Jeffrey D. Potts, MEd, has served for the past decade at Faith Christian School in Grapevine, TX. The school, which exists to develop and graduate authentic Christian leaders, boasts an enrollment of 650 students.
All across suburban America, Christian school administrators can be heard touting the fact that their schools are not subject to the highstakes test environment brought forth by No Child Left Behind. While it may be true that there are advantages for schools that are exempt from the policy, one must ask what is being done to ensure that the determination of ongoing improvement in Christian schooling is based on student performance data. “Data-driven decision-making” is the indispensable basis for any school that seeks to improve student learning (Luce and Thompson 2005).
In many Christian schools, measuring student achievement simply consists of annually administering a standardized test, such as the Stanford 10, and filing the results in the students’ permanent files. Administrators point to the scores that are higher than national norms as being satisfactory. Scores that are one or more grade levels above average are often marketed to prospective families as evidence of a quality education. And while positive achievement scores may reflect a higher quality of education, they may be the result of admissions criteria as much as anything else.
When considering student performance data at a Christian school, it is important to note several advantages that Christian schools typically hold. First, most are relatively smaller in size then their public counterparts, thus affording administrators the opportunity to more easily manage the data and readily discern some broad-based trends. Secondly, faith-based schools are commonly more homogeneous than public schools, and they contain many of the key elements for successful school improvement. Factors such as high parental involvement, quality staff, and similar student demographics mean that data-driven decisions will be more easily implemented with quicker effects seen in student outcomes (Xu and Gulosino 2006).
Recent criticism of private education has focused on the shrinking gap in student performance between public and private school students. Critics maintain that private schools are doing less with better students while public schools are closing the gap in achievement scores (State schools offer better chance of improving than private 2008). Since Christian schools fail to lead in the field test data analysis, despite the many opportunities these schools offer, one must ask why. The answer may well be found in an examination of the administrator’s job description relative to the faculty. Many Christian school administrators struggle with the constant flux in staff retention. This, coupled with concern over the level of parent satisfaction with the teacher, places the school leader in a position of “faculty maintenance.” Therefore, the thought of insisting that teachers scrutinize test data, admit weaknesses, answer tough questions about student outcomes, and develop a plan is simply more than most administrators feel equipped to enforce.
Even if critics say that public schools are closing the gap, the question for Christian schools is bigger than competition with public schools. After all, admissions criteria will likely shield administrators from parental criticism regarding student performance. The real question related to test data is one of stewardship: What does the data say about a given Christian school, and how will it be translated into meaningful changes in the lives of God’s children? And for the school leader who simply cannot get past asking teachers to do one more task, why not consider the process an investment that will lead to staff pride, which can only translate into a measurable difference in the lives of students.
References
Luce, T., and L. Thompson. 2005. Do what works. Dallas, TX: Ascent Education Press.
State schools offer better chance of improving than private. 2008. Education (317): 2.
Xu, Z., and C. Gulosino. 2006. How does teacher quality matter? The effect of teacher-parent partnership on early childhood performance in public and private schools. Education Economics 14 (3): 345–67.
The Meantime Volume 8 Number 1