Web Posted: 02/27/2006 12:05 AM CST
Karen Adler - Express-News Staff Writer

The news was stunning. San Antonio's Keystone School had nabbed the highest test scores in four subject areas of the Advanced Placement tests.
 
The Feb. 7 report from the College Board said three other high schools out of the 15,000 in the world that administer AP exams did as well as Keystone or better, prompting the inevitable question: How did the tiny school in San Antonio do it?

The answer is part timing, part high academic standards and, as always in such matters, part mystery. Because this is only the second year the College Board has recognized schoolwide performance on AP tests, which can lead to college credit if scores are high enough, there is plenty of time for other San Antonio schools, both public and private, to one day make the list.

And the city's other elite private schools — Saint Mary's Hall and TMI, the Episcopal School of Texas — certainly share Keystone's rigorous admissions requirements and strong emphasis on academic performance as a basic approach to education.

What seems to separate Keystone is its small size — 415 students in grades K-12 — a relentless approach to academics and adherence to a streamlined core curriculum that focuses on reading, writing, math and science. The school offers fewer electives, sports and extracurricular activities than either Saint Mary's Hall or TMI.

" What we do, we do well," said Suzanne Elizondo, head of the upper school.

Elizondo said teachers and students are not pressured to do well on tests, and teachers whose students got top AP scores will not be receiving bonuses.

" I've done nothing to emphasize testing here," said Hugh McIntosh, the head of school since 2004. "We do not 'teach to the test.'"
Chris Ellertson, dean of admissions at Trinity University, called Keystone "a really unusual place."

" The school seems to engender and foster a respect for education that you don't see at even all private schools all the time," he said.
Keystone has flipped the paradigm of the typical Texas high school, where the cheerleaders and the athletes are the cool kids.

" Science fair is our football," said Thomas Meyer, 16, president of the student body.

McIntosh, an attorney and graduate of Harvard Divinity School, said the school is not necessarily looking for kids with ultrahigh IQs, but for those committed to learning. He came to Keystone after working as an education consultant.

" We're looking for A and B students who are highly motivated and whose parents see the wisdom of academic excellence," McIntosh said.

Expectations are high. Spanish instruction begins in the first grade. Science projects begin in the third grade. Seventh-graders take nine weeks of both Latin and French to help them figure out which language they want to take in high school. Teachers have students generate their own review questions to prepare for tests.

" If I get a bad progress report, I know I have a problem and will get help," said Ashley Kahn, a senior who has been accepted to the prestigious Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. "Everything is put on you. They're not going to hold your hand."

Classmate Elise Adcock feels pressure but said it's worth it.

" All of us want to go to a good college," said Adcock, who plans to major in biomedical engineering at Rice, Vanderbilt or Yale. "The only way we'll get there is to work for it."

Last summer, Adcock and two of her classmates were invited to present their science fair research at expos in South Africa and Chile. Last year, freshman Neela Thangada was named "America's Top Young Scientist of the Year" by the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.

Tuesday, Thangada will be honored at a school assembly that will double as a taping of the Discovery Channel's "Jake the Science Guy" TV show.

McIntosh said the student-teacher relationship at Keystone plays a crucial role in the school's success. Unlike TMI, Saint Mary's Hall or most public schools, Keystone's class schedules are organized so that a teacher has the same student in multiple grade levels. In upper school — grades nine to 12 — the average class size is 15 to 17 students.

" I could write pages of recommendations for kids who want to go to college, because I know them so well," Debbie Preston said.

Such an education doesn't come cheap.

Annual high school tuition is $11,435 at Keystone, $15,150 at TMI and $15,960 at Saint Mary's Hall. All three schools offer financial aid.

McIntosh said Keystone keeps tuition low so the school can achieve its goal of enabling two working parents to afford to send one child to Keystone.

" We want middle class involvement in this school," he said.

And while TMI and Saint Mary's Hall have sprawling, suburban campuses with impressive facilities, Keystone is a no-frills campus — a hodge-podge of renovated homes on 3.5 acres in the Monte Vista Historic District.

At Keystone, about 35 students — 16 percent in grades six through 12 — receive $271,570 in financial aid. That's an average of $7,759 per student.

The money comes from the annual budget because the school has no endowment. Only recently has the school begun reaching out to alumni, McIntosh said.

" We do not have a history of strong fundraising," he said. "It was not a priority before my arrival. Now it's a priority."

Saint Mary's Hall has a $36 million endowment and TMI has a $2.5 million endowment. Fifty-five TMI students — 17 percent of the student body — receive $500,000, an average of $9,091 per student, in financial aid. At Saint Mary's Hall, about 100 students — 11 percent — receive $691,478 in aid, an average of $6,915 per student.

The headmasters at Saint Mary's Hall and TMI applaud Keystone's AP achievement but said their schools have different missions. Success, they said, is measured in different ways.

" We take kids in the sixth grade from all kinds of backgrounds," said James Freeman, headmaster at TMI, which has a religious affiliation and a strong military background and counts Gen. Douglas MacArthur as a member of the third graduating class, in 1897. "We haven't had the opportunity to create an integrated program that goes all the way back to kindergarten."

Bob Windham, Saint Mary's Hall headmaster, said being different is a good thing. His school aims to produce well-rounded graduates and offers extensive fine arts and athletic programs, in addition to academics.

" For us to do what they did, we'd have to change who we were," Windham said. "If we were all alike, it would be a little counterproductive."

kadler@express-news.net