Handling the President’s Speech to Students

The controversy that raised around the speech to students during the school day by the President will likely make that speech one of the most watched, most listened to speeches he has made to date, and perhaps will make during whatever time he serves in office.  It’s all in the way it’s been handled.  I’ve read a lot of statements and comments on the internet in the past few days, many of them from students in schools which were not planning to show the speech, for one reason or another.  Students, particularly high school students, are sensitive to this kind of thing, and they can spot hypocrisy from a long distance away.  Most school age students, particularly those over middle school age, will listen to, or watch, this speech on their own, and as a result, will be left to draw their own conclusions.

The content of the speech itself is not a problem.  Released days before it was to be delivered, for most people it is not a matter of the content, but of who is delivering it.  Political polarization in this country has, sadly, made it impossible for the President of the United States to do anything without having one side or another attach political motivation to it and interpret it in that light.  Schools are looked upon as captive audiences, and parents, or at least those who are part of the polarized constituencies, look at everything through the lens of partisanship, their own motives as well as what they perceive from others. 

Sadly, the pressure to be politically correct caused some Christian school administrators to determine that the speech would be censored from their schools.  Perhaps they heard some shrill voices from influential parents, which, unfortunately, is often a decision making factor in Christian school communities.  Perhaps they could not stomach the thought of a politician they dislike, and disagree with, having an audience in their school classrooms.  Perhaps they just considered it another unnecessary disruption in a school day already filled with unnecessary disruptions.  Whatever the reason, you can bet that students in schools where the speech was not shown found a way to either read it, listen to it, or watch it at some later point.  In fact, I would venture to say that students at schools where a decision was made not to show the speech would probably be more likely to listen or watch it, and do so with more intention and interest than they would have done if it had been part of their classroom day. 

As a former civics/government/economics teacher in Christian and public school, presenting the whole scope of government debate, the politics, the arguments, the moral and ethical issues, and from a Christian perspective, how to integrate and apply Biblical principles, was always a classroom exercise.  Rather than shielding students from politics, and from views with which we may disagree, I always considered it a whole lot better to expose them and teach them how to apply critical thinking skills with a strong Christian philosophical basis, grounded in the teachings of scripture than it was to either silently ignore the issue, or try to censor it from the classroom.  I also found that it was a whole lot more effective to facilitate students in their own discovery of the Biblical principles and how they applied them than it was to simply lecture and spoon feed that material to them. 

In this particular case, nothing the President said was political or controversial, at least, that would be my own evaluation of the speech.  If they were able to watch it in your classroom, that means you were present, and you could have been a guiding influence in the evaluation process.  If they simply go watch or listen to it by themselves, on their IPod, or YouTube, they won’t necessarily have that. 

Telling your kids what to think, when it comes to politics, is not effective.  Teaching them how to apply Biblical truth to their thinking, and encouraging them to discover things on their own, with your guidance, may not guarantee that they will think exactly like you, or that they will always agree with you, but if they have to think through an issue, and they are taught how to apply Biblical principles to their thinking, they are put in a position of having to make a choice, based on the truth.

It’s August, and You Know What That Means!

The first day of school is just around the corner.

Take a few minutes to pray for your school, and its staff.  Christian schools are ministries, hopefully they see themselves as primarily discipleship ministries of local churches.  So pray for the people who work to operate them just like you would pray for the vocational ministers of your church. 

It also means that many teachers and school staff are involved in in-service.   The Kingdom Educator can do inservice presentations for your school in many areas.  Contact us by email at kingdomeducator@yahoo.com and see what we can do for you.  There’s a blog article in the archives here that lists the titles of sessions we offer, and our rates are very reasonable.  We want to work with you to get your staff trained and not be a strain on your school’s budget. 

We wish every Christian school student a great first day and a great year!  May the Lord bless you this year.

Looking For A Good Christian School? Here’s Some Help!

It’s that time of year. 

