Need your help on Trinity Christian Academy in Addison (Plano: 2015, daycare)
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Please help and advised on TCA in Addison. If you have children attending there or know of a student attending the school please share your views or experiences on this school. We are seriously considering sending our child there, yes were a Christians and will love to engage our child in an extension of biblical education from the home, but most importantly to us is the academic curriculum from lower school to middle school to upper school. I understand the school will be ranked in the Tier II, is this school equipped for a somewhat rigorous academic curriculum?
A year later, but we are applying to TCA this year for our son. To us it seems very academically rigorous. We worry it will be too academically rigorous for our 2nd child. We hope to find one school that will be able to serve all of our children, so we worry about this with TCA.
TCA's average ACT in 2015 was 28 and SAT is over 1200 (verbal and math)... When you take into consideration that is the "average", that seems great to me. This year they had 9 National Merit commended scholars in a graduating class of a little over a 100 (if my math is right)... And in 2012 they had something like 9 semi-finalists and 12 commended scholars... We don't really want a school where if our child is National Merit caliber, he is just an average student at his school which is what must happen at St. Mark's. I want him to be in the top of his class if he is that type of kid. We also want a solid education, but with time to be a kid. We worry, this won't be the case with Trinity in Middle and High.... Our oldest son is very bright... Probably not top 1%, but more around 10%... Our 2nd son seems to be above average, but no genius - but he is only 3 so who knows? ;-)
We know several families who send their children there and they all love it. They all rave about the academics. It is considered the "academic" school of the Christian schools. We have some family acquaintances whose son had to be held back a year to be admitted b/c you have to be at grade level or above... We also love the Christian environment/education....
We are also friends with several TCA alums through our church and they are all very successful in both their professional and personal lives...
Plus, Tony Romo's wife is an alum from there, so his kids might go there too :-). <--------joke!
Curious if you ended up sending your child there?
Last edited by shazzaintx; 02-11-2016 at 10:32 PM..
Reason: more info
TCA seems to fit what you're looking for to a T! Academically rigorous, but not over the top (St. Marks, etc), religious based, great reviews and what seems to be some connections already. For your younger child, you may look at some other alternatives with him possibly progressing into something like Jesuit for 8-12. Jesuit is a good over all private that is religious based as well, but not as academically rigorous.
TCA seems to fit what you're looking for to a T! Academically rigorous, but not over the top (St. Marks, etc), religious based, great reviews and what seems to be some connections already. For your younger child, you may look at some other alternatives with him possibly progressing into something like Jesuit for 8-12. Jesuit is a good over all private that is religious based as well, but not as academically rigorous.
Jesuit is actually considered more academically rigorous than TCA. The less academic Catholic secondaries are normally considered to be JP2, Bishop Lynch & Dunne. Not sure why you'd think Jesuit would be more suitable for an average student over TCA. TCA is a notch below Jesuit and Ursuline.
Also, parents that are theologically aligned with TCA might not feel comfortable sending their child to a Jesuit school and vice versa. "Religious" could mean a broad number of religions, so lumping TCA and Jesuit together as a recommendation in that vein is totally off-base.
The less academic Catholic secondaries are normally considered to be JP2, Bishop Lynch & Dunne.
Not completely true. JP2 is actually considered by many who have or have had children at both to be more academically rigorous than Jesuit, more of a peer with Ursuline in this regard. But I agree that Jesuit is thought to be stronger than TCA, BL and BD.
Not completely true. JP2 is actually considered by many who have or have had children at both to be more academically rigorous than Jesuit, more of a peer with Ursuline in this regard. But I agree that Jesuit is thought to be stronger than TCA, BL and BD.
I've had one graduate Jesuit, one graduate Ursuline and I was a fundraiser for JPII back in the days when the school was to be built along Hedgecoxe in North Plano and also when the school was reset to its current location in part due to the Rudy Koss nightmare.
Let me start by stipulating that rigorous means different things to different people. I'd agree that UA is more rigorous than JCP but I don't believe UA is the better school.
Other than the girl - boy thing the key distinction between JCP and UA is that UA is terribly old school the girls are bombarded with freakish quantities of busy work like projects, posters, letters, presentations, group presentations, lots of long writing assignments and the like along with learning class content for exams etc. I remember my daughter as a UA Sr. producing a 30 or 35 page project with CRAYONS over a weekend. At JCP (the name isn't Jesuit College Prep for nothing) the boys do maybe 10/15% of the busy work as UA girls. Jesuit is run like most undergraduate college programs - show up, listen, study hard and well, take the exam etc. - go play basketball or whatever. The UA girls often refer to JCP derisively as, "The Daycare". My son pulled one all nigher at JCP, my daughter probably pulled 50 all nighters at UA maybe more.
An interesting thing at graduation is The JCP and UA kids are about equal in most quantifiable ways with an edge going to the boys. Although not every year JCP usually produces better SAT and ACT scores and definitely better NMSF and NMSF-Commended numbers. Although UA is starting to pay attention to the PSAT thank goodness. All that said UA girls write like rock stars and they are world class time managers - at UA if kid can't manage her time expertly within a couple of months she's get run over.
I'm a fan of JP II and its mission. However, I think it's a reach to claim the school is the equal or better than JCP. I've not seen a single quantifiable data point that would make me think that - not SAT scores, certainly not NMSF numbers IIRC JCP (13) had more this year than JPII has ever had. Jesuit is really starting to flex its muscles regarding NMSF numbers. My son graduated JCP just a few years ago the PSAT study plan then was 30 minutes of test taking skills remediation and 2 hours of content study - that's was it. This year JCP had more NMSFs than Hockaday, Cistercian or Greenhill and given JCP's hardheaded determination once they commit to something I'd look for that trend to continue.
