The purpose of this study was to investigate administrators' perceptions of their evaluations by school boards in larger Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) schools. Critical questions about the evaluation practices of ACSI schools were addressed. Through the use of survey methodology, 282 administrators in ACSI schools of over 400 students were asked to respond to 19 questions. The first question asked whether or not the administrator had been evaluated. The next two questions pertained to written policies and practices that define the administrator's evaluation. The remaining questions explored the nature and extent of evaluations that had been conducted. Answers to these questions provide information crucial to developing more effective practices for ACSI school board members to follow in the evaluation of chief administrators.This study produced seven major findings:1) Most larger ACSI schools (91.4%) had written job descriptions for the chief administrator.2) Most larger ACSI schools (60.2%) did not have a formal policy for evaluating the chief administrator.3) Most existing policies (67%) did not specify a procedure to be followed for evaluating a chief administrator.4) Most chief administrators in larger ACSI schools (61.3%) had been evaluated by their school boards.5) Most administrators (56.9%) reported that their evaluations were informal.6) Geographic location did not appear to have an effect on practices used for evaluating chief administrators.7) The chief administrator's length of time in the current position did not appear to have an effect on practices used for evaluating chief administrators.In general, results suggested a dissatisfaction with the present state of evaluation. ACSI schools were less likely than public schools to have formal policies in place to govern board evaluation of a chief administrator. Finally, ACSI school boards were less likely than public school boards to evaluate their chief administrators.Three recommendations evolved from this study:1) Further research needs to be conducted concerning administrator and board evaluation in larger ACSI schools.2) ACSI could play a key role in helping member schools improve in the area of board evaluation of the chief school administrator.3) Larger ACSI schools need to improve policy and practice in the area of administrator evaluation. / Department of Educational Leadership

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-85).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-85).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-85).

The purpose of this descriptive quantitative study was to analyze and compare the integration of faith and learning occurring in Christian schools accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and classical Christian schools accredited by the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS). ACSI represents the larger Christian school movement while ACCS represents the larger classical Christian school movement. The biblical metanarrative of the Christian faith - creation, fall, redemption, and consummation - set the biblical and theological framework for the integration of faith and learning in this study. A precedent literature review pointed to a gap in the literature base regarding the integration of faith and learning occurring between ACSI and ACCS schools. Essentially, the study sought to describe the degree to which accredited K-12 ACSI and ACCS schools integrate faith and learning and then compare the level of integration of faith and learning between ACSI and ACCS accredited schools. The research design for the study was a one-phase quantitative study utilizing both descriptive and inferential statistics. The research instrument was originally developed and used by Raquel Bouvert de Korniejczuk and later modified by Mark Eckel to determine the level of integration of faith and learning teachers are practicing in ACSI and ACCS schools. Overall, the data indicated teachers were practicing a high level of integration of faith and learning in their pedagogy in both ACSI and ACCS accredited schools. The data indicated that as the years taught at Christian schools and classical Christian schools increased the level of integration of faith and learning increased. Gender was not a factor in the level of integration of faith and learning. Teachers that did not attend a Christian school growing up self-reported a higher level of integration of faith and learning than teachers who did attend a Christian school growing up. Teachers, both in Christian schools and classical Christian schools, receiving training in the area of the integration of faith and learning indicated a higher overall level of integration of faith and learning. KEYWORDS: Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS), biblical worldview, Christian education, Christian school, classical Christian school, integration of faith and learning, Trivium

No description available.

The top leader of an organization influences the organizational culture, and the organizational culture influences the leader. Strategic thinking on the part of the leader is a result of organizational culture and/or will impact organizational culture. This qualitative study is a comparative multiple-case study that examines the relationship between leaders and organizational culture and what the leader’s strategic decision-making and organizational changes indicate about the relationship between leadership and organizational culture. The organizational context of private schools is used to better understand the dynamics between leadership and organizational culture. This study uses an interview protocol with CEOs of private schools, a macroculture in the United States, to solicit the leaders’ perspectives on their school’s organizational culture and their perspectives on the specific strategic decisions made by those leaders in the context of that organizational culture. This study focuses on six different schools in Virginia, all approved through accrediting procedures by the Virginia Council for Private Education -- a shared organizational context. Individual focal points for data collection and analysis include individual school websites, published school documents, and required accreditation documents as well as structured interviews with the CEOs of each school. This study examines the cycle of influence that the leader has on the organization through strategic thinking and the influence that the organizational culture has on the leader. Three findings expressed how the leader influences the organizational culture. There were also three findings on how the organizational culture influences the leaders. Two additional findings are on what change indicates about the relationship between the leader and the organizational culture. These findings reveal that a focus on relationships in the school, a willingness to target specific growth for the individual school, and goals that were expressed spiritually as well as academically are key to the leaders. The study also found that the school cultures identified strongly and positively with that of being a family, spiritual focus operationally distinguishes the school cultures, and spiritual identity is also expressed as the relationship the school has to church. Two findings were identified relating to strategic decisions and change; these findings were that evidence of change should be visible and explicit within the organization and organizational change relates directly to focus for growth from the leader. These findings from this study support the conclusions that 1) Christian school leaders have a direct influence on the values and direction of the school’s organizational culture; 2) the Christian school’s organizational identity has a direct influence on the focus of the leader, and 3) changes targeted in Christian schools reflect the focus of the leader on growth. Findings from this research suggest that organizational culture is highly contextualized and as a result strategic thinking and decision-making on the part of the leader are also highly contextualized. Contextualization increases as the leader seeks to grow the organization or to change the organization. Understanding contextualization that exists, and how organizational culture changes as strategic decisions are made by the leader, has implications for further research in effective leadership, effective change, strategic thinking, and growing effective organizational cultures including private and public institutions of higher education and public and private corporate institution.

