The Bios Christian Academy Class of 2014

It is the time of year to discuss with much thanksgiving the achievements of the graduating class of 2014 from Bios Christian Academy. The seventeen graduating seniors are attending a variety of colleges and universities. Eight are attending Grand Canyon University. Three more are heading to Arizona State University and two to Chandler-Gilbert Community College. The other four are all alone when they travel to their new schools: Iowa State University, Northern Arizona University, Mesa Community College, and Calvary Chapel Bible College. One hundred percent of our graduates are planning to begin a post high school education next fall at a college or university.

The variety of majors are even more diverse. Landscape Architecture, Kinesiology, Nursing (2), Elementary Education, Business (2), Psychology, Software Engineering, Athletic Science, Dental Hygiene, Computer Science, Digital(Web) Design, Entrepreneurial Science (2), Theology, and Civil Engineering. At least nine of the majors chosen are heavy in math and science.

It is a big, big blessing for the over seventy percent of our graduates to have significant scholarships to pay for a majority or a significant part of their education. By far, the majority of accepted scholarships came from Grand Canyon University with eight awarded to our graduates. ASU supplied three. NAU and Iowa State both provided one scholarship each to our students. The average four year value of the ten accepted scholarships is $45,833. The range of the value of the full four year scholarships run from $12,000 to $68,000. Our small school has accepted $550,000 worth of four year scholarships. And that total does not take in the $49,000 in scholarships by GCU, $8,000 by ASU, and $10,000 from King's College that were offered but not accepted by our graduates.

The beautiful celebration of graduation occurring on May 21 at Mission Church is both an end and a beginning. As a school supporting parents in the training of their children, we change in our day-to-day role of instruction, prayer, and encouragement, hoping that the time spent in support has contributed to their opportunities for success in the future. For all of them, their hard work and perseverance have allowed them the choice to continue their education in the future.

New Teachers and Staff

We have hired three new people so far for the next year school year of 2014-2015. The Core, Board, and I are very excited about the new additions to the Bios staff. They are Dan Koury - math teacher, Lonn Durfee - science and Bible teacher, Bruce Wilkison - K-12 strings music teacher. Below are their brief bios.

Dan Koury - His education is quite impressive. BS in Materials Science from Rice University, a Masters in Matter Physics from ASU, and a PhD in Plasma Physics from Cornell University. His work experiences includes being a design engineer for Silicon Labs, Mcube Inc., and Freescale. He spent one morning teaching math here in the past month. He quickly understood the instructional method and worked with the students really well.

Lonn Durfee - Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, University of Florida; Masters of Divinity, Columbia International University. He is certified to teach five areas of science in South Carolina and other states through the American Board for Certification of Teaching Excellence. He also holds six credits in graduate economics and a Bible teaching certificate with the Association of Christian School International. Presently, he preaches, teaches, and facilitates outreach at Southeast Community Church of South Carolina.

Bruce Wilkison - Bachelor of Music, University of Michigan. Mr. Wilkison taught six years for me as the K-12 strings music teacher at my first school, Surrey Garden Christian School. Before working at Surrey, he was a violinist with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra for eighteen years. I am looking forward to working with him again.

I am very thankful to the talented and experienced people that God has added to our current staff already. Thank you to all of you who have been praying so diligently for the school and for the greater than ever next school year arriving soon.

New Primary/Elementary Homeschool Integration Option

For the 2014-2015 school year, Bios Christian Academy will begin offering a fourth option to support our families that choose to homeschool their children. It is named the Primary/Elementary Homeschool Integration. It will be for those families who would like the academic program of the Primary/Elementary Homeschool Support programs but would rather have the students integrated into the full time classrooms. The number of Primary/Elementary Homeschool students in a full time primary or elementary class will be limited to two per class.

Each student in the Homeschool Integration program will be a part of the full time classroom except for one period each on Tuesday and Thursday.  During that period, they will attend art and Spanish with the Homeschool Support class. The rest of their academic day is spent working on the same goals as the students in the Homeschool Support classes. Bible, Memlock, composition, strings, Technic, physical education, and more.

If you are interested in this class or have questions, please call.

Checklists, Checksheets, and Differentiated Learning

The book, The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande, arrived on bookshelves in 2009. The main premise of the book is how the use of checklists can greatly assist us in solving complex problems and in managing large projects. Since the publishing of The Checklist Manifesto, there has been an increase in the amount of discussion on the use of checklists by educators. Thomas R. Hoer, head of school at the New City School in St. Louis, wrote on May 10 in Educational Leadership, " The Checklist Manifesto makes the case that we all need checklists when we engage in solving complex problems, regardless of our skills." The idea of using checklists in the education of students is beginning to be discussed.

Education writer Dennis Sparks wrote last year in reference to Gawande's book this quote, "[Checklists] do not try to spell out everything-a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps- the ones that even the highly skilled professionals using them could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical."

Heather Wolpert-Gawron, a California middle school teacher, wrote on Edutopia in February 2014, these comments about checklists. "I find it very important not only to let students in on what our main goal needs to be, but to let them in on the process and steps to meet that goal. My checklists, therefore, become almost a sequential narrative through an academic unit." She continues with "... the more information you grant to students, the better." [If we're to] create a classroom where students own their learning then we have to let them in on the sequence of lessons and assessment ahead of time. There is no reason why students should be in the dark as to what I will expect and why. The mystery defeats achievement."

