education matters

Supplement to Jewish News, December 24, 2012

EducationMatters

30 | JewiSh NewS | December 24, 2012 | Education | jewishnewsva.org

institute of Jewish Studies and interfaith Understanding at ODU: Teaching thousands

by Betsy Karotkin, IJIU board member

The Institute of Jewish Studies

and Interfaith Understanding

was founded at Old Dominion

University through the efforts

of generous benefactors such

as Charles Cooper and Larry Goldrich,

among many others. The original organiz-

ers understood the importance of a Jewish

presence on ODU’s campus where 25,000

young impressionable students are accruing

knowledge that will shape their thinking

and their perspective on world issues.

Israel and the Middle East are certainly

among those issues that must be presented

accurately and from an historical perspec-

tive. If there are not thousands of Jewish

students at ODU, one might wonder, “Why

do we need an Institute of Jewish Studies?”

The answer is simple: for the thousands of

non-Jews. It is they who will fill the halls

of congress; it is they who will be decision

makers; and it is they who must have an

understanding based on facts.

To that end, the Institute of Jewish

Studies and Interfaith Understanding is an

interdisciplinary academic program at ODU

that promotes knowledge of Jewish history,

thought, cultures, and languages by means

of education, scholarship, and community

outreach.

IJIU offers courses in Jewish religion

and literature, the Hebrew language, the

history of modern Israel and its role in

shaping global Jewish identity, the cultures

of the Jewish diaspora throughout the ages,

and the ethical and philosophical role of

Judaism vis-à-vis other world religions and

civilizations.

Last month, when the Community

Relations Council of United Jewish

Federation of Tidewater brought Amos

Guiora, Professor of Law at the University

of Utah, to town, he spoke at IJIU. Guiora,

an expert in issues related to national

security, religion and terrorism, the limits

of power, is also an Israeli who has spent

much of his life teaching young soldiers

in the IDF how to remain moral in com-

bat, a quality he feels that distinguishes

Israeli soldiers from their enemies. Guiora

also addressed the graduate students in

International Studies at ODU, and received

the same positive response from them as he

did from the Jewish community.

In return, IJIU shared the expertise of

the Israeli scholar, Dr. Sariel

Birnbaum with the Jewish

community, who gave a lec-

ture on “The Image of Jew in

Arab Cinema” at the Simon

Family JCC and a follow-

ing talk on “Arab Spring”

at ODU.

As the Institute of Jewish

Studies has expanded its

course offerings, as well as

student interest, members of

the Jewish community have

come forward to reward stu-

dents who take courses in

the Institute of Jewish Studies. In 2007, the

Schwetz family established a Scholarship

Fund for an outstanding student within a

Minor in Jewish Studies and/or participat-

ing in Hillel at ODU. Francis Birshtein

also created a scholarship fund. Both the

Birshteins and the Schwetzes are encourag-

ing excellence while promoting education

in Jewish studies. Three students shared the

awards this year:

Allison Gunn: Birshtein Family

Scholarship; Schwetz Scholarship

Fund. Senior, Major: History; Minor:

Jewish Studies

Estelle Katz: Schwetz Scholarship.

Sophomore, Nursing, a member of

Hillel

Emma Needham: Schwetz Scholarship.

Sophomore, Interdisciplinary studies,

member of Hillel.

The IJIU Community Advisory Board,

under the new leadership of Farideh Goldin,

professor of English, is preparing to raise

the funds needed to receive $1.5-million

from a matching grant donated by Frank

Batten Jr. These funds would be designated

to establish a Chair in Jewish Studies.

Randy Parrish, Tidewater Jewish Foundation, with scholarship winners Emma Needham, Allison Gunn, and Estelle Katz.

education matters

in publication after publication, the

U.S. Department of Education spells

out its hierarchy of teachers: “As a

parent, you are your child’s first and

most important lifelong teacher.”

While that may be true, have you ever

tried to teach your child advanced molec-

ular biology or the literature of ancient

Japan, in Japanese? And for Jewish par-

ents, with educational achievement and

continued learning so strongly empha-

sized and ingrained in the religion, those

words cry out to be followed with a “but,”

and an argument that their child requires

more—more teachers, more books, more

schools, more years of study.

In this special Education issue, we

explore the idea of more, and the idea

of less.

