Taft High Ties for 1st in Super Quiz Part of Decathlon

UCLA isn’t the only academic institution making a run for the roses.

Perennial academic powerhouse Taft High School in Woodland Hills, which won a trip to the White House Rose Garden after taking second place in the last U.S. Academic Decathlon, tied for first place in the Super Quiz portion of the decathlon held by the Los Angeles Unified School District on Saturday.

Taft tied with Marshall High School in Silver Lake, answering 56 of 60 questions correctly during the competition at Loyola Marymount University, district officials said.

Meanwhile, William S. Hart High School in Santa Clarita tied for first in the Super Quiz conducted for schools outside the Los Angeles school system. The Hart squad answered 54 of 60 questions correctly, along with West High School from Torrance and Temple City High School, said Dick Sholseth, who coordinated the competition for the county Office of Education.

The Super Quiz is a key but not necessarily determining element of the decathlon, a rigorous daylong competition which includes essay-writing, interviews with community leaders and six exams. The final results of both competitions will be announced Nov. 30.

The theme for the 13th annual competition, “Man’s Quest for Freedom,” required competitors to answer questions concerning the Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution and the Magna Carta, Sholseth said.

Taft’s nine-member team finished second in the nation last April to a school from Plano, Tex., and was honored by President Clinton at a White House reception in June.

Academic Decathlon squads are made up of nine students divided into three groups, with three students each carrying grade point averages in the A, B and C range, said Ria Parody, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

One team each from the LAUSD, the county and a private school will take part in a statewide competition early next year. The statewide winner qualifies for the national contest.