The first Living Wisdom School was founded in Nevada City, CA over 40 years ago. It now encompases a large campus with both day and live- in students from preschool through High School. It has been accredited by the state of California. The students in the Living Wisdom High School are given standard tests and routinely score in the top 10%. The information below outlines the tests and scores for the 2010-11 school year for the Nevada City LWHS students:
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is the principle tool for judging high school achievement in the United States. We have had twelve graduating students take the test in the past few years with our student average at 12% above the average national score.
We also give a nationally standardized test to all of our high school students each year. It is called the Iowa Test of Educational Development (ITED) and was chosen because it focuses on essential educational tools (vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar, and math) as opposed to other tests that emphasize particular facts and formulas (what is the purpose of the esophagus, or what is Newton’s second law of thermodynamics). The latter type of testing pressures teachers to “teach to the test” instead of focusing on current needs and interests of the students. Our scores on this test follow with the total percentile score highlighted.
These percentile scores measure how well a school does in relation to other schools nationwide. A score of 50 means the school ranks in the middle of its peers. The top percentile is 99. This means that out of a random selection of American high schools (including prep schools that screen enrollment for outstanding students), we score consistently in the top 10%, and this year in the top 2%.
Furthermore, we find that for our students who take this test in two or more years, there is an improvement of 6.5 percentile points per year. This shows that students in an EFL school learn at a rate significantly and consistently higher than the standard pace of traditional education in areas of achievement that are only secondary in an EFL school. These numbers clearly demonstrate that by educating the whole child (including his/her spiritual side), students learn better in all ways.
