Mondays with Mike: Exemplars of Excellence #4

I hope you are having a great Winter break, wherever you are! I appreciate you allowing me to skip last week (if you listen below, I share where I was, which is part of the story). I am grateful to conclude our series on Excellence this week by talking more on how I guide the school to think about and assess Excellence. I must share that this series has fostered good discussions across the faculty, administration, and the community, and some of what you hear and read today has been shaped by that ongoing dialogue. Thank you to those who have spent time with me–I hope you sense your positive impact!

Special Note: The audio below is the standard 10 minutes; captures the heart and mind of what I am to communicate. The text that follows summarizes much of what I talked about as well as provides background and further perspective for those who are interested–sort of like “show notes” and “background material.”

Ask at the end. Whether your listen, read, or both, please don’t miss my ask to you at the end: What next? I have one of two options and would be grateful to hear from you.

Click above to hear Mike’s 10-minute message on topics relevant for you and your family.

As I often state, Excellence starts with a growth mindset; the commitment to growth is the first form of excellence that leads to all other forms.

At PCA, we measure and define excellence through a three-tiered approach. As I articulate it below is new, at least new to this audience, and refined from some of how I have presented it to the faculty and staff in the past.

First, we prioritize growth, challenging our students to extend their abilities; students starting in second grade work with their teachers to set quantifiable growth goals. All students seeing their standardized tests are presented with their growth results.

Second, we emphasize proficiency, ensuring that students attain a certain level of mastery in every area. We want your children to more than hold their own in any environment; I like to use the biblical idea of “standing in the gates” and being confident before the elders of a church or town, able to reason well, and respected for their sound character and comprehensive capabilities. Broad-based proficiency across the disciplines is a measure of excellence all its own. Our broad, liberal-arts program builds that for all of your children.

Finally, we celebrate high levels of achievement, recognizing and honoring those who excel, whether at the school, state, national, or international level. This, to me, is where we see biblically the Daniels, Deboarahs, and Pauls of the next generation excelling as faithful young men and women, leading the nation from a young age. Some of your children have the potential to serve, lead, and achieve at such levels of influence. We aim to help them take the next step in that direction.

Throughout this series, we’ve explored the various ways Excellence has been demonstrated at PCA this year. We also see Excellence in more quantifiable ways. As demonstrated at the State of the School (see the link below), your kids are achieving at very high levels, in large measure because they are growing.

Why your kids excel as a group (and individually). Although I didn’t cover this in the podcast, I believe this level of collective achievement (typically in the top 15% compared to national and state schools) is due to a combination of at least four things:

1. You parents; we know that you, parents, set the learning tone more than anyone else for your kids, and they carry that back to school. Even as your kids get older, they still take their cues from you. I was amazed as a young Homeschool Dad to read a study that talked about the reading scores of kids (public, private, and homeschooled) and the correlation to the number of books their parents had at home.
2. Our teachers; we know they seek to love and challenge your kids to learn in ways that will often feel uncomfortable. Growth isn’t always easy. Our teachers aim for that sweet spot of providing the sufficiently uncomfortable challenge while encouraging and inspiring your children to press into the learning; this approach prompts growth that leads to achievement.
3. Our program; as your children learn and grow, it is important we keep our curriculum updated to progress with their capabilities, so we keep challenging them–we are doubling back on this in some areas, especially reading. Our program is what your children engage with.
4. Your child’s peers; peer pressure can (and should) be positive. We envision your kids encouraging each other in growth and learning, and together challenging one other to move to the next level. We see this play out in different ways, most notably in the student-run peer-tutoring program at the Upper School.

As you look to the rest of this year, I want to ensure we partner well with you as parents to appropriately challenge your sons and daughters to press into levels of learning they need to stretch for. If your experience is much different than what you read above, please reach out. For those who have, already, thank you! Your engagement, shared experiences, and ideas really help us improve as a school for your child. That is our aim!

In the podcast, I emphasized the significance of measuring excellence, particularly through growth. At PCA, we measure and track growth in various areas, such as reading, writing, and language skills. We put numbers to this growth, in ways that you may not be familiar with. This approach aligns with our commitment to challenging students appropriately so that they can see and achieve excellence at their age and grade and be encouraged to reach to the next level. In the podcast, I shared how this plays out with our cross-country coaches tailoring training to extend athletes’ abilities over time. My goal would be for us to do this well across all subjects and grades, and to foster a culture in which parent, teachers, and students themselves are leaning into the challenge of a good, broad program that measures growth first.

Digging Deeper.

Below are two charts with some explanations; we use this data, and information behind this data, to help your child grow and achieve more over time.

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Many of your children are among the top achievers nationally (the blue bars above), and they are surrounded by many similarly high-achieving peers. Another way of reading this chart is that nearly 4 of 10 of your children scored in the top 20th percentile (blue bar) for their age group in Math and Reading. A higher than expected number scored in the top 40% (green bar) as well. Only a handful of other schools among the 200+ in New Hampshire that report see student achievement in the range your kids achieve.

At the Middle School, nearly 4 in 10 of your kids scored above 20th percentile in Math, and just under 3 in 10 above the 80th% percentile in Reading; note that the national average (by definition) is that 2 in 10 students (20%) score in the top 20%. Your kids’ achievements are on par with the best Middle Schools in the Seacoast.

At the Upper School, nearly 5 of 10 of your kids scored in the top 20th percentile in Math, and 3 in 10 scored in the top 20th percentile in Reading. Your kids’ achievements in grades 9-12 are among and often exceed the very best in the Seacoast.