Parents begin looking for a place to put their children for the upcoming school year.  Can you believe it is 2009-2010, and that it is upon us in less than a month in some cases?  Wow, how time flies.

We’ve already received several emails asking questions about what to look for when choosing a Christian school from parents who are looking to either move their kids, or enroll them for the first time.  We have some questions you can ask, and what you should be looking for, if your desire is to place your children in an environment where they will be taught by Christians who share similar convictions and values with you, who proclaim Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord, and who understand that the primary way to integrate Biblical principles into the curriculum is to live them out in the classroom as an example. 

Here are the pertinent questions:

1.  Is your school affiliated with a church or denominational group? 

This will tell you how the school is governed, and from what Christian perspective the curriculum will be drawn.  You need to find a school that is compatible with what your family believes, and with what you want to teach your children.

2.  What qualifications do you look for in your teachers, and what requirements must they meet in order to be hired at your school?

If the only answer is that they must be state certified, keep looking.  Teachers should be qualified by being able to articulate a sense of calling by God to teaching as a ministry, should be able to give a testimony that includes knowing Christ as their savior and involves having a daily, growing walk with the Spirit, and they should be an active member of a local church that believes the Bible is the written, authoritative Word of God.  They should have at least a Bachelor’s degree in their teaching field, and exhibit enthusiasm for continuing education that helps them improve their teaching. 

In recent years, I have personally encountered Christian schools which require teachers coming from a public school background to take a course in Christian school philosophy and to earn either CEU credit or college hours in Bible courses.  These schools are not hard to find, and they will generally be the ones that will provide you with the Christian influence you are looking for.  State certification is simply a secular government stamp of approval on a government dictated course of study.  It has little to do with educational quality, since in most states, earning a C average and passing an exam with a minimum score of 70% is all that is required to get one. 

3.  May I have a copy of your curriculum guide?  May I look at the curriculum materials you use?

“Curriculum” is not some brand name product that a school buys.  Abeka or Bob Jones Press is not the school’s curriculum.  They are publishers of curriculum materials.  The curriculum is found in the course objectives for each grade level and subject area taught in the school.  These objectives should be written by the school’s administration and faculty in collaboration, and should reflect the school’s overall mission and purpose.  State mandated objectives may be used to form the basis for requirements in some courses, but the school should work to exceed those standards, and eliminate those elements that are not consistent with the school’s mission and purpose. 

If a school does choose to use a secular textbook, or a curriculum resource from a secular publisher, there should be a reasonable explanation for doing so, and supplements with Biblical material should be available for parents to observe.

4.  What are some of the things your school does to encourage its students in their Christian faith?

Making instruction in the Bible a requirement at each grade level is basic.  If the school doesn’t have a way to do this, move on down the road to the next one.  Opportunities during the week to worship together are also vital to the spiritual life of the school.  At the earliest possible age, students should be invited to share in worship leadership, and all students should be involved in worship at least on a weekly basis.  Check to see if the school involves its students in external ministry and missions opportunities in the community. 

5. When your students graduate from high school, where do they go to college? 

This will basically tell you about the academic quality of the school.  If students are able to get into a variety of colleges and universities, then the academic quality is generally good, regardless of the accreditation.  Most Christian school agencies provide their member schools with accreditation services approved through various state departments of education.  Avoid schools that have sought regional accreditation like SACS or North Central because they also provide accreditation for public schools, and their commissioners often want to challenge the Biblical and spiritual philosophy of the school.

6.  How much of your operating cost comes from tuition and fees? 

Unfortunately, most Christian schools these days, particularly those associated with evangelical and conservative churches, are tuition driven.  That limits the variety of economic and cultural backgrounds from which they can draw their students, because the higher the tuition, the wealthier the families who send their kids there must be.  In most cases, teachers and school employees are making at least an equal sacrifice with regard to their salaries and benefits in order to help tuition and fees stay low and competetive.  Some schools are becoming more creative with regard to their fund raising methods.  Regardless, once you choose a school, you need to be committed to helping financially support it, both out of your own pocket, and with effort you can make to help keep the costs as low as possible.

