Improving your ACT scores

Note: This was my talk to St. Michael students on Monday, January 7, 2018

Good morning! What I am talking about this morning is most relevant to freshman and sophomores, and secondarily to juniors. Seniors, see if what I am saying is consistent with your experience. 

I want to talk about improving your ACT scores. We gave back your P-ACT scores just before Christmas that reflect your performance on the tests you took here at St. Michael in October. Juniors, you took the PSAT test just before Christmas, but you have also taken two years of P-ACT tests if you’ve been here since your frosh year. 

Whatever score you made on the P-ACT, relax——these scores are not sent to, or seen by,  colleges. But the P-ACT does predict what you might make on the ACT test in your junior and senior year, which is the test that determines college admissions and scholarships.  Some of you might have been excited about that projected score. Some may have been disappointed. 

Let’s talk about how the College Board makes those projections. 

Generally speaking, for every year of high school, the College Board predicts you’ll gain about 2 points on your composite score and subtests. How do they guess that? Because that’s what the national averages show—on average, if you make a 22 in your sophomore year, you’ll make a 24 in your junior year or 26 in your senior year. Not quite that simple, but close enough. 

It’s really important, though, to understand what “national average” means: It means that a typical student, with a typical work ethic, going to a typical school, taking typical classes, with typical teachers, will typically gain 2 points/year.

But it’s entirely possible that over the course of your high school career, you can beat those national averages by not being typical. First, you don’t go to a typical school. You don’t have typical teachers, and you don’t have to be the typical student. In fact, many of our seniors have far exceeded their “projected test scores” from their P-ACT test. Here’s how you can do that, too:

1) Most importantly, challenge yourself by taking good classes and striving to do well. Best way to improve ACT scores is to dig deep into your classes. We’ll be doing course selections for next year in the next month or so, and you’re going to have to decide between AP, Honors and non-Honors courses. To AP or not AP will be the question for some of you. What should you take? You should take whatever class you can work hard in an earn at least a B. Four year effect of taking those courses and working hard in them is huge. 

And in which part of the test can you improve the most in? The section that is your weakest score. So if you’re not as good in Math, for example, see that as an opportunity instead of something to avoid at all costs. (It’s a matter of perspective, like the two shoe salesmen who were assigned to Africa to see shoes. The first guy writes home: “No chance of selling shoes here—the natives don’t wear any.” The other guy writes home: “Huge opportunity here: natives need shoes. “ Be like this second salesman when it comes to your weakest subject—see it as an opportunity to substantially improve your ACT

2) Read, Read, Read—ACT is 3/4 a reading test, even in Science. The more we do something the better we get at it. Read good books. I doesn’t have to be Shakespeare, but it should be something that interests you enough to keep doing it. Get into books again. Audio books, too, if you’re driving somewhere, help.

3) Take 4 ACT practice tests. Want to know why many of these ACT prep classes are successful? Because they make you take 4 practice tests. The evidence shows that taking these tests in a simulated testing environment give your score a significant bump. But you don’t need to pay thousands of dollars for a ACT Prep course to make you do that—you can do it yourself!  (Here’s five old ACT tests here to practice on). You’ll be more familiar with the tests and a little less stressed.  That’s why we give you the P-ACT in freshman and sophomore year—that’s twice—and why we’re going to extend that to junior year next year, which will be 3 times. Take a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and take a full practice test to simulate a testing environment.  

4) Sign up for our Analytical Reading class in junior year—We’ve created a one semester elective in the junior year that most of our juniors are taking. Mrs. Scimeca is a reading specialist, and she can help you with techniques on how to read the passages with greater comprehension and accuracy. 

5) Take the ACT three times.  I recommend once in February—juniors, you need to be signing up (January 11 is registration deadline for February 9 test)—once more in June, and one more time in either September or October in your senior year. Why 3 times? Three reasons: Practice helps you improve. Second, you’ll improve naturally with time. You’re 6 months older and smarter from February until October. And finally, some colleges allow you to “super-score” your ACT test. That means you get to choose your best scores from each of your sub-tests to create the best possible “composite" score. You can’t do that unless you’ve taken the test a few times. 

