After all the testing, homework, and research papers, what do campus students have to show for it? During the last three years the staff has collected evidence to demonstrate how the students are meeting the standardize achievement goals. ESLRs, Expected Schoolwide Leaning Results, are the goals that the staff sets for the student body.

“The ESLRs that our committee wrote a few years ago,” Ginger Niemeyer, vice principal, said, “are very close to the expectations of the founding fathers of Fresno Christian.”

ESLRS are also necessary for accreditation, which is essential when it comes to private schools.

“ESLRs describe what I would want a Fresno Christian student to be like,” Allen Tong, former ESLR committee member, said. “These are the qualities we want our students to have.”

The committee came together with the mindset to display what campus students are to learn and believe.

ESLRs make certain that students meet requirements in six different categories, they ensure campus students are, “biblical Christians, effective communicators, perceptive thinkers, responsible citizens, versatile on-going learners and healthy individuals.”

Accreditation is administered by WASC, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. “WASC accredits places like Fresno State and Fresno Pacific,” Tim Wilkins, superintendent, said. “”High Schools are not required to be accredited by WASC – some are some are not.””

However administration goes beyond what WASC requires. The goal is to make the school’s education as valuable as possible.

After the committee came together in 1999 to create the ESLRs, they started collecting evidence to back up what the staff claims they teach the student, and what qualities they instill in their pupils.

“We have to provide evidence that shows we are meeting our standards,” Wilkins said.

WASC does not just hand out an accreditation certificate when they see a poster of ESLRs hung in the school office; WASC needs to see proof of academic achievement.

“Evidence is collected from kindergarten through twelfth grade,” Niemeyer said. “The things collected cover every discipline and subject matter.”

Evidence is the only way the WASC is assured that campus teachers and administration are doing everything they advocate in their missions statement.

“We don’t just take the best work, we take samples of it all,” Wilkins said. “Yes, we take work form the A students, but we also display work from our B and C students.”

By this method WASC can get a feeling of what the whole school is doing, not just the best students.

“Work is collected and checked annually,” Wilkins said. “The teachers from each department meet and compile data to ensure they are meeting their goals. Or if needed, they create an action plan to improve the results they see.”

ESLRs are not just for accreditation, but also to ensure that the students are actually achieving academically.

“ESLRs are just a piece of the accreditation pie,” Wilkins said. “Although a very important piece, ESLRs are only about 10% of the whole process WASC requires.”

All the accreditation requirements given by WASC fill a binder with hundreds of pages; ESLRs are just a few of those. ESLRs may be all the accreditation students are aware of, but the campus administration works year round to make it happen.