Are we measuring what matters? Can everything be measured? Should everything be measured?

What does it really mean to measure academic success in a Christian school? While data and benchmarks are everywhere, discerning which metrics genuinely drive meaningful growth is far from simple. At Hill Country Christian School, this ongoing quest sparked a bold initiative: the creation of an academic dashboard designed to illuminate not just statistics, but relationships among systems, programs, and purpose. In this post, Chief Academic Officer Sarah Novlan invites readers behind the scenes of building a tool that brings vision, alignment, and accountability to educational leadership. Discover how one school’s pursuit of clarity is helping chart a confident path ahead.

 These questions framed my first months as chief academic officer at Hill Country Christian School. Charged with creating a metric that illustrated the school’s overall academic state, I asked our academic team, “Can we identify everything that falls in the realm of academics, and do we understand how these components are connected?”  Ask a dozen schools everything that constitutes academics and the responses will vary. But in order to make strategic changes or even know if something should be changed, I wanted a framework to understand all of the interrelated levers of academics at our school. My end goal was clarity in our current status and confidence in the path ahead. 

Steve Bult, Head of School at Wheaton Academy, and Jennifer Lehman, President and CEO of Mission Advancement, will be leading a breakout session at the upcoming CESA Symposium this October in Charlotte, NC. Their presentation will explore generational shifts in fundraising, focusing on practical ways school leaders can adapt engagement strategies to thrive in today’s rapidly changing philanthropic landscape. Enjoy their insights into your advancement efforts.

With trillions of dollars changing hands annually, the Great Wealth Transfer is no longer a distant headline; it is here. Current projections suggest that by 2048, roughly $124 trillion will be passed on: $105 trillion to heirs and $18 trillion to charities. This unprecedented transfer of resources raises a pressing question for Christian schools and nonprofits alike: how will different generations, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, shape the future of philanthropy? And how can school leaders align their communication and donor engagement strategies to meet these evolving expectations?

We recently had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Chris Harmon, Head of School at Mount Pisgah Christian School, to gain his perspective on how he leads through the uncertainty that seems to be the new normal. We hope you will be inspired and encouraged by his wisdom as you lead the schools God has entrusted to you. 

Vision & Purpose

Most private independent schools in the United States collect data on their graduates, such as whether and where they attend college or how satisfied they were with their high school experience. And often graduates themselves will share stories about their school’s impact on their formation, which become treasured memories in the hearts of teachers as well as compelling accounts to put in front of prospective families. From these and other sources, educators know they make a difference in the lives of their students. But what do we know about the difference that certain types of schools—such as Protestant Christian schools—make as a whole? And can we gauge whether the Christian school sector delivers on the promises we make in our mission statements and portraits of a graduate?

Enter the Cardus Education Survey (CES), which was launched in 2011 and then repeated three more times in the US, as well as in Canada and Australia. This research marked a significant milestone for Christian education, offering a rigorous and detailed analysis of graduate outcomes that had previously been lacking and setting a new standard for insights into how faith-based schooling shapes lives. The data has been used by practitioners, policymakers, and thought leaders over the years in a variety of ways, such as in setting strategic improvement goals for a school, advocating for school choice at the state or national level, and even informing efforts to found a new educational association (CES data played an important role in the founding of CESA). As we unpack the 2024 findings for the Christian school sector, we will see how new data—specifically in the areas of graduates’ faith formation, academic preparation, and sense of belonging—can be used today.

If there’s anything that undermines my peace and threatens our hope as a local and national community, it’s election season.  Nothing can cause angst like being bombarded by media reminding you that this is “the most important election of our lives.” I am now old enough to remember the same media reminding us that at least the past three or four national election cycles have been “the most important of our lives.” It begs the question: if they’re all the most important, are any more important than others?

It’s pretty hard not to become anxious, to resist the urge not to think of our candidate (whoever “we” are) as the only logical choice, and that the other guy or gal is maybe not the Antichrist but could be that guy’s or gal’s close cousin. That’s how extreme our world is; this is the rhetoric we’re pummeled with by media, social, and otherwise. Who wouldn’t get a little nervous and be tempted to lose hope if you actually believed that this election was an existential crisis and that the future of your country, if not Western civilization as we know it, hangs in the balance of your vote? I wouldn’t even want to drive to the polling place downtown and try to find a parking place with that much pressure on me! But that’s what we’re led to believe. 

"I think people used to have more fun." This haunting insight from a teenager this spring has stayed with me. It perfectly encapsulates the growing concern many of us have about the pervasive influence of digital technology on our young people.

According to a Pew Research Center survey from December 2023, nearly one in three teens are "almost constantly" on social media. This trend underscores a critical issue: kids with developing brains and susceptible minds are among the most vulnerable online, and many digital products exploit this vulnerability. The average student today spends more time in the digital world than offline, which has profound implications for their spiritual, academic, physical, social, and emotional development.

In the early winter of 2023, our Board of Trustees gathered offsite for our annual retreat. Our primary task was to lay the groundwork for the school’s next strategic plan. As part of the process, a skilled facilitator asked board members to list off the most important threats and opportunities to the school that the plan should take into consideration. Artificial intelligence (AI) topped the list.

