School junior Harry Freund recorded the highest score for level four students in the state of Iowa on this year’s National Spanish Exam.

On the level five test, Kendall Neuberger placed third, Kylie Boeve placed fifth, Caroline Erickson placed sixth, followed by Kimberly Sorensen and Daniel Malina in ninth and tenth, respectively.

In addition to placing well in the state rankings, students from Valley High School earned a total of three silver and one bronze medal along with five honorable mentions in the national awards. Silver medals are award to those students scoring between the 85th-94th percentile and bronze to those scoring between the 75th-84th percentile. Honorable mention is awarded to students scoring between the 50th-74th percentile. Silver medals went to Freund, Neuberger and Boeve with Erickson receiving the bronze.

“Attaining a medal or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very prestigious,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, National Director of the Exams, “because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States with over 156,000 students participating in 2013.”

Students from Valley have a long history of high achievement on these exams and were taught by Spanish teachers Sue Boyle, Krista Cooley, Tara Friedley, Suzanne Herr and Piet Van der Meer.

The National Spanish Examinations are administered each year for sixth graders through seniors, and are sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.