Ironton Elementary student excelling in mathematics

Math just comes easy for 11 year-old Bryson Burcham, a fifth grader at Ironton Elementary School.

Burcham has earned perfect scores on the Ohio Department of Education math standardized tests given to him the past two years, in third and fourth grade.

“In third grade, he scored a perfect score on the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) exam, which is a very difficult exam and one that people complained about for being too hard,” John Maynard, Ironton Elementary School principal, said. “Last year, we switched to the AIR (American Institutes for Research) exam, and he scored a perfect on it also. I’ve only ever had two people score perfects, but never two years in a row.”

On the AIR exam last year in fourth grade, Burcham received an 835 out of 835.

“It feels amazing just to know I’ve done it two years in a row,” Burcham said. “Math is my favorite subject. I really like how numbers go together to get one big number. It’s so easy for me and fun.”

Burcham said he attributes a lot of his success to his aunt, Krissy Hunt, who teaches second grade at the school after switching from third grade, and his fourth grade math teacher Julie Whaley.

“After a perfect score in third grade and a perfect score in fourth grade, hopefully he can improve this year and get a perfect score again,” Maynard said.

Burcham said he’s looking forward to moving forward in math and learning more as he goes on.

“It’s going to get easier and easier the more that I know,” he said. “I just want to learn more because I love math.”