MLK Awards Breakfast

Bios Christian Academy was well represented at the 27th Martin Luther King essay contest sponsored by ASU. There were over 1,200 entrees in this local writing contest. From first grader Micah reading about his neighbor who travels Guatemala serving the poor, to Faith in third grade talking about a blanket ministry to orphans, the six winners from Bios, out of a total of twelve possible winners K-12, elicited the comment from the master of ceremonies, "They must be doing something right at Bios." Before the awards ceremony, I was able to enjoy a nice breakfast at ASU West with the students, teachers, and the families from the six Bios Christian Academy winners. A crowd of over 1,000 people enjoyed a wonderful celebration of the principles and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King. The student's essays had been mounted on stands and these were placed around the room for all to view. Inspiring speeches, enjoyable music and thought-provoking speeches by community activists made for an enjoyable morning.

Congratulations to Mrs. Halbison, Mrs. Kountz, and Mrs. Maguire and their students Chloe Martin, twelfth grade; Faith Pikula, third grade; Anna Sholink, third grade; Ashlynn Kooima, second grade; Elon Still, second grade; and Micah Vasey, first grade. Each student was given a savings bond valued at between $75-150 depending on whether they won first, second, or third place.

Learning English, Foreign Students, and Bios Christian

For the past thirteen years, the instruction of English to our students from other countries has been similar to how we instruct our native born students. It has been very successful in our eyes because when all of our students graduate, their reading, writing, and speaking skills stand out compared to the Arizona culture around them. Daily, our methods include hours of writing, reading, and speaking with proficient English speaking adults. Our instructional methods are intensive, rarely include the passive instructional method of lecture, and require constant interaction/conversation with our instructors. The instructors expect writing, reading, and speaking in almost every period. Usually, the instructors immediately grade the assignments to provide feedback when it's best used - today, not tomorrow or the next day.

In the two schools I have been blessed to manage, students from Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Japan, and Mexico have consistently made dramatic gains in their ability to read, write, and speak in the English language. Not that it is easy. No, the students from outside the U.S. have to work very hard to achieve a working mastery which enables them to learn their subjects in English. And the method is consistently successful for highly skilled and lower skilled students who come to us.

Why does it work? Because of the basic components involved in our instruction. Every one of our 49 minute periods involves a new, individual goal for each student that the instructor reviews with each student at the start of class. The student either reads information which must be discussed and mastered in the class period or a task is performed such as an individual science experiment, a math lesson, or a video watched while taking notes and completing a quiz at the end. By the end of each period, the teacher has spent meaningful one to one instructional time discussing, quizzing, and/or checking and correcting for immediate feedback.

Reading, writing speaking for eight periods a day. With our instructional methods, it is very difficult to not learn English at Bios Christian Academy.

A Moment's Focus on Our Graduates

With the beginning of the second semester, the reality that our seniors are going on to new opportunities is hitting all of them a little harder. This is the season where students who rarely associate with each other start to act like old friends, sharing past experiences and looking forward in apprehension to a future their parents and teachers have worked to prepare them for. And all have different goals they are working towards for life beyond Bios.

We encourage our students as early as seventh grade to begin choosing three colleges that they may be interested in attending. They observe the websites, visit the campus with their parents, check out student comments, and see what majors are offered.

Lori Greene and I meet with the seniors throughout the year, asking if they have questions or need help signing up for colleges or in applying for scholarships. Lori and I also attend college counselor meetings at different colleges and universities in the Valley. With this information, we can provide the tools necessary to assist our students with available options.

Each one of our graduates have identified different goals for their future upon graduation. These goals range from a future in student ministries to biochemistry to business major. All are taking different paths to their future. Tentative, not so tentative, and firm plans for future education for our current fourteen seniors include the following: three heading for premed, music education, major in equine skills, engineering, art, biomedical engineering, nursing, lineman apprenticeship, business, and student ministries.

If you read through the list a couple of times you should notice a few things. First, there is quite a variety. Next, out of the fourteen, six are math or science related. And out of our fourteen, thirteen are heading off to college - which really stands out in a state where only 67% of high school students graduate from high school as reported in the June 8, 2011 issue of Arizona Capitol Times and the US Department of Education. In addition, 53% of the Arizona graduates do not go on to college as reported in the Arizona Republic on December 9, 2010. In that same article, it was written that in a study done by the Arizona Regents, 52% of high school graduates in Arizona lacked the grades or courses to be admitted to a four-year college.

Nine of those soon-to-be graduating Bios students are intending to go to a four-year university. Of those nine, six have all or most of their education paid for through scholarships. The other three have partial scholarships. Four of those students that will be attending a four-year university are attending Christian universities.

Three of the 14 graduates will be attending Chandler Gilbert Community College and one graduate is undecided.

Receiving full and partial scholarships and earning good grades are both the result of the hard work by graduates, parents, and teachers. We work diligently to challenge each student everyday. This shows up in the students’ hard earned grades and in their achievements in the college entrance exams they take - the SAT and ACT. In May 2012, Bios will graduate our third group of students from high school. Our three-year average of SAT and ACT scores is as follows with comparable Arizona and national scores.

SAT	Reading	Math	Writing
Bios	555	586	575
Arizona	517	523	499
National	497	514	489

ACT	Composite	English	Math	Reading	Science
Bios	28.8	29	30.4	29	26
Arizona	19.7	18.6	20.3	19.9	19.6
National	21.1	18.6	21.1	21.3	20.9

As you can see, our students excel in these standardized test scores as compared to national and Arizona college bound seniors. But that is not the best part.

Our seniors also shine brightly in community service. As a group they have volunteered to serve monthly on the Alzheimer’s floor at an adult living facility, made three trips to the San Carlos Reservation to build homes and serve their young children, plus hundreds of hours in additional recorded service in their community and churches.

Even as reality of the future sets in, our seniors have each been prepared for their years after Bios.