Our meeting was two months after the company Open AI released Chat GPT, a new technology in the field of Generative AI which is described as algorithms that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos. ChatGPT represented the most sophisticated (and the most human-like) artificial intelligence technology to date; even a cursory understanding of the technology would lead one to conclude that it would be a major disruption to the way we have historically conducted school, particularly in the realm of assessment. From that moment forward we were determined, with a healthy dose of circumspection, to understand what role this technology could play in our program for the benefit of our students, faculty, and staff.

Why didn’t anyone tell me? Ten years as a nonprofit executive, and I never understood the power of appreciated-asset donations. A huge part of my job was raising money and sharing the vision of what God was going through our ministry, but I didn’t understand this concept, which now tells me there was likely free money left on the table (that likely ended up going to the government instead of our nonprofit). I experienced amazing stories of generosity and impact and saw people live out sacrifice in ways I had only previously read stories about, but it wasn’t until relatively recently that I learned that some of my donors could have given significantly more, without digging any deeper into their pockets.  

Donating appreciated assets (assets that have increased in value) is one of the most tax-efficient and tax-saving ways to donate to non-profits like yours! 

The teacher shortage was on my mind more than normal coming out of the COVID pandemic. Front and center with the Vail Christian High School strategic plan were the words ‘Product Superiority’ with Goal #1 reading ‘Recruit, Retain, and Grow Top Faculty,’ and it was the right time to double down on our efforts to ‘retain and grow.’

As I thought about our strategic plan, our place in history, and the arc of my career, I found myself thinking even more about our veteran faculty. What do they need to remain in the profession? What unique professional development opportunities would help them grow? And maybe more importantly, is there a way to measure the correlation between their professional development and student achievement? I wanted to leverage what I had learned in my career and the great work happening in our peer schools, so we got to work.

The Proverb says, “Point your kids in the right direction, when they’re old they won’t be lost (MSG).”

I believe it is every parent’s desire to see their children to grow up with quality character, a conscience built on a strong foundation and with a clear motivation that moves in the direction of success. This is a noble and honorable goal and as educators it is our job to partner with parents in this task. In today’s culture, that goal can feel overwhelmingly scary and impossible. How do we partner with parents well in a world that is trying to influence their child’s identity? How do we partner with parents well in a world that is fiercely competing for their children’s hearts and minds through its ideological constructs? How do we partner with parents well in a world that is trying to over sexualize their children? How do we partner with parents well in a world gone completely mad?

If you’ve been in school world long enough, you’ve likely sat around a conference room table and contributed to a SWOT analysis. For the uninitiated, SWOT is an exercise used in strategic planning that helps leaders take stock of an organization’s current situation; it surfaces Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s usually conveyed in a 2x2 grid that looks like this:

Here in the United States, we’re feeling the warmer temperatures of May, and they hint at summer break. These weeks at the end of a school year move swiftly, swelling with activities and projects that culminate a year’s worth of learning. From musicals to conference play-offs to capstone trips, this season is indeed full, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. 

But what would it look like if we shifted our focus – and our school community’s focus – to our Maker and Sustainer? What if the celebration of our school’s and students’ accomplishments expanded to include celebrating the One who has made it all possible? What if every end-of-year event marked a time we could internally pause to acknowledge His goodness and steadfastness?

We can all feel it. When this time of year rolls around, we’ve passed the exciting and busy holiday season and entered the long stretch of winter. With shorter days, minimal sunlight, and colder weather across much of the United States, we can see and feel some of the challenges of this unique time of the year.

During these winter months, it is common to experience an increase in lethargy and discontentment. According to the American Psychiatric Association, more than 5% of adults in the United States experience Seasonal Affective Disorder during January and February each year (Torres, 2020). With many of our community members feeling less apt to engage in programming or events, it may seem logical to cancel every non-essential activity and coop ourselves up until spring arrives. Yet, we are called to be in community with others, not just in the good seasons of our lives (or on the calendar).

In 1869, a Swiss chemist named Friedrich Miescher inadvertently discovered a microscopic substance that we now know as DNA. Some 85 years later, the duo of James Watson and Francis Crick were able to map the structure of DNA, the building block for life. As any high school biology student can tell you, the structure of our DNA forms our make-up – how each of us is uniquely created.

Christian schools have DNA as well. But, in most cases, this DNA hasn't been "mapped." Leaders might have an understanding of their school's unique make-up, but they haven’t always intentionally and deliberately documented the components, and they almost certainly haven't measured it on a consistent basis.

About six years ago, I found myself speaking to a group of board members and seated heads of school at a conference in Baton Rouge, LA. The topic I was tasked with addressing was the relationship between a school’s stated mission and its resulting culture.  After spending over half an hour defining terms like mission and culture and community values, as well as referencing data from 3rd party sources and offering up a few defining examples of a mission shaping a culture (sort of thing), I shifted our focus toward collegial dialogue around the topic.  What ensued during that time has stayed with me to this day.  

