The results of a National Public Opinion Poll highlighted the factors considered to be the most essential to a quality education. Overall, Independent Schools were viewed as well ahead of other types of institutions in offering outstanding academics, values, and opportunities for students to maximize their abilities.

Here is what our parents, students and teachers have to say on these issues:

  • Supporting a climate that says it's OK to study and excel: National Poll Rating, 62 percent say essential.

    • "As a teacher I strive to foster sound academic skills, the love of learning, and an atmosphere where students feel free to challenge themselves intellectually as they explore new concepts."

  • Employing high-quality teachers: National Poll Rating, 73 percent say essential.

    • "Although St. Stephen's & St. Agnes maintains a traditional curriculum, teaching today requires us to go beyond the canon, to think hard about how as well as what we teach...the growing emphasis on interdisciplinary studies has broadened the scope of our program."

  • Keeping class size small and giving attention to students as individuals (National Poll Rating: 69 percent say essential).

    • "The report comments show that teachers really analyze individual kids. Teachers here know things about my children that one would expect only a parent to know."

  • Teaching values: National Poll Rating, 68 percent say essential.

    • "From a parent's perspective, St. Stephen's & St. Agnes is an ideal choice – an excellent education, centered around the values I believe in, a diverse and motivated student body, and a safe, secure environment. I can see why students and parents have a life-long loyalty."

  • Keeping students motivated and enthusiastic about learning: National Poll Rating, 67 percent say essential.

    • "St. Stephen's & St. Agnes not only has small classes, impressive facilities and resources, and high academic standards, it also has the ability to instill a joy of learning. That was the special quality missing in my search for a school. I saw intellectual curiosity on the faces of every student in every class I observed, from kindergarten to chemistry."

    "It was a sacrifice for our family to pay tuition, but we feel that our children benefited in so many ways, and have remained so interested in books, world events, and the arts that our investment has been worth every penny."

Additionally, a recent study by the U.S. Department of Education, entitled the National Educational Longitudinal Study, followed the lives of students who were eighth graders in 1988 and tracked them through college and their first years in the working world until the year 2000. The results of this twelve year study, according to National Association of Independent School's president, Mr. Pat Bassett, "affirm what we all individually and collectively have been advocating: that our graduates, in vastly disproportionate numbers, persist not only to matriculate but also to graduate form college, where they end up committing more time to community service, and becoming more involved with civic activities, among other findings."