6. Easiest suggestion of all: The week of the ACT test, get 7-8 hours a sleep per night. Dr. Altermatt can tell you the physiological reasons that sleeping well improves your brain functioning, but all of us, I think, know the difference between waking up tired—almost like our brain is sluggish, filled with cobwebs—or waking up well rested, when our brain is alert, quick, aware. Being well rested could make as much a difference as 2-3 points.  

I see this difference in myself. Too bad we can't get a daily "brain scan" to see how quick witted we are. But a half a life ago, I used to play tournament chess, and even now,  I play about 20 games a week, 3 or 4 games/ day, on chess. com, usually 2 minute games. Chess.com gives you a cumulative rating each time you play: the better you play, the higher your rating. There are some weeks, that for whatever reason, I don’t sleep very well, tossing and turning in bed. During those weeks, my rating typically drops any where from 100-150 points.  But if I have a good week of sleep, I play chess much better, raising my score about the same amount. 

I wish I knew then what I knew now, because I would have been a better student in college. I did it EXACTLY the wrong way—I’d pull all nighters, studying for tests, sucking down coffee to stay alert—not knowing I was almost surely lessening the likelihood that I would do well. If that sounds like you, you’re much better off simply going to bed than pulling an all nighter. 

Get sleep, go to bed early and wake up early enough to do a little exercise before your ACT test to get the blood pumping, and you’ll be in optimum shape for the test that morning. 

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Let me end with this:  We can kill ourselves chasing for some elusive high ACT score, but God made us who we are. It’s our job to be the best possible version of ourselves we can be, but once we do so, we have to accept God’s will for our lives. Most of us are never going to score a 36 on the ACT test. Most of us will never get close. So we do our best, and then let life unfold. That’s the great adventure—not being 100% certain of our future. 

And a final word to seniors: Many of you are now making, or near making, the decision where to go to college.  Ask God to help you! Pray about it!  Don’t go to a college because that’s where your friends are going— even your girlfriend/boyfriend. Your relationship will survive different schools if a long term relationship is God’s plan for you. Ask God to show you the place which will help you become the best version of yourself. That’s where you’ll be most happy. 

Work hard, everyone! 

Aiming High for College: 12 Tips

Note: This was my talk to students on Monday, January 29, 2018.

Welcome to National Catholic Schools Week--a chance to celebrate the mission and ministry of Catholic schools! The ultimate mission of every Catholic high school, however it’s phrased, is to get you into college and get you into heaven. We speak frequently about the faith side. Let me speak this morning about college. 

What are the things you can do to get into the best possible college?

To answer that question, it’s important to understand how colleges measure you when you apply. In a recent national survey, colleges claim the five most important criteria for admissions are: 1) Grades in college prep classes, 2) strength of curriculum, 3) ACT or SAT scores, 4) grades in all courses and 5) admissions essays. 

So all of these things, they say, are important. But I’ve been tracking this for over 25 years, and the evidence is that the greatest difference between selective schools and less selective schools is the ACT (or SAT) score. 

Let’s look at admissions stats from four familiar colleges: 

Auburn—average ACT 27, average HS GPA 3.85

Alabama—avg ACT 27, avg GPA  3.69

Vanderbilt—avg ACT 34, avg GPA 3.8

Notre Dame—avg ACT 33, avg. GPA 3.85

(from collegedata.com) 

I want to call your attention to three things about these numbers:

First, note that the average ACT scores and GPA for all four of these schools are pretty high. Twenty years ago, to get into Auburn or Alabama was MUCH easier. You could almost regard them as a “fall back school” among your many college applications elsewhere. A 27 is somewhere around the 88th percentile. Since this is an average ACT score and not a minimum, you can get in with a lower ACT, but it’s getting tougher and tougher.

Second, while all of these GPA’s are high--doing well in school is important--grade point averages are NOT the differentiator between an Auburn or Notre Dame, which have the same G.P.A's. The takeaway is whether you get a 3.8 GPA or a 4.0 GPA, it’s not going to make much difference to your chances for getting into a selective school.  

