Private School Education

by Kelly Knowlden

According to the Council for American Private Education, private school students perform better than their public school counterparts on standardized tests. While I am not aware of what scores the children are earning in local public schools, I do know two things about how we are doing as a school.

First, the standardized test scores that the K-8 students receive with their final report card for the year indicate a general trend that goes like this: in the early years, the children are at grade level or above in the two primary areas tested—reading and math; If the student started here, then by the third grade, most are testing above grade level in those two areas; By 6th grade, many students are reading at a post high school level and are testing in math at a high school level. For those who had the privilege of being here since Kindergarten and are in 8th grade, students are often testing post-high school in both reading and math. The primary reason is because of your influence in holding children accountable to high standards of excellence and diligence. If that continues into high school, students will excel in their college years and beyond.

The second thing that I know is that children who come to us from most other schools, regardless of whether they are from a local school district or another state, are behind. Many of these children bring a report card that says they are achieving A’s and B’s. In our entrance exam, many high school students struggle with finding parts of speech and in simple computation involving dividing and fractions. That is not usually the student’s fault. It is simply a failure of the public school system to attain to high standards. I am not stating that the work that they do is inferior or that the teachers are less dedicated, I am simply saying that the system is not producing results.

Pray for us. We have the two sided task of offering an excellent education that is rooted in historic Christian thought, and making it affordable. We need to pursue foundations, grants and funding provided by legislation that has been enacted. Pray that God will help us do that.