You can't fault the teachers at Highcrest Middle School for seeing double on occasion.



The Wilmette school is seeking a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most twins in a single grade. The fifth-grade class has 23 sets of twins, which is close to 10 percent of the 470 pupils in that grade level at the school.



Highcrest twins Luke and Ryan Novosel (pictured, below) discovered the record was 16 sets of students in a single grade while reading the Guinness book one night, and figured their grade was close to the record. After a little more research, they learned that they not only beat the record, they smashed it.

"I was thinking is this really happening did we really beat it? It turns out that we did," Ryan said.



School officials have been gathering documentation over the past few weeks to officially confirm the record with Guinness.



They believe a post 9-11 baby boom in 2002 and the advancement of fertility treatments helped to account for the unusual number of twins.

"When we were placing the kids last summer, I thought we had a awfully high number of twins, But I never dreamed it was a world record," fifth-grade administrator Traci Meziere said.

Of the 23 Highcrest twins, only one set is identical.



The twins took an official photograph for Guinness on Wednesday morning, with each set of twins dressed alike for the visual effect.