If you have questions, please email the Kingdom Educator at kingdomeducator@yahoo.com.  Include your name and the city where you live and we will respond as quickly as we can.

 

From our email at kingdomeducator@yahoo.com

You can email questions or comments to kingdomeducator@yahoo.com and we will give you a direct answer within 24 hours.  Some of the questions we receive, like those below, deal with topics that many families with children in Christian schools have in common. 

We are planning to enroll our two children, grades 6 and 3, in a Christian school in our neighborhood.  We’ve looked at several and are now thoroughly confused over the “alphabet soup” related to accreditation.  We’ve heard from one admissions counselor that it really doesn’t matter, and from another that a particular kind of accreditation is necessary if our kids want to have a choice of where they go to college.  We finally figured out all of that stuff where we used to live, and now we have a whole new and confusing tangle of issues to deal with.  How do we know what is legitimate, and what isn’t? Amanda K., Houston, Texas

Well, Amanda, is many places it isn’t easy.  But you live in Texas, and that’s easier than it is in some places.  The most important “alphabet soup” designation you need to know there is TEPSAC, which is somewhat of an acronym for Texas Private School Accreditation Commission.  They have a website, http://tepsac.org which is very helpful.  Basically, since the Texas Education Agency (TEA) got out of the private school accreditation business back in 1986, TEPSAC has been responsible for oversight of private schools.  It authorizes various school organizations to elect commissioners who, in turn, are responsible for granting accreditation to their member schools.  So to answer your question, simply find out which organization granted the accreditation to the school you are looking at, and then find out if it is a member of TEPSAC. 

Accreditation is not necessarily a sign of a quality education.  What it means is that the school which is accredited adheres to a specific set of standards related to its course content and instruction.  It mainly does two things for the schools, students and teachers involved.  First, it assures that coursework taken at an accredited school will transfer to another school without difficulty.  Second, in Texas, it allows teachers who work in private schools to count their years of experience toward salary steps and raises if they move to another school.  In Texas, TEPSAC, acting as an umbrella organization for private school accreditation commissions, allows Christian schools to have their course content and operating procedures evaluated by individuals who come from a background that understands their philosophy of education, their convictions and the integration of Biblical principles into the curriculum.  Though some Christian schools have opted to seek accreditation from SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, this is a secular agency that also accredits public schools.  That should tell you that their standards are neither any more thorough, nor higher, than those of the TEPSAC member organizations.  In fact, at The Kingdom Educator, we advise parents to give much closer scrutiny to the Biblical, spiritual element of Christian schools that have SACS accreditation before enrolling their children in them, since they are a secular body, and schools which engage in the accreditation process with them are submitting themselves to the evaluation and scrutiny of people who do not understand a Christian school educational philosophy, or who might not even be from a Christian background. 

Some Christian schools opt not to seek accreditation, but prefer to remain completely independent.  This does not necessarily mean that they are offering an inferior education.  If you check out where their graduates are admitted and attend college, and look at indicators of student achievement, you can tell a lot about the quality of education that takes place there.  Sometimes, graduates of unaccredited Christian schools do experience difficulty getting into a college, particularly if it is a state college where the admissions counselors are not familiar with the school, but there are ways around that.  In some cases, the local colleges and universities are aware of the school, having encountered former graduates.  And college admissions boards also look at other student achievements, including the SAT or ACT scores.  We are aware of several Christian schools in Texas who have arrangements with local colleges for dual credit courses that transfer, even if the student opts not to attend the college that is granting the credit. 

Outside of Texas, you can check with your state education agency office and find out how private, Christian schools are accredited in your state.

In-Service With the Kingdom Educator

How would you like to have the expertise and wisdom of an experienced Christian educator shared with the faculty, parents, and administration of your school through an in-service opportunity in the summer or fall, when school begins again?  The Kingdom Educator is available for in-service sessions, conferences and training opportunities with your school staff. 

