The Four Dimensions On Which To Evaluate Any School

When you go to evaluate a school – whether public, private, charter, or home school -- there are 3 basic dimensions on which to measure how well a particular school is doing. These are 4 broad areas on which to evaluate how effective a school is.

1.  Academic Literacy

This dimension measures how well a school actually teaches the subjects that it intends to teach – reading, writing, math, science, history, etc.  Not much needs to be said here.  Most parents look at this dimension first.

2.  Biblical Literacy

This dimension measures how well a school does at teaching the Christian worldview.  This should be the most important dimension.  If you disagree, please go back and re-read the biblical principles and the purpose of an education. 

3.  Cultural Literacy

How well does the school teach about our cultural heritage?  We are Americans.  Does the school teach "American exceptionalism"?  This is the idea that the United States occupies a special place in the world because we were founded on principles of freedom, liberty and God's law.  In my opinion, it should.  If it does not, you will need to evaluate why that is the case.

We also live in a culture based on Western civilization. Ronald Nash said in his book, The Closing of the American Heart, “The Christian church needs young people who have been exposed to the best of Western culture and who are able to interact thoughtfully and reflectively with the literature, history, philosophy, and science of that culture.” We need “Christians who have broad minds that have been sharpened to the point of usefulness.” Obviously, the elementary school doesn’t do all this but it should point students in the direction of being patriotic, thinking Americans rather than skeptics and cynics about our country and culture. The middle school and high school should do more.

4.  School Culture

This is the dimension that moms notice immediately. This dimension broadly asks: What is the school like? Is it a caring, safe environment? Are the students smiling? Do they enjoy being there? Do they seem to accept each other? How do the teachers treat the students? Do the teachers love being with children? Or is school a drudgery to teacher and student alike? What is the basic atmosphere of the school like?

Some schools will score well on some dimensions and less well on others.  For example, all public schools will, by definition, score poorly on the biblical worldview dimension.  Some private schools will score poorly on the academic literacy dimension.  You need to evaluate a school based on all four dimensions.