Research shows student success rates

are linked to a parent or other adult’s

involvement at the child’s school. We

offer ways to volunteer at schools when

children are younger and opportunities

abound, as well as when they’re older

and there seem to be fewer ways to show

up without being deemed a “nudge” or a

“helicopter parent.”

At the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater,

teachers recently learned how they could

get more complex answers from their

students. According to new research

they were introduced to at a conference,

young brains work harder merely by

reframing questions and assignments. In

Norfolk, at Old Dominion University’s

Institute of Jewish Studies and Interfaith

Understanding, expanded course offer-

ings and greater interest from students

and the community have created more

scholarship opportunities and attention

from donors.

We also introduce a novel idea of

less, as in lessening Jewish parents’

expectations of brilliance and scholarly

excellence in their children. Will admit-

ting a child is just average, and placing

an emphasis on strength of character

over strength of grades, translate into a

person who is any less successful? Read

our author’s take on being just an average

Jewish student herself.

In Tidewater, we are extremely fortu-

nate to have so many exceptional teachers,

schools and institutes of higher learning.

Parents can choose from facilities that offer

a rigorous academic curriculum, to those

that nurture creativity and the arts, and

everything in between. Turn the pages in

this section, and learn more.

—Jewish News Staff

jewishnewsva.org | Education | December 24, 2012 | JewiSh NewS | 31

For more information and to pre-register call (757) 480-1495 or visit NorfolkCollegiate.org/Admissions

Lower school campus • 5429 Tidewater Drive • Middle & Upper school campus • 7336 Granby Street

Give us an hour. We’ll give you the future.Kindergarten Preview DaysJanuary 10, 9:00 a.m.February 6, 9:00 a.m.

Lower School Open House & Art ShowJanuary 26, 11:00 a.m.

Lower School Preview DayJanuary 30, 9:00 a.m.

Middle & Upper School Open HouseJanuary 12, 10:00 a.m.

Middle & Upper School Preview DayJanuary 16, 9:00 a.m.

Speaker Katie Koester on “Cyber Smarts” Grades K-5 January 23, 7:00 p.m.Grades 6-8 January 24, 8:30-9:15 a.m.Grades 9-12 January 24, 9:30-10:15 a.m.

Student success increases when adults get involved in a child’s education

by Laine M. Rutherford

whether preparing to sign a young one up for pre-school, looking at choices for middle and high

schools, or sending an older teen off to college, research shows that when a parent or adult is involved at the child’s school, student success rates increase.

Grades go up, attendance soars, grad-uation rates are higher, students have better self-esteem, and less violent behav-ior is exhibited when there is active parental presence.

Taking the time and effort to be there communicates to the student, the teach-ers and the administration that the parent cares and is an active participant in a child’s education. Most classroom teachers and schools actively seek volunteers or have a

Parent Teacher Association or Organization that lists opportunities for parent, grand-parent, or guardian involvement.

When a child is young, the options available to have a presence at the school generally are abundant.

Parents can volunteer as a classroom reader or teacher’s aide. Parents can visit the school during holiday periods to read a favorite book and describe the way your family celebrates Chanukah or another Jewish festival that may be different than the way other children celebrate.

Having lunch with your child once a month or once a quarter is a quick way to let the school and other students know you are involved in your child’s life. Volunteering to help or sponsor an after-school club—whether it’s studying insects or learning about etiquette—can help your student and many others as well.

Working parents, or parents unable to come to school during the day, can make their presence known in other ways. Most

schools have family fundraisers through-out the year. Volunteer to help before the event, by serving on one of the committees required to make the event a success, or during the event by signing up to run a booth or selling raffle tickets.

As children enter middle and high school, opportunities for volunteering in the classroom decrease. But that doesn’t mean parents can’t be involved. Offer to share your expertise with one of the school’s clubs or teams, attend sporting events as a booster, tutor and volunteer at events. While your child may cringe outwardly at the thought of you chaperoning a dance, they may not mind you bringing in baked goods, helping to retie neckties or checking names at the door.

When your child goes to college, try to refrain from being a “helicopter parent,” checking on their homework and their studying habits, but do join the school’s Parent Association. Most colleges have one, and it’s a good way to connect with other

parents and find out about special week-ends or events that welcome your presence at the school. The organizations also pro-vide contact information and resources specific to that school that can prove useful.