Here’s the good news.

The Kingdom Educator is available at a much more reasonable cost than most professional speakers and conference leaders.  We realize that Christian schools operate on a tight budget.  We can arrange for you to have an expert in the field of Christian education for not much more than the cost of transportation, housing and meals, and a small stipend.  Depending on what part of the country you are in, this could result in tremendous savings for your school. 

What we offer is an experienced Christian educator, with a minimum of 15 years of experience in Christian school education, including both teaching and administrative experience, along with years of conference and instructional experience.  The topics that our speaker can address will help inspire and motivate your faculty and staff in their preparation for the school year, and you can also schedule evening sessions to include your parents.  The Kingdom Educator is flexible with regard to the schedule of sessions and conferences. 

Here’s a list of some of the basic seminars we offer:

Christian School Education 101:  Developing a Basic Philosophy of Christian Education

Integrating Biblical Principles Into Core Courses (separate sessions for Elementary, Middle and High School teachers if needed)

So, You’re Teaching in A Christian School:  Profile of a Christian School Educator

Christian School Philosophy for Parents

What Do You Mean, We Don’t Just Buy Our Curriculum From the Publisher?

Roundtable Discussions for Elementary, Middle School and High School Teachers

Accreditation, Certification and Legal Issues Affecting Christian Schools

Specific Seminars:

Essentials for High School Bible Curriculum, Essentials for Middle School Bible Curriculum, Essentials for Elementary School Bible Curriculum, Get the History Right!

Bible Studies for Teachers

The Kingdom Educator can make arrangements with some Christian school organizations to offer CEU credit for the courses taught.  Conferences and seminars can be tailored to meet your school’s specific needs with advance notice, and can be scheduled to fit a specific block of time during your busy in-service week. 

The schedule gets very crowded during August, so schedule your seminar or conference as soon as possible.  You can request a full information packet by emailing kingdomeducator@yahoo.com.  The packet includes biographical information on the speaker, outlines and descriptions of the seminars offered, and travel, housing and meal requirements.  Some conferences require the purchase of books or materials.  Book your conference today!

 

 

 

Essentials for High School Bible Curriculum: Re-posted

One of the biggest disappointments I ever faced as a high school Bible teacher in a Christian school was the consistent pressure, from parents and administrators who bowed to parental pressure, to “dumb down” the Bible curriculum in both middle school and high school. 

“It’s an extra class they have to take while their peers in public school get four electives, one each year,” was a standard whine.

“Bible class shouldn’t be academically oriented, it should be relational and fun,” was one that I had difficulty processing. 

“The kids get tired of having all of this stuff shoved down their throats,” was also a common complaint.

Then, tell me again why you have your kids in a Christian school?

These sorts of complaints, and administrator pressure to avoid anything whatsoever that might be controversial (impossible job, but you know what I mean) and to take it easy on the kids are weighed against evidence provided by research which shows that teenagers who are active in their church youth group during high school are leaving the church during their college years at a rate of more than 8 out of 10.  Some surveys show an even higher departure rate, and a “churched” percentage among the under 30 population of right around 6%. 

I’d be willing to lay odds and take bets (figuratively speaking, of course) that a big part of the reason for this is that teenagers are not prepared for the academic challenges to their faith that they face in college.  Those who don’t have a Christian school education have little or no ability to weather an intellectually based challenge to Christian beliefs and principles.  An hour, maybe an hour and a half of Bible study each week, built around banana splits and pizza nights doesn’t equip very many youth for Freshman Philosophy Seminar 101.  Cut and paste, mamby pamby Bible courses in Christian schools are like a straw fence against a fire. 

If parents are going to fork out $10,000 a year for four years of Christian high school, they should at least expect that their children will emerge from that school reasonably equipped to deal with the philosophical and moral challenges they will face in the immediate four years upon graduation.  The odds should at least be better than 2 out of 10. 

