Last week at a Christian school, this incredible new building opened! Click here for a fly through filmed by students using a drone. What a privilege it was to be there the month before as students started to use the facility for the first time! God truly blessed the vision of Stephen Harris at Northern Beaches Christian Academy. Teaching and … Read More
The Real Value of Retention
This past summer, I gave a presentation at a school leadership conference on creating a culture of retention at the organizations we work. In determining where I wanted to go in the conversation I found a number of great quotes on the value of retention. Amy Gallo, in the Harvard Business Review (Oct. 2014) said, “depending on which study you … Read More
The Teacher – Student Intersection
It is safe to say that the 2015-16 school year has begun in most schools across North America. In several of the Midwest states, legislation was passed to move back the first day of school. Iowa legislators decided that August 23 is the first day that schools may officially begin. The City of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, allowed citizens to … Read More
Working to Keep the Students We Have
Increased competition within the schooling marketplace, combined with the shifting priorities of a new generation of parents, has rendered the fortunes of independent and parochial schools more uncertain than ever before. As we have noted here previously, as of just two years ago, private schools enrolled more than 10% fewer students than in 2000. And within that overall enrollment decline … Read More
Encouraging a Different Narrative
“I’m glad we don’t have to raise our kids in that culture” was the comment of the educator I was having breakfast with at a café in early August. Any guesses where I was eating breakfast and what culture the educator was referring to? Recently I had the opportunity to work with two international Christian schools, one in Nepal and … Read More
Effective Christian Leadership: Strategic Planning
I was fairly young and had just become the headmaster of a small Christian school. I knew that the school had been operating with an interim headmaster, that enrollment had drastically declined over the previous couple of years, that they had recently gone through a major shift in identity, that resources were very limited, and that a desired plan for … Read More
How Do Schools Get Better? (Part 7)
Doing the right thing…knowing the right thing to do. This is a question that we ask ourselves everyday as school leaders. Richard Elmore, professor of Educational Leadership at Harvard University, published a paper with this title through the NGA Center for Best Practices (can be found here). He offers suggestions and practical advice on how schools can get better. After … Read More
What makes an education ‘Christian’?
“This article originally appeared in the August 10, 2015 issue of Christian Courier, an independent Christian bi-weekly newspaper (christiancourier.ca).” Does hiring Christian teachers and administrators automatically yield a Christian education? Well-meaning and sincere Christians have taken very different approaches to Christian education and scholarship. What follows are six examples. The first approach is to proceed as if there is not … Read More
Praying to be Still
God says, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) My lack of stillness comes from trying to be God. I multi-task, stay digitally connected, keep up with news/sports/entertainment, track my steps and sleep hours — it’s like I’m trying not to disappoint my cell phone. But God reminds me the position of ‘Lord of My Life’ has … Read More
The Intersection of Lament and Hope
One of the great things about working in education is experiencing first hand the excitement of a new school year. Yes, I know not everyone is enthusiastic about summer’s end, but generally speaking, the buzz of a new year and a fresh start is invigorating. For some however, many events of this past summer cast a dim shadow on the … Read More