Apple Valley Christian Academy holds accreditation by the following agencies:

WASC = Western Association of Schools and Colleges

ACSI = Association of Christian Schools International

CITA = Commission on International and Trans-Regional Accreditation

NCPSA = National Council of Private School Accreditation

• We commend the board for seeking to maintain its status as an accredited school.
• We commend the administration for leading the staff through the rigors of self-study and preparation for the visit.
• We commend the faculty and staff for spending focused time in evaluating every aspect of the school and developing a picture of what the school is today in order to prepare it for tomorrow.
• We commend the parents for committing themselves to the school by entrusting it with their children and accepting the financial burden of support for this commitment.
• We commend the students for their openness and candor as they shared their perspective of life at Apple Valley Christian School.

Apple Valley Christian Academy strives to be distinctively Christian, classically-flavored, and college preparatory by developing the Christian worldview through an academically rigorous liberal arts curriculum.

Education at AVC focuses on developing a “whole person” … Spiritually, Academically, and Socially. We strive to develop in our students a lifelong desire for learning.

AVC graduates men and women that have developed the skills of thinking clearly and listening carefully with discernment and understanding. Our graduates are capable of reasoning persuasively and articulating precisely. They are capable of evaluating their entire range of experience in the light of the Scriptures. They are prepared for collegiate success and equipped to make a contribution to the world.

Apple Valley Christian Academy was founded in 1976 as a ministry of the Apple Valley Baptist Church. These wonderful people of faith had a vision for a Christian school in this rural desert area and developed a long-range plan to support Christian education.

The school began providing elementary education with 19 students in kindergarten and first grade. By 1988, AVC had expanded to include a preschool through 12th grade program.  In 2012, AVC incorporated as Apple Valley Christian Academy, an independent Christian school with a very experienced and supportive school board.

God’s hand in the life of Apple Valley Christian Academy has been very evident. He has continued to bless this ministry by providing funds, students and families, and a desire for continued growth and improvement. As we look back to the past and anticipate His blessings for the future, we pray that it will be His purposes that are accomplished at AVC, His school.

PHILOSOPHY

Apple Valley Christian Academy exists to give its students a complete God-centered orientation of life, providing them with an education founded on a thoroughly Christian and biblical worldview, with the goal of creating, under God, a student with a Christian mind.

MISSION

Training Christian leaders committed to excellence

VISION

• to prepare students to go out and defend a Christian worldview
• to promote a return to traditional Christian values and respect for authority
• to assist students in identifying their calling and potential life’s work

We take our commitment to educate students for the glory of God very seriously.  We feel strongly that Christians today must take a strong stand to defend truth.  Unfortunately, our current society relegates truth to whatever one chooses to believe.

Many people today (Christians included) cannot adequately give intelligent, coherent reasons for what they believe.  We believe it is imperative to prepare young Christians to meet head on the relativistic belief systems, or worldviews, of today’s post Christian culture.  As scripture teaches,   “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience….”  –I Peter 3:15 

Our goal is to equip young Christian leaders, committed to the concept of excellence in all areas of their lives, with the knowledge and real understanding of what truth is so that they can go out into the world and intelligently and lovingly communicate that truth to an unbelieving culture.  We fully comprehend the enormity of this task and know that this goal is impossible to accomplish without the total and complete commitment of AVC faculty and staff, students, and parents.

CORE VALUES (GOALS)

GODLINESS

AVC is the Lord’s School.  AVC is a community of people who share a common purpose.  It is a welcoming place where the Lord’s presence is felt, where His ways are taught, and where youngsters know they are loved.

AVC is helping families raise another godly generation.  It takes seriously its responsibility to transmit to each new generation the ‘common culture’ of Christianity. These are the things that bind Christians together as one people.  In its highest form, this common culture is the sum of our intellectual inheritance, our legacy from all the ages that have gone before.

OBEDIENCE

AVC is committed to developing Christian character in its students.  Children are treated as moral beings and taught about right and wrong and to respect authority.  Teachers train children in habits that lead to better and fulfilled lives.

AVC strives to maintain a safe and orderly atmosphere.  Discipline and academic success go hand-in-hand.  AVC insists that its students demonstrate sound conduct and mutual respect.  The rules are clear and enforced.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

AVC is committed to providing a quality education that is God-centered.

AVC clearly identifies its academic mission.  The knowledge and essential skills that children must acquire are outlined in a coherent course of study focused on English, math, science, history, geography, and the arts.

AVC expects its students to maintain high standards of academic excellence.  Assignments are designed to be relevant and challenging.  Children are routinely given homework to reinforce the lessons taught in class and to build good study habits.

AVC holds its students accountable for meeting standards.  Student performance is carefully monitored and feedback is provided to both students and parents.  Teachers give honest grades, but intervene in the event of failure.  AVC recognizes and rewards academic success.

LEADERSHIP

AVC is committed to providing students and their families with strong Christian leadership.  AVC employs Christian administrators and teachers of sound character.  They take their commitment to Christian education very seriously.