Third, it’s obvious from these numbers that the ACT is the biggest differentiator. A 33 or 34 means you’re in the 99th percentile of college bound students. You may do everything right in your high school career—work hard, take good classes, have an amazing array of extracurriculars. But if you have a 25 ACT, then unfortunately, unless you’re a star athlete or a virtuoso musician, the very selective schools are not going to be interested in you. 

That’s a shame, because some of you are excellent students, with excellent GPA’s,  who would be a credit to any university, but just don’t test high. Why do they rely on national tests so much? From the university’s perspective, GPA’s are an unreliable way to measure students—they vary too wildly between institutions—a GPA of 3.8 here might mean something very different than a 3.8 at different school—so they use the nationally normed ACT or SAT test to make "apples to apples" comparisons. 

The 2nd biggest factor in admissions, more important than the actual GPA itself, is the difficulty of courses you’ve taken.  On the common application now used by hundreds of colleges, our college counselor is asked to rate the set of classes you’ve taken at St. Michael as “most demanding”, “very demanding”, “demanding”, “average” or “below average” compared to your classmates. If you want to go to a top school or get a top scholarship, if he has to put down as any thing less than "most" or "very," you won’t have much of a chance.
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If, then, test scores and strength of curriculum matter so much, what can you do to improve your chances?  We must look first at what the ACT test measures. 

Surprisingly, the ACT does not assume advanced course work. The Math test, or example, is comprised of predominantly Pre-Algebra, Algebra I/II, Geometry and a few Trigonometry questions. Most of the Science questions are Earth Science, Biology or basic Physical Science. The English test is predominantly reading and grammar, whereas the Reading test measures comprehension and ability to interpret tone and nuance. 

By late junior year, when you should begin taking the ACT, you will have covered the necessary topics in high school. HOW you’ve covered these topics, however, is critical: 

Want to know why we do Science the way we do it at St. Michael? The ACT Science test places a heavy emphasis on interpreting data from experiments, drawing conclusions from charts and graphs and analyzing research. These are things you do almost every day in our science classes. 

On the ACT Math section, it’s all about looking at problems you might never have seen before, and trying to determine what kind of equation or tool you need to use to solve the problem. It isn’t a series of algorithms the teacher “shows you how to do.” 

The ACT reading section is all about picking out main ideas, discussing tone, reading through original documents, vocabulary. Why does Mr. Drake teach English as he does? Because grammar and writing are critical on the English test—just knowing what “sounds right” but not the actual grammar rules won’t take you far enough. 

I believe, on the whole, our classes do a  good job of prepping you for the ACT test. Work hard in these classes, and you’ll be on your way to doing well. 

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But what else can you do to prep yourself well for college admissions? Here are 12 tips:

1) Focus on foundations. Everybody wants to race ahead. The reason we recommend so many of you who took Algebra I in 8th grade to take it over again in 9th grade is because Algebra I is the “grammar” of all the math that follows. It’s OK to take it another year to really get good at it. Not only will a firm foundation make the curricular “house’ sturdier throughout high school, remember that the ACT does not measure proficiency in Calculus!

2) Once in high school, take the most difficult curriculum that you can handle. What can you handle?  My criteria is this: “If you worked really hard, could you make a B in that class?” If yes, you should take it. In April we sign up for classes next year—“To AP or not to AP?—that is the question.” Yes, you might be able to make an A in a non-AP class with much less effort. But that’s not going to help you improve your ACT score as much, nor will Dr. Lindley be able to say “Most difficult” on the common app.  Remember, schools like Vandy and ND don’t care if you make a B every now and then. But they care a great deal whether you've challenged yourself. 

3) Grades, though important, matter less than people think, so forgive yourself on grades, but don’t cut yourself any slack on effort. This is what I tell your parents, too.  If you take demanding courses, you’re going to stumble from time to time.  That's OK. Focus on consistent effort and the grades will take care of themselves over time. 

