About

Calvin Christian School partners with Christian families and their churches to educate students from Escondido, Valley Center, San Marcos, Vista and communities across North San Diego County and Southern Riverside County. Calvin Christian School serves families with students in early education (ages 2-5), 3-day and 5-day kindergarten, and 1st through 12th grades.

Accreditation

Calvin Christian School has a dual accreditation from both the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and Christian Schools International (CSI).

WASC is one of six regional associations that accredit public and private schools, colleges, and universities in the United States. Through its review processes, WASC confirms that an institution has substantially met the Commission’s Core Commitments and Standards of Accreditation and associated Criteria for Review and, thus, possesses the resources, policies, and practices to achieve its educational goals and has provided evidence of the quality of its educational programs. Accredited institutions are also subject to the conditions established by the Commission, including its policies.

CSI uses Measuring the Mission, a highly regarded, proven, and well-researched protocol to guide schools through their accreditation process. Christian distinctiveness is embedded within each standard of our protocol, allowing the school to specifically assess and measure all aspects of its Christian school mission.

Statement of Faith

Calvin Christian School serves Christian parents and their children. Over 70 different church congregations are represented; from Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Reformed to many non-denominational congregations. The education at Calvin Christian comes from a Biblical perspective founded in the Reformation. The following Statement of Faith articulates the basic Biblical beliefs that form the foundation of Calvin Christian and its educational practices.

History

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

Guided by that verse and a strong commitment to Christian education, members of the Christian Reformed Church of Escondido formed a Christian school society in the late 1950s. As a result of their prayers and persistence, definite plans began to take shape. In August of 1960, the society voted to approve plans for a school building. As 1961 began, so did construction. Everyone did what they could to help. Men showed up regularly with their hammers and nail bags to donate hours of labor. Ladies in the already active “Mothers’ Club” held fundraisers. After much hard work and personal sacrifice, Calvin Christian School opened its doors on September 5, 1961. The original school building consisted of two classrooms, restrooms, an office/teachers’ lounge, and the janitor’s closet. A modest array of playground equipment stood ready and waiting as well. Calvin Christian’s early curriculum stressed the fundamentals of education and Bible teaching. Music and Athletics made up part of the school day as well. From the beginning, students received a well-rounded, quality education. Calvin Christian High School began the school year on September 8, 1980, and was officially dedicated on October 10.

Behind the Name

John Calvin, along with Martin Luther, was a leader of the 16th-century movement that became known as the Protestant Reformation. These men and others called the church back to biblical Christianity and to an understanding of salvation in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. John Calvin was a young law student in France when he heard the message Luther had proclaimed. His conversion led him to the life of a pastor and scholar in the French-speaking city of Geneva in Switzerland until he died in 1564. John Calvin was also a school builder. He founded an academy in Geneva for the education of the young, realizing that Christians ought to be able to read and understand the Bible for themselves. He also believed people should be educated broadly and that in addition to the Bible, they should understand the world around them. Calvin himself was educated in the best traditions of the day on the Latin classics, Greek and Hebrew, Rhetoric, in short, Humanities. He believed Christians should be excellently educated so they could serve God in whatever calling was theirs. Not surprisingly, wherever the Reformation spread, literacy expanded to people of all classes.

How We’ve Addressed Common Core Requirements

Calvin Christian School exists to educate students through a Biblical Worldview while holding to the highest academic standards. With the onset of Common Core, this mission remains unchanged. The Common Core Standards (CCS) for English Language Arts and Mathematics were written primarily in response to 15+ years of research trying to understand why the United States performs significantly below the average of industrialized nations in mathematics. One of the major reasons the U.S. has not been performing well is due to the standards and curriculum being less rigorous and primarily procedural based. Calvin Christian students have consistently outperformed their counterparts in public schools, as revealed on National Standardized exams. The Common Core Standards were written to prepare students for college and 21st Century Careers. Approximately 85% of Calvin Christian graduates enroll in four-year colleges and Universities immediately after high school graduation. Nearly all of the remaining 15% enroll in community colleges with the most having the intent of transferring at some point to a four-year college.

Thus, Calvin Christian School is in a position to carefully analyze the standards to determine which aspects might be beneficial to the already excellent academic programs while not interfering with the expressly Christian worldview through which all academics are viewed and taught. Where the Common Core Standards increase rigor and coherence of the current Calvin programs, insomuch as they do not conflict with the Biblical worldview, Calvin will seek to address those standards. Where the research-based practices will benefit Calvin students in their ability to understand and apply their academics, insomuch as they do not conflict with the Biblical worldview, Calvin will seek to implement those strategies. Where the Common Core standards have a focus on reasoning, problem-solving, and informational text, insomuch as they do not conflict with the Biblical worldview, Calvin will seek to implement those practices. As the Smarter Balanced Common Core exams are only made available at no cost to public schools, Calvin Christian students will not participate in them but will continue to take the MAP assessment (read more HERE) and other standardized exams to measure student progress. The ultimate goal of Calvin Christian School is to prepare students who know the God who created the world and them and learn to understand this world and live in it for His glory. This remains unchanged with the onset of Common Core, and gleaning the best from the CCS standards and practices will only help to increase the great success and mission of Calvin. Calvin Christian School does not rely on federal or state funding, and therefore we are not compelled or mandated to implement these standards. This is the great benefit we have by being a privately funded school!