Seventh graders are academic whizzes

More than 3,300 Missouri seventh-graders participated recently in Duke University's Talent Identification Program.

Forty-five of Southeast Missouri's smartest 12- and 13-year-olds qualified for the state's recognition ceremony. Seven also received national recognition.

What an accomplishment. Only 1,295 of the more than 80,000 seventh-graders in the United States who participated in the program achieved scores high enough to qualify for what is called the grand ceremony.

The high-achieving seventh-graders are to be congratulated. But their academic performance also speaks well of our Southeast Missouri schools.