Look around sixth-grader Amelia Kothari's room and it's pretty clear she loves outer space. She has toys and models everywhere.
"When I was like 4 and 5, we used to go to the [National] Air and Space Museum every day because we used to live in Washington, D.C.," Kothari said.
She's wanted to be an astronaut from that day.
Her mom says she approaches school with the focus that she has to do well in order to chase her galaxy-sized goals.
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"Everything she does she's like, 'will this make me an astronaut?' I'm like, 'it's a long way," Mansi Kothari said.
So it shouldn't have been much of a surprise when Amelia took her very first STAAR test result was like something from another world. A perfect score, in math of all things, the subject most students struggled with. But Amelia played it cool.
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"I think the key to the STAAR is to calm down and do it slowly. And if you do that, then it's pretty easy," she explained.
Her chill attitude was no accident. Amelia and her family are new to Texas. She didn't know the weight the test carries. Her parents kept it from her, saying they didn't want to put pressure on her.
"I've heard from parents, 'oh, my child is a straight-A in school but on STAAR they have failed,' it was just very hard for me and my husband," said Mansi.
All that worry and she aced it, her family knows it was her drive, and the teachers at Leadership Prep School in Frisco that helped their little star shine as bright as the sun.
Another family in Grand Prairie contacted NBC DFW to say their child also received a perfect score on STAAR. So did a student in the Houston area.
