HCCSA Blog

I am  pleased to share some good news about the state of our academic program at HCCSA. This summer, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to look at how our students are doing compared to students in other schools across the country. As you know, we administer the Stanford Achievement Test to all students in grades 1-8. This norm-referenced test allows us to compare the academic skills of our students with students in both public and private schools throughout the nation. I also reviewed the PSAT and SAT scores of our high school students. Below are the results of my analysis.

 On the Stanford Achievement Test our students, after averaging each grade level, scored in the top 14% on the National Percentile Rankings (NPR). Three years ago, our students were scoring in the top 18%. If we narrow the comparison to students in Christian schools, a more selective group or norm, our students average in the top 28%. Three years ago, HCCSA students were in the top 34% on ACSI NPR.

 You will be interested to know that the two sub-tests in which our students scored highest were thinking skills and math problem-solving. I believe this is an endorsement of our classical philosophy which emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving. In 7th and 8th grades, our students were achieving at the grade equivalency of Post-High School in these two areas.

 What is most interesting to me is that I looked at individual grade performances over a three year period and I observed that the average increase in the NPR was 3%. In other words, as our students advance in grade level, their relative performance improves.

 I am also pleased with the academic performance of our high school students. Looking at the last three years of 11th graders taking the PSAT, HCCSA students improved their Selection Index from an average of 162 to 173. The Class of 2009 had a mid 50% range of 1140-1350 on the two-part (verbal and quantitative) SAT compared to a range of 1030-1300 two years ago.

 Perhaps the most impressive statistic about our high school, however, was the amount of academic scholarships awarded to our senior class as they matriculate into college next year. 12 of the 18 graduates (2/3 of our senior class) were offered a cumulative total of $811,350 in merit-based (non-financial aid) scholarships. This is an average of over $67,000 per student. The cumulative amount of academic scholarships accepted by these 12 students amounted to $445,650, or an average of $37,138. The value of scholarships accepted by our students ranged from $1500 to $110,000. These scholarships were offered by highly selective colleges and universities such as Trinity University, Austin College, Baylor, TCU, UT-Dallas, Texas A&M, and University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. Furthermore, two of our graduates recently tested out of 16 and 10 (respectively) credit hours for Spanish placement in college. Clearly, the investment these families made in HCCSA has paid great dividends!

 Thank you for taking time to read this lengthy update. I hope you are as proud of our school and its academic excellence as I am!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Bill McGee
Head Master