While it is not an absolute guarantee, Bible courses that focus a student on the reasoning behind the faith decisions they’ve made, ability to do exegesis of the scriptures, a solid foundation in apologetics, and comparative studies of Christianity’s claims versus those of other major world religions, and particularly the philosophies and methodologies of higher education that come from secular humanism, should be foundational.  Students should be reading books by authors like Josh McDowell, Bill Hybels, Lee Strobel, John MacArthur and other apologists, and they should also be reading books by secular humanists and the Jesus Seminar, and then making comparisons between what those people say, and what the scriptures teach.  They should understand church history, the modern missions movement, and they should be able to tell you about the evidence which supports the accuracy of the text of the New Testament.  They should be able to convey an understanding of the divinity and humanity of Christ, and explain the difference between a humanist worldview and a Christian one.  Everything they learn in Bible class should be one more step on a journey to an irrevocable decision to not only be a faithful believer in Christ, but to be well informed enough not to blandly accept arguments simply because they come from a professor in a college classroom.

One of the first emails I ever received from a former student who graduated and went to a well-known public university was a thank you for making Bible class “hard” enough to make her study to get a good grade.  This particular student encountered a professor in freshman philosophy who, on the first day, promised to refute anything remotely related to what he called “mythological religion,” which was essentially Christianity.  She responded back, day after day, with points that she had learned in my apologetics class, forcing him to look things up and discover that some of his theses had holes.  She did the same when she got into medical school, and was challenged by the professors there as well.  She emerged from both college and medical school with her faith intact, and with the respect of both her professors and her Christian classmates who hadn’t been as well equipped to speak up.

Don’t “dumb down” your Bible class.  It should be your school’s biggest academic, intellectual challenge.

For a good resource on this subject see Love Your God With All Your Mind, by J.P. Moreland.

Arizona Supreme Court Nullifies Voucher Program

http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9345&Itemid=53

The path to a voucher program for students who desire to use state money to attend a private, parochial school became more difficult in Arizona when the state supreme court ruled an existing program unconstitutional.  The program in Arizona provided money for students in special education programs and in foster care.  According to this article in the Texas Baptist Standard, the ruling will affect about 475 students.  They will continue to receive the vouchers through this school year.

It does not appear that the courts are going to allow any tax dollars to be provided to religious based private schools, including Christian schools, regardless of the method of delivery, or the purpose of the programs in which the students are involved.  Direct aid has pretty much been ruled out previously, this was a form of indirect aid, a grant that allowed students with special educational needs to opt for education in a Christian school, specifically to enroll in programs in those schools that public schools might not offer.  It also provided for foster children to attend a private school if they chose to do so.

It is difficult to translate taxpayer funds into a Christian school through a voucher system without touching on several sensitive areas.  First, though we tend to think in terms of these funds being “ours,” the fact of the matter is that when they are blended with the dollars of other taxpayers, they cease to be ours.  And even though schools which are taxpayer supported receive money from their local district, state and the federal government based on their enrollment, the money is not directly given to the students themselves, and the amount received is not based on the actual cost per student in that school district.   Vouchers exceed the amount that any individual taxpayer pays into the eductional system, so receiving a voucher, whether it goes to the student directly or to the school he attends, causes problems as far as the courts are concerned.

It does not appear that there has been much political support for this system from the outset.  Some politicians have given it lip service, but when it comes to actually writing and passing laws to enact legislation to put it in practice, not much has been done.  Most voucher programs carry regulations that restrict the school’s freedom in the area of Christian instruction and practice.  It appears that the judicial system, whether on the state or federal level, is increasingly moving to stop the practice.  Even conservative judges are nervous when it comes to this issue.  So is there something that can be done? 

The Kingdom Educator has a couple of suggestions.

