HSA Meeting and Terra Nova Scores

Last night the Home and School Association held a meeting. As a portion of it, they asked Principal Makey to tell about the results of the latest Terra Nova tests. It is a standardized test taken by all the archdiocesan schools as well as the local public schools.

"I’m still surprised at the number of people who think that the academic preparation that St. Columbkille students receive is less than what they might get in the local public school," Principal Makey said, "Part of that is due to the fact that they do have a good public school here, and another part might be because they do such a good job of promoting themselves."

"When we compare the Terra Nova Scores of the local public school students with the Terra Nova Scores of our students, we outscore them at every level and in every test. This means our students aren’t sacrificing a good academic education just to get a good, moral Catholic education. At St. Columbkille Catholic School they get both! It’s kind of like having your cake and eating it too!

"In fact, the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Omaha typically score higher in achievement tests than their public counterparts. That leads one to wonder how we at St. Columbkille compare with the other Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. While we aren’t privy to each individual school’s scores, we do have access to the overall averages of the Archdiocesan schools. When we do a direct comparison in all of the grades and all of the test scores we outscore the Archdiocesan schools in 33 out of 36 areas.

"While this is nice information to know, it certainly doesn’t mean that we have no room for improvement. We have adopted the attitude of continuous improvement at St. Columbkille. There will never come a time when we can sit back and say, 'Finally, we have arrived!' On the other hand, sometimes it’s nice to know that we’re heading in the right direction."

Principal Makey also announced that the school has received a grant from the Ignite the Faith Campaign. While some of the exact details are being finalized, the grant will allow all 6-8 grade students to have laptops they can work with at school and at home. We are excited to roll out this program in the fall.