School Accreditation

1. The School confesses and incorporates a commitment to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in all aspects of its educational mission as it is taught and confessed in the inspired sacred Scriptures and the confessional writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
   1. This faith commitment is explicitly articulated in the school’s charter as expressed in the constitution and bylaws of the sponsoring congregation or governing body.
   2. This faith commitment shapes – and is reflected in – the school’s faculty, staff, instructional program, educational philosophy, and worship life.
      1. Faculty and Staff confess and reflect this commitment in their personal faith, worship life, and professional service to the school.
      2. A Lutheran, Christian world-view shapes, integrates and unites, the instructional programs of the school – its courses of study, educational resources, and priorities.
      3. Catechesis – teaching of the faith with confession and prayer – is central in the instructional life of the school on all grade levels in accord with the school’s confessional commitment.
      4. Worship life uses and teaches the historic forms of liturgy and hymnody as they express and convey the gifts of the pure Gospel in Word and Sacrament.
2. The school demonstrates a commitment to a classical approach to curriculum and instruction within the framework of its confessional, Lutheran character.
   1. The school’s curriculum and instruction is shaped on all levels by a pedagogy that nurtures the basic language skills – grammar, logic, rhetoric – to progressively equip learners to carry out successfully their own inquiries into what is true, good, and beautiful.
      1. These skills are taught and exemplified by instructional strategies that are informed and shaped by levels of student intellectual maturity and aptitude – grammar in the lower grades; logic, and rhetoric added at learning-appropriate higher grades levels.
      2. All faculty and staff are committed to the classical approach in education and exhibit an enthusiastic willingness to grow in their understanding, skills, and appreciation of this approach to pedagogy.
      3. Each member of the faculty demonstrates being an enthusiastic ongoing learner in their assigned teaching areas of responsibility in and out of the classroom.
      4. The school’s governance possesses and implements ways and means for the continuing education of its staff in the classical approach – appropriate to the levels of the school’s educational program.
   2. The scope and sequence of the schools curricular and co-curricular programs are normed by the goal to raise up a virtuous, educated person for heavenly and earthly citizenship – the life of faith in Christ and loving service to neighbor in the offices of one’s vocation.
      1. The courses of study to be mastered by students are shaped by the significant fund of information to be passed on to the next generation for responsible citizenship in the Church and world.
      2. The basic subject areas of English language skills (reading, spelling, vocabulary, and writing), Latin, mathematics, history, science, geography, literature, music, art, physical education, and theology form the primary courses of study on all elementary levels of instruction.
      3. The higher language skills of dialectical thinking and analysis, and then later, rhetorical uses of language (written and oral) are exemplified by instructors on all levels but then, integrated into strategies for student mastery in the higher grades 7-12.
      4. Instruction in Latin, even in the early grades, is integrated into the strategies of teaching linguistic grammar and syntax and serves as a foundation for increased mastery of English and other foreign languages.
      5. The upper grades instructional program (grades 7-12) will reflect an increasingly sophisticated exposure and mastery of the primary resources of the literature of the Western Canon (The Great Books) that are age appropriate.
3. The school’s institutional governance establishes and expresses clearly articulated rules, regulations, and responsibilities that are in harmony with God’s revealed orders of creation – for students, parents, and school staff.
   1. The school has written faculty, parent, and student policy manuals and has secured appropriate commitments.
   2. Staff, parents, and students give ample evidence to their knowledge and compliance of the school’s policies for conduct and responsibilities.
4. A regular evaluative strategy is in place to continually evaluate all aspects of the school’s performance in light of its confessional commitments with established ways and means to implement improvement.

Adopted unanimously by the Board of Directors of the CCLE on 27 April 2006

Revised: 29 January 2010