Finding the balance between being involved and overly involved can be tricky, and the dynamics of the willingness for you to be at school changes as students get older. While you can take cues from your child, the teacher, the school and contemporary research as to how much of a presence you should have, you can also turn to one of the oldest tools at your dis-posal—your own intuition.

Among the many online sites that offer advice on school involvement, these three offer specific resources—from statistical information, to grade specific ways to help, to issues you may encounter—and are a good place to start: The National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, Parent Involvement Matters.Org and GreatSchools.Com.


why brain science matters to educators

by Dee Dee Becker

The faculty and administra-

tion of Hebrew Academy and

the Strelitz Early Childhood

Center preschool joined hun-

dreds of other educators last

month in Richmond at the 2012 Annual

Conference of the Virginia Association of

Independent Schools.

“It is through this type of collaborative

learning opportunity,” says Rabbi Wecker,

head of school, “that our faculty members are

constantly fine-tuning their teaching prac-

tices and the effectiveness of the classroom

lessons. We are committed to incorporating

best practices in all of our classes and to

support our students in their academic, reli-

gious, ethical and emotional growth.”

Of special note at this year’s VAIS con-

ference was the keynote address given by

Dr. David Eagleman on Why Brain Science

Matters to Educators. Eagleman, a neurolo-

gist, leads Baylor’s Laboratory for Perception

and Action and is a New York Times bestsell-

ing author, including his latest and most

notable book, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the

Brain. Eagleman is also the scientific advi-

sor for TNT’s television drama Perception,

and has been profiled on the Colbert Report,

NOVA Science Now, the New Yorker, CNN’s

Next List, and numerous other programs.

“In Dr. Eagleman’s discussion,” says

Wecker, “he explained the importance of

aligning the way we teach to brain science,

which is especially important in today’s

constantly shifting digital age—an age in

which our younger students have been

born and raised, thus their brains have

become wired much differently from their

teachers’ brains. Eagleman offered several

examples of how educators can reframe

the way they ask questions and give assign-

ments of their students in order to get the

brain to work harder rather than giving the

most simplistic answers.”

Faculty also attended a number of dif-

ferent sessions throughout the day covering

four educational tracks: Leadership, The

21st Century Classroom, Technology, and

Collaboration and Global Outreach.

“The lunch break offered everyone a

wonderful opportunity to network with

peers in other independent schools through-

out the state,” says Wecker. “Teachers came

away with a great sense of accomplish-

ment, having gained new and different

perspectives on teaching. It will be espe-

cially interesting to hear more about Dr.

Eagleman’s ongoing research in technology

and how it influences brains of all ages. My

favorite quote of the lecture: ‘In one square

centimeter of the human brain, there are as

many synapses (connections) as there are

stars in the Milky Way galaxy.’”

Veronica Samonte, Strelitz preschool co-teacher; Jody Laibstain, Strelitz preschool co-teacher; Athena Field, Strelitz preschool teacher’s assistant; Janet Jenkins, Kindergarten General Studies teacher; and Lisa Rosenbach, Strelitz preschool teacher.

Meredith Carnazza, second grade general studies and art teacher; Rachel Smith, third grade general studies teacher; Deborah White, first grade general studies and resource teacher, Marcia Neubeck, PE teacher, Lynette Rodriguez, kindergarten general studies assistant teacher; and Jennifer Hollingsworth, science teacher.

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worry about your kids’ character, not their grades, says author Madeline Levine

by Lisa Keys

NEW YORK (JTA)—Not long ago, psycholo-gist Madeline Levine gave a lecture at a Jewish day school near her home in Marin County, Calif. The topic: “Your Average Child.”

Nobody showed up. “I guess there wasn’t a single average kid

at the school,” Levine quips.“By definition, the vast majority of our

children are average,” she clarifies.It’s a notion that is difficult for parents

to accept, especially as many of us grew up hearing that we were anything but average—we were special. If our kids are average, does that mean that ultimately we are (gasp!) average, too?

In an effort to keep such thoughts at bay, we enforce the typical trajectory: have the kids load up on classes and activities. Make sure they get good grades and garner trophies. This will land them at a top-tier college where, the story goes, they will grad-uate and embark upon a well-paid career.

But Levine, author of the new book Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success (HarperCollins Publishers), says that despite today’s high-stakes environment, which combines an uncertain economic future with increasingly fierce competition for spots at top schools, parents are paying attention to the wrong things.

