Your Best Personal Investment:

The Education of Your Children at PJA

In these difficult financial times, we cannot help but to personally re-evaluate our spending.  At PJA we do the same thing.  We are working tirelessly to preserve the best teachers and the best education for our students - your children - in a most nurturing, supportive, and academically superior environment.

Since we are all so invested in the school and the fine education PJA offers, we wanted to be sure you knew what that investment brings to your family.

• PJA students excel on standardized testing. Students take the Comprehensive Testing Program (CTP) IV from the national Educational Records Bureau (ERB) assessments in grades 4, 6, and 7 and the Oregon Statewide assessments in grades 3, 5, and 8. According to recent ERB test scores:
  
  
  • One-third of the eighth grade Class of 2008 scored above the 97th percentile on national standardized testing.
  • Overall, more than 50% of PJA students scored above the 85th percentile.
    
    
• Portland Jewish Academy is currently an International Baccalaureate® World School candidate in both the Primary Years and Middle Years Programmes (PYP and MYP). In many states, the IB program is considered a talented and gifted program.
  
  
• PJA students benefit from specialists in Art, Music, and Dance and, unlike many public schools, has an excellent and talented school Librarian.
  
  
• Jewish day schools-elementary, middle, and high schools-offer a rigorous curriculum that prepares students for college and post-graduate study. Nearly all graduates of liberal or modern Orthodox day schools attend secular colleges and universities, and graduates of day schools attend the most prestigious public and private colleges at disproportionately high rates.
  
  
  • The PJA Alums who most recently graduated from High School won the following awards:
    • National Merit Scholar
    • National Honor Society
    • Valedictorians of three local high schools
    • Academic All-Star and finalists
    • Lincoln High School Outstanding Math Student
    • Wilson High School Golden W Award
    • MAC Scholar-Athlete Award
    • Wilson High School Coach's Choice Award
    • And more than a dozen merit scholarships to colleges around the United States
      
      
  • Several students from the Class of 2004 were accepted to prominent programs abroad, including MASA in Israel, Young Judaea Year Course, B'nai Akiva Tafnit program and a gap semester in Peru and Bolivia. Others started at the college of their choice. The range of college acceptances is impressive and includes everything from American University to Yale.
    
    
• More broadly, Jewish day schools provide young people with an extensive peer community that supports a positive and knowledgeable Jewish identity. This is critical to social development and identity formation, and to the capacity to be an active and committed citizen within the broader community.