Here are some comments from her students on what they thought of the checklists.
-"... whereas in a checklist, we can immediately see what we need to do and get straight to work."
-"I am a procrastinator, and having the kind of motivation to check something off is great for me to stay on track."

What others are naming checklists, we call checksheets. Checksheets form the backbone of our instructional system supporting excellent instructors and a worldview based on the God of the Bible. Checksheets are developed for all classes, all grades, and almost all subjects. Bible, phonics, chemistry, English composition, algebra, Spanish, and much more. And for each subject, the checksheets look quite different from each other.

A Checksheet is the lesson plan for the teacher and the student each day. It communicates to our parents what each and everyday the student has learned. Never can a Bios student go home and say to their parents, "I did nothing today."Everyday in every class, student progress is shown. It allows for the school to set high expectations for academic achievement. New and inexperienced teachers are not expected or allowed to learn to set learning goals and objectives through experimenting on your child until they figure out how to. Checksheets are written by me, with over 30 years in education or by my experienced staff, of which over half have been with me for 12-21 years.

In our educational approach, the Bios instructors work with multi-grade groups of students in the same subject, instructing, encouraging, correcting, and setting the next goals. Our checksheets build a framework of expectations for the teacher and student to work with. Daily progress or the lack of is provided in every subject, every day. And this record of progress is there for not only the instructor and student, but also for myself and the parents to have a very accurate picture of the daily progress.


As I have said before, the checksheets for each subject are very unique to that subject. The high school science checksheets include not only specific terms to be orally explained to a student's teacher, but also detailed instructions for the individual labs with lab safety procedures to be followed. In math, the passing of lessons, the date, and the number incorrect are recorded. The layout of the student text in math allows for the daily student goals to be based from it instead of from the checksheet. The order of the memorization of the Bible facts such as the Ten Commandments for primary and elementary are placed on the checksheet to provide consistency across the grades. These are a few examples of how the checksheets are each designed to provide the critical and important steps to learning for the students at Bios Christian Academy.

The mystery of what to learn and when you are expected to learn is gone for all students and all subjects at Bios. The students own their learning with support from knowledgeable and caring teachers. Each subject has a sequential narrative for their subject unit. Taking our students out of the dark and into the ownership of their learning and guided by strong teachers has allowed our students to stand out academically for our six years of existence.

The Importance of Conferences at Bios

In the past two weeks, we have enjoyed visits by two local college administrators. The first administrator was by our invitation and the second by the first administrator's invitation because of the first administrator's positive impression of us. And the second admin expressed even more positive impressions. Lots of positive impressions. One of the positive impressions of the second administrator was how the school was set up to foster longer relationships between parents, teachers, and students. I was happy he noticed one of the fundamental aspects to our success with supporting our parents in the training of their children, positive and longer relationships with teachers and their families.

Developing relationships is a process. It takes hard work, perseverance, and time. We provide up to three years of togetherness for the teacher, parents, and students.  Time and opportunity to learn to trust each other in the goal of educating the children. Conferences support that idea.

Essentially, conferences are the sum of the continuous parent/teacher communications throughout the quarter. Phone calls, face-to-face meetings, texts, and emails are all ways communication occurs. Our staff is trained to not discuss anything important over texts or emails with face-to-face communication being preferred. Conferences are the in person culmination of those discussions providing time and opportunity to cement learning goals and discuss tweaks in expectations.

As the first quarter closes and the first conferences of the year arrive right after fall break, families and teachers begin or renew a relationship with the face-to-face meetings we name conferences which are so important in the lives of those we instruct.

STEM Success at Bios

For just a second, or less, I was considering writing just below the definition for STEM from the National Science Teachers Association. Boring. Instead, here is my interpretation of the oft cited acronym. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. The idea is that a successful STEM education in science, technology, engineering, and math, taught through building on previous concepts learned and using real world applications will develop students with critical thinking skills, science literacy, and who will become our future innovators. It is such an important goal in education that in a speech to the National Academy of Sciences last April, President Obama included this statement, "Reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to meeting the challenges of this century. That’s why I am committed to making the improvement of STEM education over the next decade a national priority."

In the ten year employment projections put out by the US Department of Labor, fifteen of the twenty fastest occupations require a lot of knowledge in math and science.

So how does Bios Christian Academy fare statistically and in graduates declaring their college majors? Quite well and only getting better.

Percent of ACT-Tested Students Ready for College-Level Coursework

* College English Composition: Bios 100%; Arizona 53%; national 64%

* College Algebra: Bios 60%; Arizona 38%; national 44%

* College Biology: Bios 60%; Arizona 28%; national 36%

The percentages above are the results of the much higher than average ACT scores achieved through the hard work of the students , teachers, and parents. I included English for fun and to make a point later. Those high math and science scores result in 68% of our graduates entering college with science or math related majors. If you want to have students desire the higher paying and in-demand occupations, then you give them the skills and confidence to make those choices. That is one of the many things we do really well.

Out of our 34 graduates, here are the specific majors declared at graduation and the number who declared so. Engineering-4, chemistry-2, kinesiology-2, nursing-2, science-1, biology-2, equine science-1, art-1, technology-1, business-1, premed-2, music-1, education-1, writing-1, forensic science-1, medical tech-1, veterinarian tech-1, physical therapy-2, computer science-1, film/media-2.

Now for my comment on English. As I have shown above, our English scores are really, really good on the ACT. This is a reflection of the students hard work in this area. The scores also reflect the schools commitment to an outstanding education in all subject areas, not only for the STEM subjects. Great reading and writing skills are just as important for our STEM majors as the rest of our students.