To provide students with opportunities to showcase their talents and abilities should be a matter of routine rather than special project. Crises in education in recent years have focused attention on the achievement of minimal standards, but beacons must remain in place to show the way to the highest levels of achievement.

A quiz program provides a highly visible public arena for students who demonstrate exceptional academic ability and achievement.  At its best it extends recognition to these students similar to scholastic athletic programs. Student participants develop poise, oral communication skills, hone abilities to think, organize and analyze thoughts, and respond quickly.  Other forums for academic excellence are often unduly limited, particularly in the mass media. Locally notable, the "Academic Challenge" program, which has returned to WEWS-TV, Cleveland's channel five, encompasses such a wide geographical region that often, no school can compete more frequently than once in three years.  Moreover, Scholastic Games is about 45 minutes in length with two high school teams competing weekly. The television series is a 30-minute program  including three academic teams.  Also the Scholastic Games format was devised to afford a more complete and challenging experience for the competitors and their respective academic advisors.

The value of a high school quiz progam goes beyond the program itself, as its advancement serves to assist schools in setting an agenda in which high academic attainment is given priority. It is a tool for schools to spotlight academic excellence on a year-round basis, as recognition is awarded to the high school and participating students through news releases and public address announcements in addition to the actual radio broadcasts of the competition.  For the underwriter or corporate sponsor it conveys the message, "We care about education," repeatedly to an important target audience.  It should be emphasized that though the radio show participants are high school students, the listeners are adults.  Far beyond the small group of parents and grandparents, they are people interested in education and ideas, an audience built on the foundation of the appropriate radio station's general adult audience.

Format

The programs consist of several rounds of general knowledge questions presented in different categories, for example, world geography, authors, or current events. The questions, posed by the moderator, earn points for the schools when correct responses are given.  Schools advance to playoff programs based on their scores, culminating with semi-finals and a championship. The programs are pre-recorded, though in the 1980s, the Cleveland program championships were broadcast live.  Programs are produced on location in order to accommodate an audience.  The last three years of Lorain County Scholastic Games programs have primarily originated from the Elyria-Lorain Holiday Inn, except the 1997-98 championship took place at Lorain County Community College's Stocker Center.

Quality, Credibility, and Sponsor Support

Jim Mehrling's high school quiz programs, dating from the mid 1980s (first with the East Ohio Gas Company "Whiz Quiz" on WERE-AM in Cleveland), have retained and built upon a core of professional writers and production assistants, and partnerships with area colleges and universities. The Cleveland programs were co-sponsored by the non-profit Cleveland Commission on Higher Education, a consortium (now called the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education) which has since grown to more than 18 institutions, many of which (notably Oberlin, Lorain County Community College, John Carroll, Ursuline and Baldwin-Wallace) have supported Scholastic Games from the outset.  Lorain County's program began with a strong expression of interest from Nordson Corporation, which through its foundation was the sole sponsor for eight years, and a contributing underwriter since, with the added participation of such organizations as the Community Foundation of Greater Lorain County, The Nord Family Foundation, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, and Stocker Foundation.  The Cleveland-based program has returned for limited runs with support from GE Lighting, Pepsi Cola Bottling of Cleveland, and the Jennings Foundation, but a base of support for an ongoing program has not yet been established.

Beginning with and continuing with the other programs, colleges and universities have agreed to participate by making taping venues available, and by awarding tuition credits to participating high schools. These have consisted primarily of multiple $500 awards with an annual minimum per institution of $2,000 in vouchers, randomly awarded to the participating high schools. The following method was used for tuition credit awards: As each program was recorded for broadcast the tuition credits were announced. On the same broadcast, the college was provided an institutional announcement or "commercial". Each high school was given the responsibility to select a recipient of the tuition credit award from among those accepted to attend the awarding institution the following year. When such awards have been annouced for schools with no eligible students, the awards were simply not used. The college or university still had received the promotional announcement. Procedures and notification forms have been developed for the awards process that have proven effective over the years.

Annual value (2002-2006) of tuition credit awards from 10 colleges & universities...........................$20,000

($2000 each from Ashland University, Baldwin-Wallace, Case Western Reserve, Heidelberg, John Carroll, L.C.C.C.,  Notre Dame Coll. of Ohio, Oberlin, Tiffin University, and Ursuline.) Details.

Participants

Each of the Mehrling Studios quiz programs have featured three-member teams from invited high schools. Scholastic Games competition has been restricted to the public and private high schools in Lorain County. The maximum number of participating schools in one year has been 18.  Each year winning teams have returned for playoffs.  Seven different high schools have won our championship.    Details.

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