Going forward, we aim to continue to challenge our students in their Math and while focusing more on the growth, proficiency, and achievement in Reading, especially at the Middle and Upper School.

AP and Dual Enrollment. As your kids continue through the Upper School, we encourage you to join us in challenging them to take courses that will expand their limits and challenge them to grow their capacities. Our AP and Dual Enrollment programs do that well. Last year, 63 of your young scholars took 7 AP courses–from Spanish to Physics to Calculus. Thirteen more took Mrs. Graustein’s Dual Enrollment Science Course–a college level course in rigor and challenge.

SAT and Test Scores. Further, we encourage your child to prepare for and maximize their test scores. Overall, we have seen our Upper School SAT averages drift downward in recent years, in line with the US average. I attribute this trend and PCA and more broadly largely to a general dismissal by the culture on what these tests help assess and how schools use them. You may have noted that Yale, Dartmouth, and MIT are again requiring the SAT because the SAT results better align with student success in college than high school GPAs. My experience teaching at West Point and Penn State left me with the distinct and sometimes minority view that the SAT (and ACT) are important for your kids. The pendulum has swung back to where it was a few years ago: the SAT is a valid and important tool to prepare your kids to grow and achieve.

I reiterate that preparing for the PSAT and SAT are worthy challenges and valid ways of maximizing your child’s potential. Many of our current seniors have taken up that challenge, and we celebrate with them: 34% of the class of 42 scored above the 80th% tile (over 1200), 17% scored above the 90th%tile, and 5 scored over 1400 combined–putting them above the 94th%. Well done!

Looking ahead. For parents of Juniors, your child will take the test in school in early April; we sent you info on that test next week, and how your child can prep (20 hours of prep typically results in over 100 point gain). Have your child prep! The margins on the SAT for merit scholarships at the local and national level are much thinner than you think, and these tests are very important in differentiating between applicants for merit. Your child should also prep one more round (20 hours of investment in a prep course) this spring as they take additional tests in May and June. My encouragement is you have all testing wrapped up with scores by summer (there are SATs offered in the spring).

We can point your child to tools that are free and proven. Ask your child to show you his/her enrollment and progress. Have your child connect with Mrs. Hatfield if she/he has questions.

Parents of Sophomores, I encourage you to have your son and daughter prep from this summer through the fall for their PSAT in October, and then again in the winter of 25 before taking their SATs in April next year. Test taking is a valuable skill, and this particular assessment has more to help your child’s maximized potential at the next step than any other.

A caution on achievement. How do we keep achievement from being unhealthy or an idol? This is part of my own story that shapes how I lead PCA. Drawing from Colossians 3:23-24, we’re reminded to give our best efforts as unto the Lord, anchoring our pursuit of excellence in faith. This passage was key for me at West Point, as my striving to remain a “star-man”–top 5% in my class–almost became an unhealthy obsession. While I was achieving excellence, the “why” behind the achievement was becoming distorted–achievement for achievement’s sake risked drifting into unhealthy territory. I am grateful to share that, with help and through the men discipling me, I was able to navigate this over three years, maintaining a healthy perspective about learning that led to high achievement. Yes, I was able to graduate in the top 5% of my class, but that wasn’t the goal. Learning and growing, versus achievement, was the primary aim. Achievement was the result. Similarly, as Head of School, I aim to counter our culture’s siren song to your kids to pursue achievement for achievement’s sake. We want to challenge your kids toward their potential first and watch them achieve at the highest levels they can. Those levels are and will be very high, individually and collectively.

Baseball and Pepperdine. I shared personal anecdotes, such as my baseball journey (and inability to hit a curve ball) and a recent visit to Pepperdine University, where I witnessed diverse forms of excellence. These experiences inspire me to shape our continuous improvement efforts at PCA, helping us become better educators for your children as we challenge them to excel in multiple ways.

Concluding thoughts. We are just over 100 calendar days before graduation; we will be celebrating much growth and achievement come May. As we do, let’s reaffirm our commitment to fostering growth, gaining and sustaining proficiency, and pressing toward high achievement within our PCA community, starting with our academic efforts.

By instilling biblical values in this way, we equip your children with the skills, character, and resilience needed to make a positive impact in the world. And they will achieve at levels they and you never thought possible.

In conclusion, I invite you to reflect on the insights shared in this series and consider how they resonate with our shared mission at PCA. Together, let’s continue striving for excellence in all aspects of our lives, guided by our faith and dedication to glorifying God.

1. The link to this year’s State of School presentation (about 45 minutes) is HERE or click the picture below.

2. Highlights from 2nd Quarter: Growth and Success is HERE.

I will begin a new series next week. Will you help me decide? I will choose between two subjects (each taking 3-4 weeks to explore).

Option 1. A series I am tentatively calling, “Mike Recommends.” This series would explore topics such as mobile devices (social, learning impacts), technology (positive and negative aspects and a healthy perspective), what we are seeing in terms of culture (music and its impact on your kids, both positive and negative). This is meant to share my professional and experiential perspective that would encourage and empower you as parents in ways will help your child and our school overall.

Option 2. A series on “Building and restoring community.” My experience as a military leader, a disciple-maker, and head of school has taught how challenging building and sustaining community is among people of all backgrounds. In a run-up to our annual auction (our biggest community event of the year), I would cover what it takes for form a community (and how we seek to do that here at PCA), what is hoped for and expected in a community, and how to restore community when there is hurt or fractures.

Which one would you like to hear from me on? Or is there a topic you would really want me to delve into that would also help a broader audience? Please offer feedback through the feedback button on your parent portal.

May God bless you and your families abundantly on this Winter Break. See you on campus in a week!