Mondays with Mike: How Do We Know Our Students Are Really Growing?
PCA Families,
How do we know if our children are really growing at school?
Not just getting older. Not just earning grades or completing assignments. But growing in knowledge, confidence, judgment, faith, and the ability to take increasing responsibility for their learning.
In this week’s Mondays with Mike, I reflect on what we are seeing across PCA—from the joy and engagement of our youngest students, to Upper School students stepping into greater academic challenge, to lessons reinforced this week alongside Christian school leaders from across the country.
At the center is a simple conviction: great Christian education should challenge students, support them well, and help them grow into who God has called them to become.
Listen: How Do We Know Our Students Are Really Growing? (6 Minutes)
Key Takeaways
- Real growth is bigger than a grade.
Grades and academic performance matter, but they do not tell the whole story. We also want to see your children growing in knowledge, confidence, judgment, perseverance, responsibility, and faith. - Challenge and support belong together.
We are seeing students—particularly in our ninth- and tenth-grade courses—step into meaningful academic challenge. At the same time, teachers are walking with them: teaching, encouraging, giving feedback, and helping them grow into higher expectations. - Good teaching holds both together.
Challenge without support can discourage a student. Support without challenge can leave a student underprepared. We want classrooms where students are stretched appropriately and supported well. - There should be a recognizable PCA learning experience.
A first-grade classroom will not look like a tenth-grade history class, and different subjects require different approaches. But across PCA, students should be known, challenged, supported, taught clearly, given useful feedback, and increasingly able to explain and use what they have learned. - Christ is at the center of that growth.
We want students to grow in knowledge and skill, but also in wisdom, humility, courage, curiosity, and love. Christian education brings those things together rather than separating academic growth from spiritual and personal formation. - We are learning alongside other strong Christian schools.
This past week, leaders from 46 Christian schools gathered through ACSI to learn from one another. The encouragement was simple: stay faithful, keep learning, build on what is strong, address what needs to grow, and serve students better year by year.
Parents, you know your children in ways we never will, and we see things at school that you may not see at home. Together, we get a fuller picture of who your children are becoming.
Consider asking a different question this week:
“What are you learning that is making you think?”
Or:
“What can you do now that you could not do a few weeks ago?”
Then listen to the answer. Give them time to form it.
We have real strengths at PCA. We also have places where greater consistency will serve our students better.
So, we will keep learning. We will strengthen what works. We will learn from strong Christian schools. We will listen to our teachers. We will listen to you. And we will pay close attention to the growth of our students.
We do this for their good, to fulfill the mission entrusted to us, and ultimately for the glory of God.
I look forward to seeing you on campus real soon.
With gratitude,
Mike Runey
Head of School
Portsmouth Christian Academy
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