In the western world the Protestant Christian Day School Movement is now a recognised element in education systems. It is a movement which has had phenomenal growth over the past twenty years and it continues to grow. Mostly, the parents of children who attend these schools were educated in a government school. This thesis seeks to find the reasons why parents are choosing Christian Schools and not government ones as they themselves attended. A variety of values are examined ; religious, academic and pastoral, and as the reader will discover, while it is not easy always to make a clear distinction between these values, some trends are so strong that the researcher believes that some valid conclusions may be drawn. A considerable amount of data was collected by the use of two surveys done at the Trinity Christian School at Wanniassa,and one survey conducted among parents of the O'Connor Christian School at Lyneham. The Biblical Values Survey provides an interesting over-view of the perceived achievement of a Christian School while the Choosing a School Survey clearly shows why these parents are dissatisfied with government schools and what they expect their child will gain from a Christian School experience. A computer analysis was done on one block of data which highlights the need for Christian School administrators to be aware of the various priority areas which do exist in the minds of the parents of their students.

The number of schools and education organizations founded by churches and religious communities increased a lot since 1990, when the political situation made it possible. The dissertation reveals if its increase has been stable, or if most of the secondary church education schools have arisen in three years period just after the Velvet Revolution. Then it states the main reasons for the church schools' popularity in our country. The dissertation aims to map the numbers of church schools, focusing at the secondary schools and its branch representation and compare their branch categories representation in the education system in Slovakia. Moreover, the Czech and foreign church educational organization are introduced. The dissertation is based on the historical development of church schools and describes its present position in the regional school system. The methodology of quantitative survey - content analysis is focused on the comparison between the Czech and Slovak Republic situation within the categories of secondary school education. To reach a better understanding of the issues, the situation in other EU countries has been outlined briefly.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the teaching practice in grade 12 Biblical Studies in private Christian schools in the Limpopo Province in South Africa during 2003, with the specific objective to make recommendations towards possible improvements. Although but a few private Christian schools in the Limpopo Province participated in the study, while the title implies that all the South African schools were involved, the findings are assumed to be a cross section of the general situation of grade 12 Biblical Studies teaching in South Africa, as teaching is more or less subjected to similar conditions in all the Provinces. This study consists of a theoretical section wherein literature regarding the variables of the study are discussed, as well as an empirical section wherein the results of the research are reported and interpreted with the aim of reaching certain conclusions regarding the typical profile of Biblical Studies teaching practice in the Limpopo Province. The theoretical basis is grounded in the didactical foundations of teaching as discussed in Chapter 2. This is followed by the empirical study (described in Chapter 3) grounded in the results obtained from classroom observations, questionnaires, interviews and the November 1996-2002 Biblical Studies grade 12 final examination of the four participating schools. Chapters 4 and 5 respectively evaluate and consolidate the findings from the classroom observations, the responses from the interviews and questionnaires, and the November 1996-2002 grade 12 Biblical Studies examination results. The main thesis on which this study rests is that the teaching practice of grade 12 Biblical Studies in private Christian schools during 2003 was unsatisfactory because of, inter alia, lack of work ethics, negative attitudes of both teachers and learners, lack of or insufficient application of didactical principles, teaching methods and teaching aids, low morale and insufficient or improper training of Biblical Studies teachers. The study revealed that the teaching of grade 12 Biblical Studies in private Christian schools during 2003 was indeed unsatisfactory because of lack of work ethics, negative attitude of both teachers and learners, lack of and insufficient application of didactical principles and a variety of teaching methods, low morale and improper training of some Biblical Studies teachers. The most aggravating factor was that teachers often did not even show up for Biblical Studies classes. Conclusively, it is therefore recommended that heads of departments and principals regularly monitor and evaluate the quality and quantity of Biblical Studies teaching in schools. The inspectors of schools may also support these forms of control by more regular inspection of schools, and more specifically, of the Biblical Studies classroom. Incentives and recognition of performance by both teachers and learners in the Biblical Studies classroom may be incorporated into these recommendations. / Thesis (M.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.