4) Devote enough time to homework. Though it varies based on each student and the curriculum, we believe 10 minutes per grade level is a good minimum, so that 9th graders should be doing a minimum of 90 minutes, even if  “you don’t have that much”. There’s always reading to do, notes to review, a test to prepare for. Can you get away with less? Probably, but if you do less consistently, you need to erase competitive schools off your college wish list, because the kids applying to those schools are working harder than you.  

5) Say “no” more often. Many of you try to do too much, and there’s only so much time in a day—as a result our commitments become a mile-wide and an inch deep, including our commitment to our studies.  Most colleges, however, value depth over breadth. It’s better to be a 4 year member of the Academic Scholars Bowl team, with greater and greater responsibility and success each year, than to dabble with it one year and something else the next to pad your resume. Also, being part of an athletic team is terrific, but these days varsity athletes are expected to play their sports year-round, with club play and off season requirements.  Be careful you’re not playing too many sports to the exclusion of other good activities, the most important of which is serious study. We  can only do a few things well! 

6) Don’t stop reading. Many of you read much more as children, and somewhere around middle school, you stopped. The ACT is really a big reading test. That’s why we do a one semester Analytical Reading class in the  junior year. I strongly recommend you take that class. But one class won’t make a huge difference if you’re no longer reading at home.  How much you read is the single greatest predictor of future academic success.

7) Check to see if you meet the university's definition of a particular ethnicity. Most university admission departments have ethnicity targets--they hope that a certain % of their new students will hail from under-represented populations in their school--Hispanic or American Indian students, as an example. The College Board, in their PSAT Hispanic National Scholar competition, requires you to be at least 1/4 Hispanic, which means one of your grandparents are first generation from a Spanish-speaking culture. Schools vary in how they handle this, so ask them! Be sure to claim your ethnicity if you qualify, as it may improve your chances of acceptance and scholarship monies. 

8) Do something special that you’re passionate about that makes you stand out among the thousands of other people applying to your school of choice.  There was a girl in my previous school who had a really good idea: She realized that she, like many girls, bought expensive dresses for prom and homecoming and almost never wore them again. They just hung in her closet. So she started a charity and called it “One Pretty Dress,” inviting all the girls in her school and neighboring schools to donate their dresses after prom or homecoming. The following prom season, she advertised that anyone needing a prom dress, who didn’t have the money to buy one, could come to the school on Saturday morning and try dresses on. If they found one they liked, it was theirs to keep. I remember one morning, a poor woman from the downtown area came with her 17 year old granddaughter, and they found a dress she looked beautiful in. The grandmother, with tears of gratitude, could only say “Thank you.” Use your faith to inspire you to do something new, something original, something awesome, to serve other people. Even though it’s not why you do it, it will help make you a better candidate for college. 

9) Take the ACT three times. Why? Generally speaking, you’ll get better at it each time (practice and familiarity helps), and between the time you take each test, you’re getting smarter, especially if you take challenging classes. I recommend once in early semester junior year (February or April), once at the end of junior year (June or July) and once in your senior year (October). Also, some schools will “super-score” the best score from each section of the ACT you’ve taken and calculate your highest possible composite score,  which means you improve your chances of a better super-score if you take it a few times (You could take it more than 3 times, but you probably won't score appreciably differently than your first 3 attempts, and you need to keep your sanity!).

10) Make an “official visit” of 3-4 schools you may want to attend. I suggest this for two reasons: First, there’s nothing like visiting a school to pick up a “vibe” and see if you fit there. It’ll really help clarify things for you. But second, there’s an admission advantage to visiting. Why? Many schools are increasingly concerned about their “yield” stats. “Yield” is the percentage of students who actually enroll at the school once they are accepted. So if only 20% of the students accepted end up enrolling, it says the school is less desirable than a school with a 60% yield. But colleges know that if you’ve visited, it means you haven't just spammed your application to their school, and that you're truly interested--so if they accept you, they have a much better chance of getting you to enroll, driving their “yield” stats higher. So they may take a chance on you, even if you’re near their “cut” line.  Use Easter break and the summer to visit schools. Make it a fun, but informative trip. Be sure you register in the admissions office when you get there so they have it on record. 

