brianah@milehighnews.com
The only score higher than Jonathan Albright’s ACT mark is his bowling record.
Albright, an aspiring scientist and a senior at Beth Eden Baptist School in Wheat Ridge, was one of only 39 students in the nation to achieve a perfect score on the ACT college-entrance exam when he took it on Oct. 22.
About 8,000 Colorado students, and 415,000 from across the nation, took the test in October. Albright was the only one from Colorado to earn a 36, the highest composite score possible.
By comparison, the average composite score among the national high school graduating class in 2005 was 20.9, according to ACT officials.
The average in Colorado, where all 11th grade students are required to take the test, was 19.7 in 2005, according to the state education department.
Albright is a reserved, unassuming 17-year-old. In jeans and a T-shirt, with a heavy class ring on his hand, Albright would not look out of place in any high school.
But he credits Beth Eden, a private Christian school with about 230 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, with helping him excel.
“I like that it’s small,” he said. “Pretty much everyone knows everyone here.”
Albright has been at Beth Eden since kindergarten. His mother, Deanna, once tutored at the school, and she remembers 3-year-old Jonathan sitting there with her, absorbing every word.
Albright’s life isn’t all about academics. He plays on Beth Eden’s basketball team, and is in the school’s hand bell choir. He plays the violin and the piano, and is active in the school’s church youth group on Sundays.
Albright also does well at the bowling alley, where he plays in a league and once bowled a 258.
Albright plans on attending the Colorado School of Mines in the fall, where his brother Thomas just graduated. His sister Allison studies music education at St. Olaf’s in Minnesota.
Albright said he wants to be a physicist. He likes learning how things work.
His perfect score has garnered attention from the media, but Albright’s sheepish smile belies his discomfort with being the center of attention.
“I don’t really think the ACT matters after college,” Albright said.
It might be difficult for Albright to ever fade into anonymity. Steve Curtis, the principal at Beth Eden, said when he announced Albright’s perfect score to the senior class, he told the kids they would remember Albright for years to come.
“Someday they’ll tell their grandchildren, ‘I knew Jonathan Albright when he was in high school,’” Curtis said.