“If you spend all this time going over their homework, correcting it, bringing in a tutor, you’ve lost all this time to build other things: character, persistence, generosity—all the things that people now are saying are going to be mandatory” for future jobs, she tells JTA.

In the book, Levine writes: “Every mea-sure of child and adolescent mental health has deteriorated since we’ve decided that children are best served by being relent-lessly pushed, overloaded, and tested. Our current version of success is a failure.”

It’s a trap in which much of the Jewish community finds itself ensnared, Levine says, given the historical emphasis of Jews on the value of education.

“There’s always this sense that educa-tion is the way to go; it always has been,” she says. “If your 15-year-old says I don’t want to clear the dishes today, I have my AP chemistry test [to study for], most [Jewish] parents say don’t worry about it, go study.”

“That’s a big mistake. There’s more to be learned about the issue of sharing responsi-bility and community that goes along with

three minutes of clearing the table.”While many Jewish schools emphasize

community and values, she says, parents too often worry about a botched test.

“We know everything about their grades and not enough about where they go and what they do,” she writes. “We monitor their performance, but not their character.”

Levine reminds parents of their ultimate goal: “We want to turn out good people who find good partners, find work they like, and contribute to their communities.”

Teach Your Children Well is, in part, a response to Levine’s previous book, the 2006 surprise best-seller The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids. (“Nobody expected it to end up on The New York Times best-sellers list,” she says. “It did.”)

The Price of Privilege touched a nerve. Although its scope was limited to upper-class families, it identified problems also prevalent among the middle- and upper-middle class. Her current book, Levine says, provides a broader perspective along with some solutions. (One example: “Question aggressively a system that seems to sanction excessive homework, competition over col-laboration, sleep deprivation, and choosing activities based solely on their resume-enhancing potential.”)

As for her own background, Levine, 62, embodies the notion that “average” can turn exemplary. She grew up in New York City, in the Flushing section of Queens; her father was a police officer who died young, her mother was a social worker.

“We had no money, no insurance, noth-ing,” Levine recalls. A scholarship enabled Levine to study at the State University of New York, Buffalo.

“I had the best parents,” Levine says. “I was just fine the way I was, whether that was excelling in English or floundering at math. They were more interested in the kind of person I was.”

Levine began her career as a teacher in the South Bronx, a downtrodden, violence-plagued section of New York, in the 1970s. (“I was a terrible teacher,” she says. “I was so bad in the classroom, so good at the one on one.”)

Levine moved to California to pur-sue a doctorate in psychology and has remained there. She has a private clini-cal practice—on the back burner at the moment, she says—and is a founder of

Challenge Success, a Stanford University-based organization that works with schools and families to promote better balanced, more fulfilled lives for children.

She and her husband, Lee Schwartz, have three sons, aged 32, 27 and 21. Having adult children, she says, gives her the oppor-tunity to look back and consider what she would do differently. One thing Levine says she’d change: She would have participated more in her children’s Jewish education.

Busy with her family and career, “I remember all the times I dropped them off at Hebrew school, went home and went to bed,” she says. “It’s one thing to say, ‘You have to go to Mitzvah Day.’ Well, if mom’s not going…actions speak louder than words.”

Levine’s youngest son, Jeremy, helped guide her career toward combating the pressure-cooker environment that so many kids encounter at school. While her older sons, good students, “were served by the system,” her youngest (“a perfectly average student,” as she describes him in her book)

was falling between the cracks.“There was very little to feel good about,

starting in about sixth grade,” she says. “Nobody was interested in the parts of him that were super good.”

“Every kid has a super power,” she says. “For one kid, it may be calculus. For another it’s an incredible sensitivity toward people.” A parent’s task, Levine says, is valuing these strengths equally.

“Life hands people all kinds of loss-es, disappointments, tragedies,” she says. “Why do we want to have kids night after night sobbing over their homework at 2 am because they can’t get it done? It’s something we created that has become an enormous stressor.”

“I feel like adults have a secret: There are a bunch of things you’re good at, a bunch of things you’re average at, a bunch of things you really suck at,” Levine says. “This idea of straight-A students is a perfect mythology to me. Most of us are pretty average in most ways.”

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The team at Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer, P.C. salutes our local educators and their students.

Education is not received; it is achieved.


The school financial aid process: daunting, invasive and necessary

by Debra Rubin

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Courtney Talmoud was “tired of begging.”

It’s a major reason her daughter no lon-ger attends a Jewish day school and is now at a public school.

