According to data from the California Post Secondary Education Commission, Turlock Christian High School sends the highest rate of students on to California colleges in Stanislaus County.
From 2005 to 2009, TCHS graduated 166 seniors and 55 percent of those students attended California colleges the next school year. Colleges include community college, University of California, private colleges and California State Universities. The data base does not include out-of-state colleges.
“We actually send about 90 percent of our students on to college if you count out-of-state colleges. We’ve sent kids to the Air Force Academy, West Point and Ivy League schools,” said TCHS counselor Chuck Boswell.
“And of the kids that don’t go to college, it’s only because they joined the military or went to work in farming, so I don’t think we really have any kids that graduate and just don’t do anything.”
Of all high schools in the county, TCHS also has the highest rate of graduates going to California State Universities (such as Stan State) at 34 percent of graduates.
Boswell and Turlock Christian Schools Superintendent Sherman Glenn point to a strong commitment from teachers, parents and administration to providing a quality education for students.
“We take ordinary kids and give them an extra-ordinary education,” said Glenn.
Students at TCHS are required to enroll in four years of math and science classes along with core classes, most of which have a 15: 1 student to teacher ratio.
“Our goal is have them be successful in college, not just go to college, which is why they do more than the minimum. We also make sure students don’t fall through the cracks. If a student is struggling our teachers are more than willing to put in time after school to work with that student,” said Boswell.
Glenn says TCHS encourages a partnership between teachers, students and parents.
“We are a partner with parents in a child’s education. We give them the tools and instruction to learn but parents ensure the kids are making the effort to learn and develop the character to want to learn,” said Glenn.
Outside the classroom students in Turlock Christian Schools have opportunities to take field trips to Boston, Washington D.C., and places of note in California, such as Monterey.
TCHS is part of Turlock Christian Schools, a network of private, non-denominational Christian schools for children K-12. The school district has adopted strategies that encompass a uniform- results driven teaching model for all grades. Currently every grade-level in the district has a promethean boards, which are the second generation of interactive smart boards, an example of the districts commitment to using cutting-edge technology in learning through all grades.
“Our hope for the future is that every child in our schools has a notebook computer and that those computers have textbooks on them. Electronic is the wave of the future and if colleges are moving that way we have to move that way to in order to prepare our kids to go to college and be successful once they are there,” said Boswell.
In the next few years Turlock Christian Schools’ goal is to build one campus for K-12 students.
To contact Jonathan McCorkell, e-mail jmccorkell@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2015.
