Rethinking Academics in Christian Schools: Part III

From Mindset to Method: Identifying What Students Actually Need to Learn

Now that we’ve shifted our mindset away from “covering the curriculum,” it’s time to take the first practical steps toward meeting the ever-changing needs of our students. If the goal is learning rather than the delivery of information, then teaching becomes the transfer of skills, not simply the movement through chapters. Those skills come to life through learning standards, targets, proficiencies, or competencies. Whatever language your school uses, the real question is this: What knowledge and skills do we want our students to demonstrate?

That question becomes the anchor for rethinking academics in our schools.

Step 1: Decide What You Actually Want Students to Learn

Begin by gathering your teams and asking a foundational question that many schools have never explicitly answered: What do we want students to learn here? Far too often, the textbook becomes the unspoken definition of a course, and the pacing guide becomes the default structure. Curriculum materials can support the work, but they should never define it.

Whether you lean on state standards, national frameworks, college-readiness expectations, or targets provided by a curriculum publisher, the priority is shared clarity. Until teachers articulate the skills and concepts that matter most, instruction remains fragmented and inconsistent from one classroom to the next. This first step sets the direction and determines what the rest of the year will be built upon.

Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

Step 2: Identify the Full List of Standards and Then Narrow the Focus

Once the entire list of standards or learning targets is laid out, most teams see the same thing: there are too many to teach with learning as the goal! It’s common for a single course or grade level to include 25, 40, or even 50 standards. No teacher can ensure deep learning across that many standards.

This is where constructive, honest collaboration is essential. Work with your team to identify:

• Which skills appear repeatedly across grade levels.

• Which concepts are foundational for future coursework.

• Which standards align closely with your mission and instructional values.

• Which skills carry less long-term impact.

• Which skills best support the mission of the school.

The goal is not to eliminate opportunities for learning, but to concentrate it. When teachers agree on a limited set of priority standards, instruction becomes more focused, intentional, and aligned with the long-term development of students.

Step 3: Compare Your Priorities to Your Student Data

After narrowing the list of what matters most, take time to understand how your students currently perform on those skills. Data should serve as a guide, not a scoreboard. You’re not looking to label students, but to understand the landscape you’re teaching within.

Ask questions such as:

• Where do students consistently struggle?

• Which skills show early strength?

• Are expectations realistic based on previous exposure?

• Does the current sequence align with students’ readiness?

When your prioritized skills meet the reality of student performance, planning becomes more strategic. Support can be targeted, and instructional time can be used more wisely.

Step 4: Sequence the Standards Across the School Year

Once your priorities and student realities are clear, it’s time to determine when each skill should be taught. Sequencing is often overlooked, yet it has enormous influence on how effectively students learn.

Look closely at your school calendar and consider:

• Which skills should appear early to support later learning.

• When students are most prepared for more difficult concepts.

• How holidays, long breaks, and testing schedules affect pacing.

• Whether the order in your textbook actually reflects your priorities.

I once had a teacher tell me, very candidly, “We don’t get to chapter 8.” Well, the issue was that chapter 8 contained some of the priority standards for the course. Because they lived at the back of the book, they were never taught. If your priority standards live in “chapter 8,” then they belong early in the year, not as an afterthought.

Thoughtful sequencing ensures that the most important learning happens when students are ready for it and during the times of year when meaningful engagement is most likely.

Final Word

The work of identifying what matters most in teaching is far more than an instructional strategy; it reflects a deeply biblical pattern. When schools try to teach everything, students rarely master anything at a meaningful depth. But when teachers focus on the skills, concepts, and habits that are truly foundational, they create space for clarity, connection, and deeper learning. This aligns naturally with Christian education, where the goal is not merely to transfer information but to cultivate wisdom, discernment, and understanding.

Scripture reinforces this principle. Throughout the Bible, not everything carries equal weight, and God’s people are repeatedly called to discern and prioritize. Jesus identified the two greatest commandments as the foundation on which all the Law and the Prophets rest (Matthew 22:36–40). In Acts 6, the apostles chose to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, even while other real needs existed in the community. Their example demonstrates that faithfulness requires the courage to distinguish what is central from what is secondary.

The same truth holds in our classrooms. By naming the knowledge and skills that matter most, studying how our students actually perform, and aligning our instruction with the natural rhythm of the school year, we create a more coherent and mission-shaped academic experience. This clarity doesn’t just improve teaching; it strengthens formation. It helps students grow in competence and confidence, but also in character and purpose. When we focus on what matters most, we lead students toward deeper understanding and meaningful growth—both intellectually and spiritually.

And in the next post, we’ll explore the natural follow-up question: now that we’ve established what we want students to learn, how do we design our classrooms to give every student the highest probability of learning? And before we go too far, we also need to explore what biblical integration looks like in the context of these adopted learning standards.