“You have to say what you have, what you don’t have, if you have extra income,” says Talmoud, of Silver Spring, Md. “What busi-ness is it of theirs what kind of car I drive?”

Yet she and other parents say they understand that Jewish day schools, with tuitions that often rival those of some col-leges, need as much information as possible to determine whether a family is entitled to financial assistance or, as day schools typi-cally call it, “scholarship aid.”

Their struggles come as the number of Jewish children attending day schools has been steadily increasing.

A 2008–09 study by Marvin Schick and the Avi Chai Foundation found that

more than 228,000 children, including preschoolers, are attending day schools and yeshivas—an increase of 11 percent from just five years earlier and nearly 25 percent from the previous decade.

But due to the costs, an unknown number of families don’t even bother with the day school option. For those who do, applying for financial help can be a daunt-ing process of gathering information, filling out forms and attending meetings.

An 11-page financial request application from the Ramaz School in New York demon-strates just how invasive the process can be.

The school’s tuition, depending on the grade, ranges from $25,575 to $34,500. In addition to details on parents’ income, busi-ness concerns and bank accounts, the form asks the costs of summer camp and family trips in the past year, the previous year and plans for the upcoming year. There are lines for purchases made in excess of $10,000 and whether the family rents or leases a

car—including the make, model, year and monthly expenses for the vehicle.

The application seeks not only how much the family has in bank and invest-ment accounts, but how many dollars have been deposited into retirement and 529 plans for the previous and current years, the monthly rent or mortgage, and whether the family held or is planning a wedding or bar/bat mitzvah cel-ebration—including the costs of the simchas.

As with many day schools, Ramaz strives to keep the information pri-vate. The school sends the form to a third-party, in this case FACTS, a tuition management company with a website that says its services are used by 5,500 schools a year.

“We run an objective formula across the board among all the applicants,” says Dan Curran, a FACTS team leader.

Kenneth Rochlin, Ramaz’s director of institutional advancement, says the approach “is not to embarrass anyone.” He adds that “There is no lay involvement” and teachers don’t know which students receive financial aid.

FACTS uses a formula that relates a fam-ily’s finances to Bureau of Labor Statistics information and other factors before rec-ommending how much of a scholarship should be given. The company takes into consideration caps placed on such expens-es as housing.

“We put a cap on those expenses so that we’re not rewarding an ostentatious lifestyle,” Curran says.

The caps vary among communities, with schools given the option in the FACTS formula to adjust them. For example, Curran says, a school in New York would allow a much higher housing expense than a school in the Midwest.

Some schools, however, keep the entire decision-making process internal.

The Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, where tuition ranges from $8,000 to $11,000 annually, has a six- to eight-mem-ber tuition lay committee. It requires W-2s

and 1090s, and looks at income and family size. Those unhappy with the committee’s decision may request to meet with one or two members.

“There’s a human being behind those numbers,” says Rabbi Eli Dessler, the school’s financial director, who notes the numbers are sometimes deceiving due to

extenuating circumstances.The policy, he says, “is never

to turn anyone away for lack of finances.” But he also says that

parents must be willing to make adjustments.

“If someone puts $8,000 in IRA but says they only have $1,000 or $2,000 for tuition, that is something the com-mittee will question,” Dessler says. “Our school is committed to provide an affordable day school education, but the school doesn’t have to fund your retirement.”

What parents tend to forget, says Arnold Zar-

Kessler, the head of school at the Solomon Schechter Day

School of Greater Boston, is that the financial aid process is the same

at non-Jewish private schools.“We provide outstanding education

and have to figure out how to pay for it,” Zar-Kessler says. “Tuition does not cover our costs.”

Likewise, Jewish schools have the addi-tional burden of providing both a strong secular and Jewish education, he says, and “We need highly specialized educators.”

His school has come up with the iCap tuition program for families with incomes less than $400,000 and assets below $350,000. It caps total tuition at 15 per-cent of the family’s adjusted gross income, regardless of the number of the family’s children in the school.

Families also have the option of going through the traditional application process.

Meanwhile, families facing college tuitions face a different daunting challenge: weeding through a multitude of financial assistance options from merit and narrowly defined scholarships to loans, grants and direct aid.

