This past week, The New York Times highlighted new research from Stanford, Harvard, and Dartmouth examining a decade of academic decline across the country. The findings were sobering: reading scores fell in 83% of American districts, and Grade 8 reading is at its lowest level since 1990, a true “learning recession.”
As a former math teacher, I couldn’t read that without asking, "What story do our students tell?" So I looked at the data.
This year, we are grateful for our students’ effort and our community’s steadiness. CBA students reached high levels of proficiency in English Language Arts, 42% above the New York State average, and our margin has widened over the past decade. That matters because every percentage point represents names and faces, young people entrusted to our care, not numbers.
These results remind us that academic excellence and human formation are not competing goals. In a Lasallian school, they strengthen one another.
The graphic below illustrates that while many schools experienced the effects of the national learning recession, CBA continued to widen its margin over the state average over the past decade.
Still, numbers alone cannot explain why young people flourish.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle taught that students learn best when they are known well, challenged intentionally, and accompanied patiently. Whatever success we witness grows from daily fidelity: teachers who know their students and ask more of them; families who partner with us through joys and setbacks; classmates who encourage one another; and a community that calls young people to integrity, perseverance, faith, and service.
That remains the quiet, faithful work of Christian Brothers Academy.
We are grateful to our students, families, and faculty for the steady faithfulness reflected in these results, and in the lives being formed here each day.
Live Jesus in our hearts, forever!
Mr. Matthew Keough
President, Christian Brothers Academy
