Academics

Academic Excellence
In Colossians chapter 3 the apostle Paul writes, “Whatever you do whether in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus… and whatever you do work at it with your whole heart as work done to please God, not to please men.” God is not pleased with mediocrity. It is not enough for a school to be content with providing a safe and healthy environment. A Christian school needs to strive for excellence in all things whether it is training a child intellectually, emotionally, physically, morally or spiritually. To compromise in any of these areas is to fall short of the mark.

Recent studies show that students enrolled in ACSI member schools generally score 1.5 to 2 grade level equivalents above their counterparts in public schools on national standardized tests. This is a strong testimony to the success that Christian schools are currently experiencing, but is it enough? As mentioned before one of the keys to student success in school, is a stable, nurturing home life. Students in Christian schools, on average, come from more stable homes and therefore it is not surprising that they demonstrate better student performance. Is this enough to account for the strong disparity is test scores between public and private education? Are there other advantages of private Christian school education?

As students climb the ladder of cognitive development as described by Piaget, they need to grow in areas of self-discipline, initiative, creativity and work ethic as well. The strength of these attributes in any individual is usually driven by a sense of ownership and maturity. This maintains the balance between the intellectual development and emotional development. Each individual matures emotionally and intellectually at a unique rate, however this does not mean that the growth can not be accelerated. The acceleration of this growth is strongly tied to the individual’s spiritual development.
“Academic excellence must not be construed only to mean producing future collegians or to have all students test two years above national norms. If we truly believe that each child is individually gifted by God, then academic excellence will be defined as a program which helps each child reach his individual maximum, which may or may not be two years above national norms.” (Philosophy of Christian Schools, ACSI) Academic excellence will be measured by how a student is stretched and challenged to the highest potential, while at the same time directed toward recognition of personal giftedness. The mission of the Christian school is to provide a high quality academic program that assists young men and women toward a balance of rigorous intellectual competence, healthy personal development, and strong Christian commitments. Studies show that the number one desire of parents is to have their child attend a school where they feel comfortable and happy. However, this is not our intent, for even though we desire that each child discover what it means to know happiness and peace, we know that this is accomplished by stretching and challenging them and in fact making them feel very uncomfortable.

Christus Primatum Tenens
Roughly translated the phrase Christus Primatum Tenens means “Christ first always”. This reminds us of the words of Paul in the letter to Philippians 1 when he wrote “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” To Paul, Christ was and is everything. Regardless of our life pursuit Christ is preeminent. In Christ everything else finds meaning. There is a strong connection between these words and what Paul wrote later in Philippians 4, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, what ever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on these things”. In Christ we come to know what is right, what is true, what is praiseworthy, what is excellent.

Imagine the importance of putting Christ first in everything and how it applies to “training a child in the way that he should go”. It all begins with the Lordship of Christ. How do we begin training a child to obey parents and teachers if we do not first establish the importance of obedience to God? In the same respect excellence in education is all about Christ. Would Christ have us be only mediocre? If Christian school students are improperly trained either to meet the demands of higher education or to contribute to society, would it be honoring to God?

Spiritual Nurturing
The Christian school is an arm of both the church and Christian home. As such, implied in its mission is the desire to see each student come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. However, the Christian school provides a special role in the spiritual growth and discipleship of the student as well. With Biblical integration across the curriculum students are provided with an opportunity to grow in their depth of understanding of their personal faith and development of a Christian world view.

Although students may come to know Christ by what they hear and learn in the classroom, the objectives of the classroom are not primarily evangelistic, but instead educational. Educational objectives are measurable and personal faith in Christ (a true heart felt commitment) is something the church or Christian educator refrains from attempting to measure. In the Christian school classroom, whether the child is a Christian or non-Christian the educational objective is the same. The goal is to take the student down a path to discovering what it means to be a Christian, to grow in knowledge and skill, to develop a Christian world view, and to adopt habits and lifestyle that are consistent with this world view. For the non-Christian student it is a journey of exploration that hopefully will lead to a moment of conversion, but in the very least will provide the student with Biblically sound life skills, that will encourage him to become a positive contributor to society. For the Christian student it is a journey of discipleship and spiritual growth that will leave the student thoroughly equipped to not only serve society with knowledge and skill, but to live as salt and light in a darkened world that needs a savior.

Standardized Test Scores

This chart shows the average percentile rankings for Rancho Christian School given in April of 2009. Remember, percentile does not mean percentage. Percentile is the ranking of the individual across a normal population. The average percentile for a standard population is the 50th percentile. The percentiles above show the average ranking for RCS students in the three major core areas of Reading, Math and Language, with an across grade average of 73.6, 78.2 and 75 respectively. The average percentile for RCS students for the complete battery of tests is 73.3. This means that RCS students on average score 23 percentile rankings higher than the average and on average they are performing better than 73 percent of a standard population of students.

Some interesting things to note is that although RCS students generally score fairly consistently, there is the occasional anomaly, such as the lower reading scores and language scores for grade 7. Even though these scores are low for the normal RCS population, this student group still had a complete battery score average of 67th percentile which places them well above the national average. At the same time we note that grades 6-9 have an average Total Math percentile of 85. This means that on average out middle school and high school students are scoring in the top 15 percent nationally.

If you would like to know more about SAT10 scores and more specifically how to read your child’s SAT10 score, we would be happy to meet with you individually or you may attend the SAT10 for parents workshops this summer (details coming soon).