A sixth-grade team representing Long Beach Middle School’s Activities Promoting Thinking (APT) class achieved Highest Honors in the 39th annual WordMasters Challenge, a national vocabulary competition. The Long Beach students scored an impressive 169 points out of a possible 200 placing them tenth in the nation. 

They competed in the very difficult Gold Division and team results are based on the cumulative scores of the top ten finishers, including ties. Top finishers included, Jack McNicholas, Caylee Donaghy, Arwyn Donofrio, Laina Sisko, Rowan McLaughlin, Harlen Werner, Peter Latman, Wolfe Scanio, Madeline Eckert, Jackson Ferraro, Slate Koss, and Riley Pilczak. Additionally, Jack McNicholas achieved outstanding individual results scoring a 19 out of 20. The students were coached in preparation for the WordMasters Challenge by Long Beach English Teacher Walter Kramme. 

The WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words that are considerably harder than grade level and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships.    

Date Added: 1/22/2026