Yeshiva University, for example, recently

The Williams school

85years

Celebrating

1927 - 2012

Honor before Honors

85years

Celebrating

honor before honors

educating children Grades K-8

openhouse

Jan 13, 20131-4 pm

child-centered environment

emphasis on integrity and Responsibility

a partnership with parents

a non-institutional atmosphere

419 Colonial Ave • Norfolk, VA(757) 627-1383 • www.thewilliamsschool.org

The Williams School admits students of any race, color, religion, national and ethnic origin.

Families

facing college

tuitions face a

different daunting

challenge: weeding

through a multitude

of financial assistance

options from merit

and narrowly defined

scholarships to

loans, grants and

direct aid.


ran an advertising campaign designed to show how it strives to be affordable to fami-lies at various income levels.

Unlike most colleges YU, where 79 percent of students receive institutional assistance, looks not only at how many children a family has in college but also how many are attending Jewish day schools.

“We do understand that 90-plus percent of our families do have younger children in day school,” says Robert Friedman, the uni-versity’s director of student finance. “They have been paying private school tuition hand over fist for years.”

In Los Angeles, nearly every student at the non-denominational American Jewish University receives some kind of merit- or need-based assistance. The school also takes into account extenuating cir-cumstances and will adjust tuition costs mid-semester if needed, says Zofi Yalovsky, its vice president for finance, administra-tion and technology.

In Boston and elsewhere, a constant dilem-ma is providing for families truly in need.

“When we launched our iCap program, we said flat out that there are going to be some families that game the system,” says Andria Weil, the president at Solomon Schechter of Greater Boston.

The detailed financial information that schools require helps minimize cheating, but also leads parents to feel a loss of pri-vacy and dignity.

“You feel like everyone is counting your money and counting how you spend it,” says Judith of Bergen County, N.J., who asked that her last name be withheld because of a confidentiality agreement with her children’s school.

She worries that when it comes time for her children’s b’nai mitzvah celebrations, “If I have more than a tiny, tiny kiddush, people will say why can’t you pay your yeshiva bill?”

Andy Muchin of Oakland, Calif., has been on both sides of the table—as a mem-ber of the day school board and as a parent receiving assistance. He sent four children to day school in Milwaukee.

“It’s a little bit demeaning to ask for aid,” he says. “I felt like I was in a different socioeconomic class. I always felt like the one guy there who wasn’t wealthy.”

Muchin finally “grew up and realized that I depended on the generosity of these people.” He adds that when he was on the board, “I realized, too, that you want people to pay their fair share.”

In Tidewater, most private schools—Jewish and secular—offer scholarships, financial assistance, and access to loans. Specific information can be found by visit-ing a school’s website or by contacting the admissions or business office.


100%of our 2012 National Merit

Semi-Finalists started here as first graders.

Think all schools are equal?

{And those are just numbers.}

Learn more at norfolkacademy.orgor call the admissions team at 757.455.5582

3%of U.S. high school seniors who take the PSAT are recognized by the National Merit Scholars Program for earning the highest

test scores each year.

17%of Academy seniors were

recognized by the National Merit Scholars Program this

year.

48%of the Norfolk Academy Class of 2012 were awarded college

scholarships.

5Academy seniors were named National Merit Semi-Finalists. {The highest number for VA

independent schools!}

89%of our AP exam takers scored

a 3 or higher. {That’s a WHOLE LOT

of college credit!}

24%of Norfolk Academy students

are students of color.

10%of our operating budget is dedicated to financial aid.

{Almost 3 million dollars.}

42%of Academy seniors earned a 700+ on at least one section

of the SAT this fall. {13 had perfect 800’s.}

89%of financial aid requests were

granted last year.{Decisions are based on need.}

76%of our faculty hold advanced

degrees.{And on average they’ve taught here for 12 years!}

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100%of NORFOLK ACADEMY graduates

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Reported data for Academy students are based on a 5-year average for the Classes of 2008-2012.

79%U.S. Public Colleges & Universities accepted

127133%

The Ivy League accepted

* CNNMoney, March 30, 2012

The average SAT score for our students is:

{ }The national average score for the SAT test is 1010 out of

1600.*

of our students who applied. of our students who applied.

{ }The cost of a public in-state college

education is roughly half that of a private

college.*{ }Last year the mean

Ivy acceptance rate was 7.4%*

* The College Board, 2012 Report for College-Bound Seniors

* The College Board, 2011-2012 average estimated budgets for 4-year full-time students.

education matters

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