I've had one graduate Jesuit, one graduate Ursuline and I was a fundraiser for JPII back in the days when the school was to be built along Hedgecoxe in North Plano and also when the school was reset to its current location in part due to the Rudy Koss nightmare.
Let me start by stipulating that rigorous means different things to different people. I'd agree that UA is more rigorous than JCP but I don't believe UA is the better school.
Other than the girl - boy thing the key distinction between JCP and UA is that UA is terribly old school the girls are bombarded with freakish quantities of busy work like projects, posters, letters, presentations, group presentations, lots of long writing assignments and the like along with learning class content for exams etc. I remember my daughter as a UA Sr. producing a 30 or 35 page project with CRAYONS over a weekend. At JCP (the name isn't Jesuit College Prep for nothing) the boys do maybe 10/15% of the busy work as UA girls. Jesuit is run like most undergraduate college programs - show up, listen, study hard and well, take the exam etc. - go play basketball or whatever. The UA girls often refer to JCP derisively as, "The Daycare". My son pulled one all nigher at JCP, my daughter probably pulled 50 all nighters at UA maybe more.
An interesting thing at graduation is The JCP and UA kids are about equal in most quantifiable ways with an edge going to the boys. Although not every year JCP usually produces better SAT and ACT scores and definitely better NMSF and NMSF-Commended numbers. Although UA is starting to pay attention to the PSAT thank goodness. All that said UA girls write like rock stars and they are world class time managers - at UA if kid can't manage her time expertly within a couple of months she's get run over.
I'm a fan of JP II and its mission. However, I think it's a reach to claim the school is the equal or better than JCP. I've not seen a single quantifiable data point that would make me think that - not SAT scores, certainly not NMSF numbers IIRC JCP (13) had more this year than JPII has ever had. Jesuit is really starting to flex its muscles regarding NMSF numbers. My son graduated JCP just a few years ago the PSAT study plan then was 30 minutes of test taking skills remediation and 2 hours of content study - that's was it. This year JCP had more NMSFs than Hockaday, Cistercian or Greenhill and given JCP's hardheaded determination once they commit to something I'd look for that trend to continue.
Jesuit cherry picks students who they think have the potential for NMSF and gives them additional training on some Saturdays before the test. I can't remember the hour breakdown but it was more than 2.5 hours.
I'd say that TCA is probably less rigorous than Jesuit's AP track but more rigorous than Jesuit's regular track (the vast majority of private schools are more rigorous than Jesuit's regular track). I don't know enough about JPII's academics to comment but at least back in the oughts it had a reputation as a school for kids who got rejected not only by Jesuit and Ursuline but by BL as well. I agree with the Ursuline busy work comment 100%
Jesuit cherry picks students who they think have the potential for NMSF and gives them additional training on some Saturdays before the test. I can't remember the hour breakdown but it was more than 2.5 hours.
I'd say that TCA is probably less rigorous than Jesuit's AP track but more rigorous than Jesuit's regular track (the vast majority of private schools are more rigorous than Jesuit's regular track). I don't know enough about JPII's academics to comment but at least back in the oughts it had a reputation as a school for kids who got rejected not only by Jesuit and Ursuline but by BL as well. I agree with the Ursuline busy work comment 100%
DM sent.
I'll let most of the rest of that go. But in your mind when JCP recruits the smartest kids they can it's cherry picking, however, when other schools do exactly the same thing and it's not cherry picking? Come on. Whatever your pain point is with JCP let it go.
I'm a fan of JP II and its mission. However, I think it's a reach to claim the school is the equal or better than JCP. I've not seen a single quantifiable data point that would make me think that - not SAT scores, certainly not NMSF numbers IIRC JCP (13) had more this year than JPII has ever had. Jesuit is really starting to flex its muscles regarding NMSF numbers. My son graduated JCP just a few years ago the PSAT study plan then was 30 minutes of test taking skills remediation and 2 hours of content study - that's was it. This year JCP had more NMSFs than Hockaday, Cistercian or Greenhill and given JCP's hardheaded determination once they commit to something I'd look for that trend to continue.
My claim was not that any one school is better than another. That is completely subjective and varies from student to student. I responded to the statement: "The less academic Catholic secondaries are normally considered to be JP2, Bishop Lynch & Dunne.". This is simply not the case today. Not the "oughts", not the Hedgecoxe/Preston Meadows days, but today.
I don't really want to debate the pros and cons of using NMSFs, and SAT/ACT scores as indicators of academic rigor. Suffice it to say that it is my opinion that those indicators are more a product of student quality and having the financial foundation to be able to "recruit the smartest kids". In other words, those 13 NMSFs at Jesuit would have been NMSFs at most privates and top publics.
Academic rigor to me is more about taking B/C students and making them A/B students or taking A/B students and making them straight A students. Academic rigor to me is seeing how many B/C students are on the Dean's List their freshman year of college. I would be very curious to see a study done relating 8th grade ISEE scores to 12th grade SAT scores. Which schools do the best job taking those 5s, 6s and 7s and having them become NM Commended or scoring 1800s on the SAT (old SAT)?
From personal experience, JP2 is more rigorous than Jesuit. Perhaps they have to be due to the type of student they are able to recruit at this point in their life cycle. Perhaps when JP2 is 70+ years old they'll be able to tout 13 NMSFs every year too!
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