Fitch, Poland Seminary score high with ACT

AUSTINTOWN — Seven students huddle in Fitch High School teacher Tom Reardon’s class, noses in notebooks, calculators in hand, navigating through a problem.

It’s a similar scene in Diana Ghizzoni’s class at Poland Seminary High School: students engrossed in a series of complicated problems written on the board, pencils in hand and calculators nearby.

In both classes, the discussion sounds like a different language. Words like negative infinity, coefficient and odd power get bandied about. A peek over a student’s shoulder or a glance at the blackboard reveals a collection of numbers, lines and symbols.

But neither Reardon nor Ghizzoni is a foreign language teacher and neither class is about ancient writing. It’s high math — advanced placement calculus, to be exact. Students in both classes are preparing for a test that would allow them to earn college credit for calculus work.

In short, these kids are smart.

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