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Christel House Jamaica (CHJ) is proud to share the remarkable academic growth of its oldest cohort of students, currently 6th graders, as demonstrated by their 2024 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) results. This cohort achieved an impressive 10-percentage point increase in math proficiency and a 39-percentage point surge in literacy proficiency—a testament to the transformative power of Christel House’s rigorous educational approach.

The PEP assessment provides a comprehensive academic profile of students and serves as a placement test for high schools across Jamaica. For CHJ, the results offer a valuable benchmark to measure student proficiency against national standards. Executive Principal Jason Scott shared, “Within four years of Christel House operating in Jamaica, these results are a testament to the efforts made so far in delivering rigorous academics to the students we serve.”

This milestone is particularly significant given the challenges this group of students faced. Entering CHJ as 2nd graders, they missed the foundational years of a Christel House education beginning in kindergarten. Additionally, their education was impacted by pandemic-related school closures. Despite these hurdles, the cohort demonstrated extraordinary progress, with language arts proficiency rising from just 22.3% in 4th grade (2023) to 61.5% in 5th grade (2024).

Executive Principal Scott attributes these achievements to several targeted strategies:

1. Strategic Staffing: “We have prioritized staff deployment, placing teachers where they can maximize their strengths to meet the needs of their students,” explained Scott.
2. The Academic Booster Program: The extra lessons initiative, partially funded by the American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ), provided Saturday sessions designed to prepare students for PEP exams. “The program intentionally targeted boosting students’ ability to manage PEP content and examination conditions,” he added.
3. Collaborative Efforts: CHJ’s teachers, administrators, and the Christel House International (CHI) monitoring team have worked in unison, ensuring consistency in academic planning and execution.

CHJ’s recent emphasis on literacy, with support from CHI’s Programs & Services team, has paid off handsomely. The school has also introduced strategic changes for the 2024-25 school year, focusing on strengthening math instruction in grades 3 through 5 to continue this trajectory of success.

Reflecting on the broader progress, Principal Scott shared, “using baseline data from 2020-21, where just 7.2% of students were at or above grade level in reading, to now seeing 54% of students meeting that benchmark in three years, gives credence to how far we have come in a short period of time. I am very proud of what we have achieved as a team.”

Scott emphasized the holistic role of CHJ’s educators in shaping students’ futures: “Our staff is focused on consistently improving academics, while addressing challenges. They combat the negative societal factors such as crime and poverty that students are exposed to, while maintaining high academic expectations. For this, I am absolutely appreciative.”

The growth of CHJ’s students is a shining example of how high-quality education can break cycles of poverty and open doors to brighter futures. Christel House Jamaica continues to exemplify its mission: to transform lives “from classrooms to life.”