1.  Allowing parents who home school their children or who send them to a private school, Christian or secular, to deduct the tuition and fees from their taxable income would be a start.  That does not involve money changing hands, the expense is verifiable, and it is not money that is, at least technically, invested in something with a profitable return from a strictly financial perspective.  This doesn’t violate any constitutional principle that I can see, since everyone would be entitled to deduct all educational expenses from their income.

2.  Allow individual taxpayers to designate a school to which their educational tax money would go.  That also does not violate any constitutional principle, since those who would rather that their money not go to support a Christian school would not be compelled to do so.  Parents with children in Christian schools could designate their educational property tax to the school their children attended, and while that would not pay their full tuition and fees, businesses and individuals who are supportive of Christian education in their community could also designate, and that would make a big difference. 

Let’s fast and pray for some creativity with this, so that Kingdom Education can be about the Kingdom, and not on fighting the courts and the legislature for money, or warding off the strings they want to attach.

Good Words From Dr. Morris Chapman, Executive Director of the Southern Baptist Convention

A Christian school in every Baptist association across the SBC would be a great thing.  Even greater would be if every school would have a means of being funded in such a way as to not be a tuition burden to families who desiret to take advantage of it.

http://www.sbc.net/redirect.asp?ci=953&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmorrischapman%2Ecom%2Farticle%2Easp%3Fid%3D76

The Political Front: Advocating for Christian Schools

The Kingdom Educator utilizes a number of sources to keep up with what is happening regarding Christian schools and the various laws and regulations that affect them.  We’ve discovered the same thing that many of our sources have discovered–that it is sometimes difficult and frustrating to keep up with everything, and that things can change in a heartbeat.  But if you are a parent with children in a Christian school, or a teacher or administrator, or even a staff member of a Christian school, you need to become an advocate for anything that leads to the complete independence and freedom of your school to function as a discipleship ministry of Christ’s church. 

As a Christian educator, it is my personal belief that parents are held accountable by God for the training of their children.  It is the job of any Christian school to help them if they choose to utilize that particular tool to assist them in their responsibility.  The school, therefore, must be able to do their best job, under the authority of the Holy Spirit, and by the written Word of God, and in order to do that, it must be able to make decisions, build a curriculum, find teachers and administrators, and perform its responsibility without the interference of the state. 

So how can you help?

First of all, monitor websites and read through the newsletters and information that comes from the Christian school organization to which your school belongs.  Most of them have people who serve either as lobbyists or who keep an eye on the legislative situation that affects Christian schools and they will alert you if there is a problem.  Many times, writing to your elected representatives will give them a perspective they didn’t have before, and it does not take many letters from constituence to influence them.  Most political decisions affecting schools are made on the state level, so a dozen letters from parents and teachers in a particular school may have a positive effect. 

Second, when the opportunity arises for you to be an advocate for your school, step up.  It may be speaking to community leaders in clubs or other gatherings, in your church, or simply volunteering some time when you have it available.  You never know who might be listening to you.  At the very least, you might encourage another family to try your school.  

Those of you who live in states where Christian schools have a lot of freedom need to work to keep things that way.  We have always felt that academic excellence is the ticket to freedom and it should also be the byproduct of educational ministry that is striving to honor Christ and serve the Lord.  Stay aware and alert, and help keep your school free from encroachment and regulation by the state by not giving them a reason to be concerned about what is happening in your school. 

Though the situation can change in a heartbeat, there does not appear to be anything particularly threatening going on at the moment.  The California situation with regard to the requirements to make home school parents get state credentials is being monitored closely, and you can read about it with several sources.  Just google it on line and you can get a clear picture.  The President has exercised his freedom of educational choice in sending his daughters to a private, parochial school that integrates religious values into its curriculum. 

We would advise Christian school administrators and parents to be wary of voucher programs that may seem harmless enough, or even helpful, but which place limitations and restrictions on the religious aspects of a school.  Government money never comes without strings attached.  Sometimes, discoveries of onerous rules and regulations are not made until the money has been accepted and spent, and it is too late to do anything. 

