I’ve been meaning to write this letter to you for a while now, but as you know, time flies, and I have so many things to tell you that it almost slipped my mind to share our MAP Growth winter results with you. I had a lot of positive feedback on my first message about the fall results, and I am delighted to be able to share the latest results with you today. The graphs you can find here demonstrate the progress our students have made and the difference between their results (red column), the norm (yellow column, which represents the average result achieved by all students taking the MAP tests in the US), and in green, the results of students attending private, non-religious schools in New York.*

First of all, hats off to our American teachers, who, despite reduced hours in English in comparison to other schools in the US, have empowered our students to achieve such incredible results. The scores are obviously the work of a dedicated team with many players, but I’d particularly like to congratulate Ciara for 4th Grade, Carl for 5th Grade, Ms. Millan for Middle School humanities, and Ms. Hampton for Middle School math. Bravo for the excellent results.

I draw two conclusions from these graphs. First, we have the visual confirmation that it is during 4th Grade that bilingualism fully takes root and flourishes. In the fall, our 4th graders lagged a little behind students in other private schools in New York in terms of reading in English. Over the course of a trimester, they not only caught up with but also outscored the same students. It is a strong message–and a homage to the phenomenal work accomplished by Ciara and her students–that although bilingualism might take time to achieve, it creates incomparable synergy.

The other conclusion is quite simply that upon completing Middle School at The École, you are among the brightest students in the city. It can be seen in our MAP Growth test results and in the fact that our students are accepted into the best high schools in New York. I would like to applaud Ms. Millan for the guidance she provides our middle schoolers and their families every year so they can enroll in the high school of their choice.

This year, once again, one of our 8th graders aced the SHSAT (Specialized High School Admissions Test) – he has accepted a place at HSMSCE (The High School for Math, Science, and Engineering). Among the long list of schools our 8th graders have been admitted into this year, we find Bard Early College, Eleanor Roosevelt, New Design High School, Clinton (IB public school), Avenues, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, LFNY, Boerum Hill School for International Studies (IB public school), Dwight, the High School of Language and Diplomacy, and UNIS. Our partnership with Léman continues to thrive–all our 8th graders who applied there were accepted, and in the end, two of our nine future high schoolers have opted for Léman’s pathway with The École (speaking of which, we are organizing a tour of Léman for our 6th graders and their families next month–details will be in the Memo on Monday.)**

All of these results fill us with pride–they tell a wonderful story, and I am not going to deny that at The École, the opportunities we offer our students are almost limitless, but to wrap up, I would like to remind you that The École goes beyond that. It’s a school where we enjoy being together; it’s a magical place where children are seen and known and are so much more than scores and red columns; they are funny, charming, intelligent, and fragile, and what we do best is take care of them. And when one of them hurts his leg and has to go to hospital, everyone here hurts with him. Hugo, we’re sending you hugs and kisses.

Wishing you all an excellent weekend!

*Averages for the norm and NY independent schools can be found here.

** For the full list of high schools where our students have been accepted to date, please click here.