Higher academic standards are a keystone of private education. The following is from an article published at USNews.com:
“Research has consistently shown that private school students tend to perform better in standardized tests. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is often referred to as ‘the nation’s report card,’ assesses both public and private school students in subjects such as math, reading, science and writing.
The most recent NAEP data shows what other research has found: Private school students score better in almost all subjects.
On college entry tests such as the SAT, NAIS found that students in private schools consistently out-performed their public school peers in all subject areas.”
There is a good bit of debate over the reasons behind this statistic. At OCS, we think it has a lot to do with our commitment to learning and the quality of our curriculum. We strive to hold our students to a high standard of academic achievement. The abeka curriculum has a proven record of advanced academic training starting with the earliest grades. “Abeka offers comprehensive, biblically-based curriculum, textbooks, teaching aids and more for Preschool–Grade 12 with a traditional, spiral learning approach. Spiral Learning Method reinforces and reviews what your child learns in every grade. The curriculum starts with basics and builds to more complex concepts.”
This method is important because it locks in the necessary knowledge for higher-level cognitive functions. Daniel Willingham suggests, “Data from the last thirty years lead to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengable. Thinking well requires knowing facts, and that’s true not simply because you nedd something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most—critical thinking processes such as reasoning and problem solving—are intimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is in long-term memory.”
We lay a foundation that will serve our students well, regardless of the path on which God leads them.