11) Lean on our college counselor. Not all schools have "college counselors." Talk to him to help you clarify your future plans. He can help  you pick schools you have a reasonable shot at being accepted to and help with your application. 

12) Lean on God. He’s there to help too. Pray to him to give you stamina, to give you the desire to learn, to give you the grace to work hard, to reveal his will for you.  For most people, "which college?" is the biggest decision they make before they turn twenty. Ask him for guidance! 

College Prep 101: A Guide for Middle School Parents

Recently the faculty of JPII sponsored a seminar designed to help parents get their middle school children ready for college. This article is a highly condensed summary of what was said; for a more complete presentation of the seminar, go here.

If I’m a parent of a middle school child, how do I best prepare my child for college? What matters most in the college admissions process for selective schools? Does my child’s EXPLORE score (a pre-ACT test in 7/8th grade) indicate my child in on the right path? What can I do to guide him or her through the early teen years successfully?

In a national survey, colleges claimed the five most important criteria for admissions were: Grades in college prep classes, strength of curriculum, ACT or SAT scores, grades in all courses and admissions essays. However, the evidence suggests the greatest discriminator between selective and less selective schools are the applicant's ACT/SAT scores. Vanderbilt and Notre Dame students, for example, have a median composite score of a 31-32 on the ACT (or 97th to 99th percentile). Rhodes and Belmont students average 26-28 (84th-91st percentile), whereas U. Tennessee and U. Alabama students average 24-25 (75th-80th).

The average grade point averages of entering frosh in all six of these schools only varies by .46, from a 3.86 average at ND to a 3.4 average at U. Alabama, supporting the proposition that test scores matter more than GPA’s. This makes sense: GPA’s vary wildly among high schools, making them an unreliable way to measure applicants, whereas standardized test scores compare “apples to apples”. Should tests matter this much? Probably not, but the reality is that selective colleges receive tens of thousands of applications and must find ways to sort through them quickly.

For similar reasons, we also believe that the difficulty of curriculum taken in high school is an increasingly important factor for college admissions. On the common application now used by hundreds of colleges, high school counselors are asked to rate the student’s curriculum as “most demanding”, “very demanding”, “demanding”, “average” or “below average” compared to their classmates. For students who are serious about getting accepted at top schools, anything less than “very demanding” undercuts their cause dramatically.

If, then, test scores and strength of curriculum matter so much, what does this mean for middle school and high school programs? We must look first at what the ACT test measures. (For purposes of this seminar, we’ll focus on the ACT since it is most common in the south. Many colleges are now accepting both the ACT and the SAT, which ever the applicant prefers.) Surprisingly, the ACT does not assume advanced course work. The Math test, or example, is comprised of predominantly Pre-Algebra, Algebra I/II, Geometry and a few Trigonometry questions. Most of the Science questions are Earth Science, Biology or basic Physical Science. The English test is predominantly reading and grammar, whereas the Reading test measures comprehension and ability to interpret tone and nuance.

It is likely then that by late junior year, when students should begin taking the ACT, they will have covered the necessary topics in high school. HOW they’ve covered these topics, however, is critical: The ACT Science test places a heavy emphasis on interpreting data from experiments, drawing conclusions from charts and graphs and analyzing research. Are students doing these things regularly in their 7-12th grade program? Are students solving a variety of word problems in their Math courses, using manipulatives, drawing sketches, being asked to communicate mathematical ideas to their classmates and teacher, or are they merely learning techniques to solve a battery of similar algorithms? Are students reading consistently, picking out main ideas, asked to discuss tone, working with original documents, reading novels, being stretched in their vocabulary? How strong is the foundation students receive in grammar? Do they know the rules of grammar or do they just pick what sounds right? Students in schools that do these things consistently will improve their ACT performance dramatically.

