A Trinity Board Perspective on Accreditation

Contributing Author: Dr. Ron McGraw, Trinity Christian School Board Member

Flourishing: Volume 8  | Issue 2

Flourishing interviewed Dr. Ron McGraw, a member of Trinity's Board of Directors on the accreditation team report. A richly experienced educator, Dr. McGraw takes in the outcomes and shares some key thoughts.

Why is accreditation important to you as a board member?

One of the challenging things for any school board is getting an accurate picture of how things are going. In my experience, it becomes increasingly important as schools grow, for the leaders to focus on measuring the right things. Examples abound where missions creep, institutions begin with great hope, and too often lose their way. Your board is charged with keeping an accurate picture that our mission remains sound, all is going well and what needs improvement.

What can you tell us about our accreditation team?

It is even more encouraging as the keepers of the vision of the school to have an outside, highly qualified, third party come in and evaluate us. This is why we do things like accreditation. ACSI accreditation is among the best in the world and a high mark of quality for any Christian school. I have known and met with many such teams over the years.

Trinity’s visiting team was uniquely strong joined by "the best of the best." They included several of the most highly qualified educators in the region. Not every accrediting team has on it a chair of a college education department, an ACSI regional director, and two of our region's best heads of school. The combined experience of the entire team was around 100 years of leadership in Christian education!

Now we have the results, what stands out to you?

First and foremost, this is a stellar report and an immense credit to Trinity's leaders, faculty, and staff. The many who have contributed time, talent, treasure, and prayed without ceasing can celebrate these findings where all final thanks and credit are the Lord's.

Thankfully, since I have served on the school board here at Trinity, our board and leadership has kept this as a focus, and our board was pleased to see the trajectory of growth and blessings of the Lord in our school that were strongly affirmed.

The team gave our school community many high marks for the training of our teachers in classical education and, in fact, encouraged us to move deeper into influencing other schools and to provide training for others in the region.

Christ was glorified as they extolled our “biblical worldview permeation” throughout our programs and the excellent discipleship opportunities we provide for students.

Many schools receive supportive reports, was there any unique aspects noted about Trinity?

Our program for accommodating students with learning difficulties was a highlight for the team. The team noted this schoolwide program called SWAN (Students with Accommodation Needs) to identify and serve students with learning needs. Parents reported great satisfaction that their children were both given appropriate accommodations and challenged by the rigor of a classical education. This program is unusual in classical schools, putting TCS on the cutting edge in implementation.

You mentioned the board's interests in what needs improvement. What was noteworthy?

Very few of our parents, when they were students, benefited from classical education. We were charged to facilitate a deeper understanding of TCS’ firmly established classical foundations, definitions, and philosophy to fully capture the distinctiveness of our school.

Trinity's effective professional development was highlighted. Yet, teachers would benefit if the goals were better documented to include faculty inculcation in classical philosophy & pedagogy, and diverse learning needs within the classical model.

Please share any concluding thoughts.

So as we look ahead it is very encouraging and helpful to know that our understanding of how well things are going has been confirmed by a team of such stature. As keepers of the vision for the school, we stay focused on, as the team noted, the long-term trajectory as keepers of our mission, vision, and values of the school. And a report like this motivates us to not only keep going but it drives our desire to expand for more families and as we pray for His blessing to provide for a bright future for the school.

We anticipate moving our prayerful master plan for our 17.5 acre campus into Phase Two in the coming months and we are looking to the Lord to lead and provide for His school. We anticipate continuing to invest in our faculty to recruit, train, and retain the best teachers and even pursuing how we can become a training center, as recommended, for the classical Christian movement in the Southwest region.

It is a joy to serve in this school as we pursue an exciting vision for truly Christ-centered and classical education that seeks to authentically partner with parents and the local churches to raise a generation of spiritual warriors who are joining God in building His Kingdom, one graduate at a time.

Please join our school board in praying for our school leaders, faculty, staff, parents, students, and alumni.