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Academic rigor in Christian schools: The academic effect of Bible courses and integration of faith and learning in secondary education
Abstract
This study analyzes the correlation between required years of Bible courses and academic rigor at select private Christian schools. These findings, derived from the author’s doctoral research, show a threshold of under 4 years of required Bible courses for optimal academic perception among these schools. This threshold correlates with a medium to strong effect size and demonstrates a tension between academic strength and integration of faith and learning. This finding calls attention to Christian schools’ need to examine their priorities as both Christian and academic institutions. Theological and practical implications include extensions of the doctrine of sovereignty and curricular design.
... Furthermore, Jeynes (2008) explored the connection between Bible literacy among secondary school students and academic achievements, revealing that higher Bible literacy correlates with higher grade point averages (GPAs) and better school behavior. Thus, the complex relationship between integrating faith and learning into the school curriculum can enhance academic rigor when done judiciously and purposefully (Horner, 2019). Besides, Bible courses do not necessarily hinder performance on standardized tests and may, in fact, improve students' skills, depending on various academic variables (Horner, 2019 ...
... Thus, the complex relationship between integrating faith and learning into the school curriculum can enhance academic rigor when done judiciously and purposefully (Horner, 2019). Besides, Bible courses do not necessarily hinder performance on standardized tests and may, in fact, improve students' skills, depending on various academic variables (Horner, 2019 ...
Recently, there has been an increasing interest in studying figurative language, not only in literary works but also in the Bible. However, while most studies have focused on the Books of Psalms, little attention has been paid to the Book of Proverbs. Therefore, this study aimed to review the Book of Proverbs by identifying the different figures of speech and understanding the underlying values within these figures of speech in relation to students' academic journeys or pursuits. Using qualitative content analysis, the researchers identified 40 figurative languages, and they were classified into ten different figures of speech. Furthermore, the values found in the Book of Proverbs reflect guiding principles, reminding students that amidst the challenges of learning, it is crucial to persevere until the goal is achieved. Thus, since the Book of Proverbs magnifies the desired values that God wants people to observe, students or anyone who is in their academic pursuits can consider it a gigantic mirror that reflects relatable insights, stories, and experiences.
DISCUSSION ABOUT THE integration of faith and learning has become a common theme among Christian colleges and universities. Although it has fostered a robust academic dialogue, I contend the language of “integration of faith and learning” needs to be discarded. My conclusion, however, stems not from recent critiques of the integration model. Instead, I am more concerned with the habits of thinking that the language fosters than with the overall integration model (which I will largely defend). I will suggest and defend an alternative language that captures the important theological mission of Christian scholars and retains and expands a basic integration paradigm, while also directly addressing some recent critiques.
The decision-making process of academically talented students when making the transition to college is complex. This study investigates the factors that contribute to the selectivity of the colleges by Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate students for application. A multilevel model was created to find which college-level and student-level variables were associated with college selectivity. This study found that students selected colleges with higher mean SAT scores when prestige of the college was the reason, the students had higher achievement, and the college was farther away. Academic self-concept and perceived challenge of their high school curriculum had no effect on the college selectivity. These findings have implications for high school administrators and college admissions offices.
The Advanced Placement Program is growing at a striking rate in US high schools and at the same time being abandoned by high‐status schools. This paper explores the history of the Advanced Placement Program, from its roots in the 1950s as a programme for challenging high‐achieving students at high‐status schools, through its equity‐motivated expansion in the latter decades of the 20 century, up to the present as it faces threats to its credibility and prestige. In so doing, it also explores the difficulty of combating inequality with school reform, particularly in light of continuing moves by privileged groups to gain a measure of distinction. In the case of the Advanced Placement Program, a greater push for equity has, ironically, incited a reaction that may, in the end, result in greater inequity.
Identifying what commonalities exist in high schools where students consistently outperform other demographically similar students is of particular interest to administrators and practitioners looking to increase graduation rates among all students. Schools that particularly improve the performance of students with special needs and those from diverse backgrounds have become a top priority in recent years. For this study, a set of schools whose students consistently performed better than a demographically similar set of schools was identified and compared. The study employed a multiple case study methodology, with interview and document collection in each of the fifteen schools. Findings suggest that four interrelated practices distinguish higher-performing schools from their average performing counterparts. These practices are a well-defined and enacted focus on rigor, capacities to innovate, open and transparent communication within the school and with the broader community, and the willingness and capability to use a variety of evidence to make strategic decisions.
The inevitable responses to high stakes testing, wherein students’ test scores are highly consequential for teachers and administrators, include cheating, excessive test preparation, changes in test scoring and other forms of gaming to ensure that test scores appear high. Over the last decade this has been demonstrated convincingly in the USA, but examples in Great Britain abound. Yet the most pernicious response to high stakes testing is perhaps the most rational, namely, curriculum narrowing. In this way more of what is believed to be on the test is taught. Curriculum narrowing, however, reduces many students’ chances of being thought talented in school and results in a restriction in the creative and enjoyable activities engaged in by teachers and students. The tests commonly used with narrower curricula also appear to restrict thinking skills. In addition, responses to high stakes environments can easily retard the development of achievement in later grades as a function of the restrictions on learning in earlier grades. Finally, narrowing compromises interpretations of construct validity. The dominance of testing as part of American and British school reform policies insures that many of the skills thought to be most useful in the twenty-first century will not be taught. Thus students and their national economies will suffer when nations rely too heavily on high stakes testing to improve their schools.