But how do I know if my child on the right path for a good ACT score? Many schools give the EXPLORE test, a pre-ACT test for 8th graders and the PLAN test, another pre-ACT test for 10th graders. Predicting ACT performance in junior or senior year based on scores earned in 8th grade is partly a guess—there are many variables (quality of school, effort, rest before the test, work ethic during high school) that skew such predictions. Nevertheless, the ACT folks publish estimated PLAN scores from the EXPLORE and also publish estimated ACT scores from the PLAN, so putting these together, we’ve been able link EXPLORE to ACT and make broad predictions, available here.

What, then, are some practical things I can do as a parent to put my child in the best possible position for college?

1) Emphasize foundations. Middle school parents may worry their child is falling behind if he or she is not taking advanced courses in middle school. Don't worry--a thorough understanding of Algebra I and Comp I is more important. Not only will a firm foundation make the curricular “house’ sturdier throughout high school, remember that the ACT does not measure proficiency in Calculus!

2) Once in high school, insist your child takes the most difficult curriculum he or she can handle. Honors and A.P. classes will not only help with the "strength of curriculum" admissions criteria, it will help your child improve ACT performance.

3) Grades, though important, matter less than we may think, so be forgiving on grades, but unforgiving on effort. If your child is truly taking demanding courses, he or she will stumble from time to time. That's OK. Focus on consistent effort and the grades will take care of themselves in the long run.

4) Help your child develop good homework habits. Though it varies based on the child and the curriculum, we believe 10 minutes per grade level is a good minimum, so that 8th graders should be doing a minimum of 80 minutes, even if “he doesn’t have any”. There’s always reading to do, notes to review, a test to prepare for.

5) Help your child say “no”. Students take on too many commitments, hoping that a long resume will impress colleges. Most colleges, however, value depth over breadth. It’s better to be a 4 year member of the Debate team and indicate greater achievement and leadership in the Debate club each year than to dabble with Debate one year and something else the next. Also, being part of an athletic team is terrific, but these days varsity athletes are expected to play their sports year-round with club play and off season requirements; be careful your son or daughter isn't playing too many sports to the exclusion of other good activities, the most important of which is serious study. Kids wear down!

6) Insist on a regular cycle for sleep. Teens don’t get enough of it. Furthermore, they disrupt their body clocks on weekends by staying up late and then sleeping late in the mornings which makes Mondays almost useless as their bodies re-adjust.

7) Help your child develop a love of reading. Read to your children when they’re young, visit the library often, subscribe to magazines of interest as they get older, read books on long car trips together instead of watching DVD’s, become a reader yourself to model its importance to your children, insist on definitive bedtimes but allow reading in bed, and read the books your children must read for school so you can discuss with them. Reading ability is the single best predictor of future academic success.

8) Limit screen time. The average teenager watches three hours of T.V. per day, not counting time on the Internet.

9) Ensure that missing class is a rarity. No matter how diligent your child in making up missed work, the discussions, questions, and back and forth between teacher and child is irreplaceable.

10) Encourage your child and pray for him or her. The teenage years are rife with uncertainty, awkwardness, worry and stress. Prayer will help us keep things in perspective and our teen will be comforted knowing we’re praying for him or her. We can take comfort in knowing our child's future is in God's hands.

Choosing High Schools: An Insider Perspective

This article was written for publication in the Register, the official newspaper for the diocese of Nashville.

The Tennessean recently ran a story chronicling a kind of "arms race" between 3 private schools in Nashville to out-spend each other building extraordinary high school athletic facilities. Not coincidentally, they each have excellent football teams.

Though having a winning team is fun, in our more sober moments, we know that it pales in importance to teaching, learning and passing on the faith to our children. Yet because so many schools hire professional advertising firms to select just the right images and statistics to sell the school, it’s often easier to pick out a good team than a good school—we need only read the sports pages!

How do we sift our way through the slick ads and the hype to pick the right academic program for our children? Having spent the last 20 years as a high school "head", I'd like to offer a series of "insider" questions that may help.

