test scores

In the past five school years, more than fifty percent of our students scored at the 97th percentile or higher in the math or verbal sections of the standardized national test of the Educational Records Bureau, qualifying them for invitation to the John's Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth Talent Search.

Saklan’s school-wide performance on the ERB last year was again outstanding. We calculate school-wide performance by averaging each grade’s median achievement as calculated by percentile on a nationally normed scale, and then we compare that to other population sets:

• (National, which by definition is the 50th percentile for median performance because that is the scale’s calibration);

• the set of independent (private) school students taking this same test across the country,

• and the set of suburban public school students taking this same test across the country.

This creates the following table, of which we are quite proud:

Grades 3-8 SVS Independent Suburban National

Finally, we also track the proportion of our students who, via their ERB test results, qualify for the Johns Hopkins national academic talent search. The criteria required for entering the search is achievement on standardized testing at the 95th percentile or higher in one or more section, by that standard some 70% of our student population qualifies!

We ask parents to please remember test scores are only one facet, a small one really, of any school’s and any child’s demonstration of overall scholastic success and effectiveness. We all know many a successful adult—scores of them perhaps—who are flourishing in their careers, their family life, and their community endeavors who didn’t always earn the highest numbers on “fill in the bubble” tests. Character, resilience, joy, a sense of humor, concern for others, confidence: all these Saklan instills in addition to academic achievement, and all these marvelously prepare our students for their future.

We also know that despite the fact that our school as a whole did well, very well, it does not for a moment render insignificant to us the individual students who encountered an obstacle in their testing and who may require some additional attention; these students remain, even when outside of the data norms, enormously important to us.

Where do Saklan students go to high school?