Content analysis is a widely used qualitative research technique. Rather than being a single method, current applications of content analysis show three distinct approaches: conventional, directed, or summative. All three approaches are used to interpret meaning from the content of text data and, hence, adhere to the naturalistic paradigm. The major differences among the approaches are coding schemes, origins of codes, and threats to trustworthiness. In conventional content analysis, coding categories are derived directly from the text data. With a directed approach, analysis starts with a theory or relevant research findings as guidance for initial codes. A summative content analysis involves counting and comparisons, usually of keywords or content, followed by the interpretation of the underlying context. The authors delineate analytic procedures specific to each approach and techniques addressing trustworthiness with hypothetical examples drawn from the area of end-of-life care.
THE LANGUAGE OF “faith-learning integration” remains popular among evangelical educators in both K-12 and higher education. Some observers suggest for theological and educational reasons that Christan educators replace integration language with other language. Even its advocates do not agree on what would count as integration. This article suggests that both the concept-conception distinction and W. B. Gallie's category of an essentially contested concept shed light on the phrase. If faith-learning integration is an essentially contested concept, or is a concept subject to conception-building, then Christian educators may never agree on what counts as a paradigm case.
The authors sought to better understand the relationship between students participating in the Advanced Placement (AP) program and subsequent performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Focusing on students graduating from U.S. public high schools in 2010, the authors used propensity scores to match junior year AP examinees in 3 subjects to similar students who did not take any AP exams in high school. Multilevel regression models with these matched samples demonstrate a mostly positive relationship between AP exam participation and senior year SAT performance, particularly for students who score a 3 or higher. Students who enter into the AP year with relatively lower initial achievement are predicted to perform slightly better on later SAT tests than students with similar initial achievement who do not participate in AP.
This phenomenological investigation examined how eight student-nominated faculty who teach at an evangelical Christian liberal arts university describe their understanding and practice of the Integration of Faith and Learning (IFL). Collected data via informal, conversational, taped interviews led to the emergence of two primary themes: the Inseparability of Faith from Practice and the Outworking of Faith in Practice. The findings of the study highlight the need to create a more conducive context in which students can learn IFL and call for a re-examination of the already murky discourse surrounding definitional aspects of IFL. The study proposes to move the discourse forward by offering a new, yet to be discussed construct that emanated from the participants of this study, ontological foundation. A conceptual model describing its relationship with IFL is proposed.
High levels of religiosity have been linked to lower levels of intelligence in a number of recent studies. These results have generated both controversy and theoretical interest. Here in a large sample of US adults we address several issues that restricted the generalizability of these previous results. We measured six dimensions of religiosity (rather than just one or two), along with a multi-scale instrument to assess general intelligence. We also controlled for the influence of the personality trait openness on facets of religious belief and practice. The results indicated that lower intelligence is most strongly associated with higher levels of fundamentalism, but also modestly predicts central components of religiosity such as a sense of religious identification and private religious practice. Secondly, we found that a higher level of openness – often assumed to lead to lower religiosity – is weakly associated with reduced fundamentalism but with increased religious mindfulness, private religious practice, religious support, and spirituality. These new results provide a framework for understanding the links between reasoning and faith.
An analysis of the ubiquitous but taken-for-granted term “rigorous academic curriculum” reveals that by definition it is not an academically rigorous term. The term contains multiple meanings, negative connotations, and a constricted conception of the school curriculum. It is associated with a discredited learning theory and in practice tends to function more as a status marker than as a substantive educational experience. We should shift our thinking and teaching away from the imprecise and potentially miseducative notion of a rigorous academic curriculum and toward the ideal of a vigorous educative curriculum.
No introductions were necessary. By the time of this meeting on May 2, 1972, all of the educators around the table had worked together in the tightly knit community of Protestant fundamentalist education for decades. Those close relationships, however, only made the meeting's confrontational agenda all the more awkward and tense. Beka Horton read the charges. Horton, with her husband Arlin, had founded a thriving fundamentalist school in Pensacola, Florida. The Hortons had invited Dayton Hobbs for support. Hobbs was, like the Hortons, a graduate of fundamentalist Bob Jones University (BJU) and founder of a fundamentalist school in Florida. The Hortons accused Walter Fremont and Phil Smith, leaders of the education faculty at BJU, of one of the most devastating charges in the world of fundamentalist education. They had called this meeting with Bob Jones III, current leader of BJU and grandson of the founder, in order to apprise him of their suspicions that Fremont and Smith had become progressive educators.
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