October 9, 2025 / San Dimas
Students at Tzu Chi Walnut Elementary School (TCES Walnut) achieved outstanding results in this fall’s Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth assessment. Across all grade levels, TCES students scored higher in both English Reading and Mathematics than students at schools nationwide, as well as those at California private, church-affiliated, and public schools.
In terms of the Reading assessment, TCES Walnut students’ results are:
• 4–9 percentage points above the national NWEA norm, demonstrating consistent overall performance with annual improvement.
• 1–6 percentage points above California private schools participating in NWEA testing, with the sixth graders scoring 6 points higher than private school peers.
• 5–10 percentage points above California public schools participating in NWEA testing across all grades, significantly outperforming public school students.
In terms of the Mathematics assessment, TCES Walnut students’ results lead both the national NWEA norm and California public schools by over 10 percentage points in all grades except fifth grade. Specifically:
• 5–13 percentage points above the national NWEA norm.
• 3–7 percentage points above California private schools participating in NWEA testing.
• 6–15 percentage points above California public schools participating in NWEA testing.
These outstanding results not only demonstrate TCES Walnut students’ solid academic foundation and the professional guidance of the faculty but also embody the achievements of Tzu Chi education’s philosophy of “Holistic development and balance of character and intelligence.”
Developed by NWEA, the largest non-profit education assessment organization in the U.S., MAP Growth is a computer-adaptive assessment that pinpoints each student’s instructional level, helps set next-step learning goals, and identifies areas for growth. It is currently used by over half of U.S. schools and by more than nine million students across 140 countries to track individual learning progress.
Let us congratulate the students of TCES Walnut and express our deepest gratitude to the teachers, parents, and volunteers for their unwavering support and encouragement!
About Tzu Chi Walnut Elementary School
The Tzu Chi Education Foundation USA established its first elementary school, Tzu Chi Great Love Elementary School, in Monrovia, California, in 2010. In 2014, it founded a second school within the Tzu Chi Walnut Education Park, which has since merged into Tzu Chi Walnut Elementary School: a private school serving Pre-K through Grade 6.
While emphasizing bilingual education in English and Chinese alongside academic growth, the school cultivates critical thinking, supports character development, and fosters humanistic and environmental values. It offers a learning community guided by Tzu Chi’s humanistic spirit and high academic standards.
About Tzu Chi USA
The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, established in 1966 in Taiwan by Dharma Master Cheng Yen, is a global non-profit humanitarian aid organization. Its missions of medicine, charity, education, and humanistic culture have brought relief in 136 countries and regions to date. Tzu Chi USA was established in 1989, and now has 63 offices across the United States. The heart of Tzu Chi is embedded in its name: in Chinese, “tzu” means compassion, and “chi,” relief.