High schools brag about their "Merit" or "Commended" scholars as a way of conveying an "elite" academic program. We all do it, because we're regarded with suspicion if we don't, but it doesn't tell you much. Merit scholars are chosen by performance on the PSAT test, which measures reading comprehension and math reasoning abilities based on simple algebra and geometry. It's an "ability" test--how well a student uses basic knowledge to solve unique problems--rather than one that measures "achievement"--how well a student has met the goals of an advanced curriculum. A much better measure of a school's top program are A.P. test results, which track how well students do in advanced subject areas like Physics and Calculus and thus reflect the quality of teaching and learning. Even merit finalists can't get 4's and 5's on A.P. Calculus exams unless Calculus is well taught! If you're a parent of a gifted student, you'll want to ask: How many A.P. classes are offered? How many A.P. classes do the best students take over their career? Which classes score the highest? The lowest? How many students were honored as "AP Scholars", "AP Scholars with Honors", "AP Scholars with Distinction" and "National AP Scholars" by the College Board last year? Since some schools urge only their best A.P. students to actually take the tests, thus inflating their "passing" percentages (3+), ask instead 'What percent of students enrolled in A.P. courses, pass the exam'?

Ask, too, about ACT results. ACT scores are more telling than SAT scores because in the south, only the top students typically take the SAT tests, inflating school averages, whereas almost everybody takes the ACT. But ACT data can also be misused. Because some high schools educate students with varying abilities, comparing their average ACT score with a school that excludes weaker students is invalid. Instead, ask ‘What is the average ACT score for the top quartile and top decile of students?’ as a way of comparing apples to apples. And if I am a parent of a child who struggles, I'd like to know the average ACT scores of the bottom two quartiles. Would my child be able to attend a state university with those scores?

Core requirements (4 years of English, Science, etc.) will be roughly similar, but ask about the number of foreign language and fine arts requirements (more is better). Also, into how many “ability tracks" does a school tier its student body? Though some educators will disagree with me, less is better--ideally, an honors track and a general track for all but those with severe learning disabilities. More tiers mean that schools place their weaker students in remedial classes which often become dreary, self-fulfilling prophecies, asking too little. Let them reach! If their grades suffer a bit, that's OK, because colleges value ACT results more so than grades--grades have become too inflated and vary too much between schools to compare students reliably. It's better for our children to stretch with lesser grades and higher ACT's than to cruise without challenge! The key is: Does the school provide the extra aid necessary to help a weaker student stretch? Are teachers available before or after school to tutor students? Often the difference between students isn't what they can learn, but how quickly they can learn it. Giving less able students a legitimate French II course, if learned at a slower pace, with extra help, is much better than never requiring them to take French II.

If I were meeting with the administration, I'd ask them about innovative programs and new initiatives as a quick window into their creativity and energy. Ask them what their weakest curricular areas are, how these are diagnosed and what they're doing to address the them. All schools have weaknesses if they're honest; what you want to know is how pro-active a school is about diagnosing and remedying. Ask principals about their long term goals for the school. Be wary of the language of powerlessness too common in education today, such as "We'd do more if we had more money", or "our hands are tied by..." etc. I'd ask if I could observe hallways at the end of a school day to gauge how well students and teachers interact with each other and to get a feel for the milieu of the school (often disguised in school brochures). While there, ask a few random students what they like and dislike about the school. They don’t read the school brochures, and you're likely to get some unfiltered, honest answers!

National research has shown that children who attend Catholic high schools for 3+ years are half as likely to convert to another faith as adults, almost half as likely to drop all religious affiliation, are likelier to have a prayer life as adults, are likelier to identify themselves as "highly committed Catholics" and are likelier to regard their faith as "among the most important parts of their lives" (Gautier, 2005). Those statistics ought to matter to us as Catholic parents! However, what is true nationally may not be borne out by any particular Catholic school. How often does it celebrate Mass together? How pervasive is prayer? What are the credentials of the religion teachers? How seriously does the school treat religion as an academic subject? What are the school's service requirements, if any? How prominent are religious symbols and Scripture in the school? These are the things that make a long term difference.

I hope I've been helpful.