Stay the course.  A Christian school education is well worth the time, effort and money you and your child will invest in it, and it is an investment.

An Alarming Trend or Salt and Light?

Accreditation is always an issue that causes parents and Christian educators to raise questions.  Most parents need to have the process, and the rationale behind it, explained to them.  They are particularly interested in how it will affect their child’s education and in a Christian school environment, where most of them are seeking an education that is directed by the values of Christian faith and practice, they want to know how that is affected by the process.

It is really relatively simple.  Accreditation is the process most state education departments use to establish the validity of the curriculum and the quality of classroom instruction of the schools their state.  The process varies by state, in terms of curriculum guidelines and accreditation standards.  And since state departments of education generally do not have enough staff members to conduct the accreditation visits to every school in their jurisdiction, they commission agencies made up of educators themselves, mostly from the school systems within the state, to do the job of seeing that schools are meeting the minimum requirements.  In a nutshell, that’s accreditation.

In most states, private, parochial and Christian schools are not required to submit to the accreditation process.  However, accreditation can have an effect on the ability of a student to transfer, and it can also affect whether or not graduates of a particular school are admitted to colleges and universities, and under what conditions.  As a result, most Christian schools do seek accreditation through an agency with a state commission.  That is where Christian schools can run into difficulty.

Some states allow private accreditation agencies to be commissioned to grant accreditation, including Christian school organizations.  The Kingdom Educator highly recommends this process if it is available to you.  It is certainly to your distinct advantage to have Christian educators who operate from a Christian philosophy of education to be going through your records, reviewing your teacher and administrator credentials, and analyzing and evaluating your curriculum which has hopefully been completely integrated with the principles of scripture in proper application.  Using a Christian agency is in no way an “inferior” brand of accreditation because the same commission granted to the Christian agency is also granted to the secular agency that accredits public schools. 

In the past few years, we have encountered some Christian schools which have achieved accreditation through their own agencies also seeking accreditation from one of the six regional accreditation agencies that provide this service to public schools.  In places where this is a requirement, Christian schools must struggle with the decision whether to seek accreditation or not, to avoid compromising their standards, educational quality, and above all, their Christian philosophy of education.  Obviously a secular accreditation agency with the primary responsibility to provide accreditation measurement for public schools is not going to recognize the integration of Biblical principles into course content.  Some schools have opted to remain unaccredited, and have found other means of getting their students into the colleges and universities they wish to attend such as linking up to early college credit programs or building a direct relationship with college admissions counselors.  Others seek the accreditation and then work to keep up their guard over the things in their curriculum that they won’t compromise.

If you are, however, in a state that allows you to choose from among several private, Christian school accreditation commissions, exercise your option!  NCA-CASI or SACS-CASI or one of the other regional accrediting agencies does not provide a “better quality” accreditation, nor do they provide some kind of higher standard or seal of approval.  If you look at their websites, and explore where their board members and advisors come from, you will find that they are completely immersed in a secular educational philosophy that is obviously not grounded in, nor compatible with, Christian educational philosophy.  Having individuals who come from this kind of educational background placed in oversight of your curriculum and your school operations doesn’t make sense, especially when you have the ability to seek accreditation from an agency that recognizes and celebrates your Christian values. 

If you are a parent who is taking a look at Christian education as an option for your child, you need to make a close investigation of Christian schools that wear the accreditation label of one of these six regional agencies.  They include the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCA), Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS), Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSASC), New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAS) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).  Check to see if this kind of accreditation is dictated by your state, or whether a Christian school has an alternative option, and thoroughly investigate the school’s educational philosophy. 

Accreditation is not the final standard by which a Christian school’s educational quality or philosophy is measured.  You will find that the Christian schools who insist on maintaining Biblical standards and Christian philosophy regardless of what the state requires for accreditation are the best ones for your child.  Do your homework.  You can email kingdomeducator@yahoo.com if you have questions.