Over and over, it became apparent that most board members in the room had little to no confidence in re-stating their particular school’s mission, often showing some discomfort even putting it into their own words.  However, their respective head of school often casually paraphrased the language of their mission, made ready application points, and effortlessly carried the conversation forward.  On the surface, this may strike us as simply par for the course, as one is in the seat of governance and the other in the seat of management.  Yet, when considering the potential impact this mission-meaning awareness might have on board/head relations, as well as their collective efforts to lead the greater school community with mission fidelity, it is clear that this disconnect warrants further pondering.

There is a common axiom, “You cannot give what you do not have.” And, if we’re honest, most of us these days don’t have much, if anything, left to give. 

We’re tired and stressed. Worn out to the core. The demands remain but our ability to respond doesn’t. Emotionally, mentally, even spiritually we’ve been left hanging by a thread. 

In the new post-pandemic world, nothing looks quite the same. Arguably, the greatest shift in our culture is our common understanding and language around biological sex. What is a man? What is a woman? Does gender impact learning? Three questions that have become increasingly dangerous to answer. In the world of academia, they are landmines quietly waiting to devastate a tenured career. Given the climate where gender relativism and toxic masculinity are king, our young men are paying the highest price. Have our boys been forgotten?

The History of Teaching Boys

Presently, industrialized educational systems have become hostile to the modern-day male learner. Before today’s schools educated the masses of society, boys learned necessary skills from invested parental figures (Gurian & Stevens, 2007). In small tribal communities or vocational apprenticeships, boys were equipped to be productive members of society with an inherent utilitarian drive to their learning. Gurian and Stevens (2007) explain, “Boys learned what they needed to know by hunting with their relatives, managing a farm, fixing machinery, or devising a new invention for everyone in their tribe to use–boys now find themselves in boxlike rooms” (p. 21). Rather than seeing an immediate need for the skills they are learning, boys now spend thirteen years progressing through a curriculum that does not immediately pertain to the success of their future lives. Educating kids through reading, writing, and sitting in one’s seat has become the “acceptable standard” within our schools (Gurian and Stevens, 2007, p. 21). These “acceptable standards” of educating our youth have created devastating consequences for young adolescent males. Around the world, boys take part in educational experiences that fail to support how their brains acquire new information effectively. Simply stated, modern educators are not adequately trained to teach the male brain. In turn, schools are quick to reward compliant behavior over authentic academic growth. These two practices increasingly marginalize male learners year after year.

Admissions in Times of Abundance…and Otherwise
Sarah Donovan, Senior Director of Advancement and Parent Relations
The First Academy, Orlando, Florida 

Enrollment. It rocks our independent school worlds. It’s the survival and sustainment of the school community, culture, and ultimately our calling to grow His Kingdom. And at the helm of this driving force: The Admissions process. 

Currently, Admissions teams are celebrating the fruits of an abundant enrollment season. Now more than ever, families are craving a strong, Christ-centered educational experience for their children and are willing to sacrifice for it. This, along with the movement of families from one state to the next, has equated to high demand and wait lists. Thus, this is the perfect moment in time to pause and reflect on the rise of the Admissions process:  What have we learned? and Where are we going in the future?

Introduction
Stable and predictable leadership is necessary for organizational growth¹, because consistent leadership over time has been found to increase student achievement when the head of school serves for more than five years². Despite studies indicating longevity is key, the average tenure for a head of school has remained steady at only six to seven years since first examined in the 1970s¹. A school’s financial stability, morale, and progress toward educational improvements is impacted when the head of school leaves; therefore, factors leading to turnover are paramount to inform board practices in finding and retaining quality leaders³.

In multiple studies, heads indicated the main factor for leaving a school, outside of retirement, was a broken, tense relationship with the board of trustees⁴. This strained relationship affects multiple aspects of the school system, and negatively impacts student learning⁵. Studies indicate the board and head of school are mutually responsible for building and maintaining a healthy, cohesive relationship⁶ in order to produce a quality educational program for the students and faculty within the system.

As we reflect on the past 15 months of schooling in a pandemic, it’s easy to recognize that our decision-making has had a markedly different cadence than in years past.  In some ways, we have been able to use the crisis to accelerate necessary change.  As one Head of School told me, “it would have taken 18 months, $150,000 in consulting fees, and I would have lost half of my faculty if I would have made these changes without the pressure of the pandemic”.  Christian schools have fared incredibly well in this regard. The laser focus on our missions, the high degree of trust that exists in our institutions, and the tenacity on the part of our administrators and faculty have allowed many of our schools to provide an exemplary education during these times, especially when compared to many of our competitors.

However, the intensity of the pandemic has also forced us to ask much, much more from our teachers and our staff; these godly men and women have delivered, working harder than they ever have, and doing so without the expectation of any increased compensation.  At the same time, we have asked our parents and students to be content with less.  Parents are unable to be in classrooms volunteering; the bleachers of our gymnasia and stadiums cannot be full of families supporting our student-athletes, and our arts performances have often been scaled down and the audiences streaming rather than standing room only.  It is that combination of asking more of our employees and delivering less to our families that is dangerous in the long term.