AVC surrounds itself with parents who are committed to Christian education and Christian leadership.  Parents are expected to monitor and assist with academics, to stay in touch with teachers, and to raise children who are well behaved and ready to learn.  The parent-teacher relation-ship is viewed as a partnership.

AVC is looking to make a positive transformation of the culture by training students in Christian leadership.

The statement of faith adopted by the Apple Valley Christian Academy Corporation is limited to primary Christian doctrine, which is considered to be central to all Christian denominations and which sets Protestant Christianity apart from other faiths. The following statement of faith is taken directly from the Apple Valley Christian Academy Corporation Bylaws:

We Believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative word of God. (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:16-21; Proverbs 30:5-6)

We Believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  (I John 5:7; Ephesians 4:4-6; Psalm 147:5)

We Believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return to power and glory.  (Matthew 1:18-25; Isaiah 7:14; John 1:1-14; John 3:16; Acts 3:22-25; Acts 1:11; Hebrews 9:24; Titus 2:11-14; I Corinthians 15:22-28; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-6)

We Believe in the absolute necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit for salvation because of the exceeding sinfulness of human nature; and that men are justified on the single ground of faith in the shed blood of Christ and that only by God’s grace and through faith we are saved.  (Hebrews 2:9; Romans 5:10; II Corinthians 5:17-21; Mark 10:45; Romans 10:13-16; John 3:6-8; John 3:16; Romans 3:23)

We Believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.  (II Corinthians 5:10; I Corinthians 3:11-15; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; Luke 20:35-38; I Corinthians 15:22-24; I Thessalonians 4:16; II Thessalonians 2:1-18; Revelation 20:10-15; Mark 9:44-48)

We Believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, that the church includes the whole company of believers of this age of whatever race, and is known only to the eye of God.  The church is a company of believers baptized in the name of the Triune God, and observes the methods, ordinances, and principles laid down in the New Testament.  (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:27; Ephesians 2:19-21; I Corinthians 12:27-28; Romans 6:17; II Timothy 1:130

We Believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.  (I Corinthians 6:19; I John 3:24)

Apple Valley Christian Academy is fully committed to our purpose to fulfill the mission that God has set before us.  “Therefore…, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”  Romans 12:1-2 

We take our commitment to educate students for the glory of God very seriously.  We feel strongly that Christians today must take a strong stand to defend truth.  Unfortunately, our current society relegates truth to whatever one chooses to believe.  Many people today (Christians included) cannot adequately give intelligent, coherent reasons for what they believe.  We believe it is imperative to prepare young Christians to meet head-on the relativistic belief systems, or worldviews, of today’s post-Christian culture.  As the Bible teaches, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience….”       I Peter 3:15 

Our goal is to equip young Christian leaders, committed to the concept of excellence in all areas of their lives, with the knowledge and real understanding of what truth is so that they can go out into the world and intelligently and lovingly communicate that truth to an unbelieving culture.  We fully comprehend the enormity of this task and know that this goal is impossible to accomplish without the total and complete commitment of our AVCS faculty and staff.

It is important to realize that Apple Valley Christian Academy is not just a school, is not just a Christian school.  There are many schools, and many Christian schools, that are fine academic institutions, and even fine Christian academic institutions.  Our mission, however, is unique.  And, for that reason, our faculty and staff, students and families, must also be unique and truly committed to that vision and mission.

APPLE VALLEY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY
Training Christian Leaders Committed to Excellence

OBJECTIVES/EXPECTED SCHOOLWIDE LEARNING OUTCOMES

Background Thoughts:

Opinions vary about Christian schools and the educational movement of which they are a part.  From a negative perspective, Christian schools are regarded as reactionary institutions attempting to cocoon students from the perceived corrupting influences and problems of modern society.  From a positive perspective, however, Christian schools can be models for educational excellence, preparing students to enter society with a distinctively Christian worldview through which they can integrate their faith and academic knowledge.  An integrated approach to education enables students not only to remain firm in their faith, but also to make valuable contributions to society throughout their lives.

The goal of fusing students’ Christian faith with a commitment to action in the marketplace of life is not easy to achieve, even for Christian schools committed to such an ideal.  Three factors seem to inhibit students from developing an integrated Christian worldview.  The first factor Christian schools are working against is the popular belief that both truth and the activities of life are either sacred or secular.  This dichotomous view of truth and life is so culturally entrenched that students are unable to develop a holistic view of life and for life.  They act out their daily routines in one or both of two distinct realms, the public secular arena and/or the private sacred arena rather than pursuing all activities with an understanding of the integrity of all dimensions of reality.

A second factor inhibiting students from developing an integrated Christian worldview comes from within the Christian school curriculum itself.  It is a failure to develop a cohesive approach to the academic subjects and the religious subjects in the curriculum.  The “spiritual dimensions” such as Bible study and chapel services are deemed sufficient in and of themselves to instill the right worldview and motivate students to Christian action.  This lack of integrated curriculum further entrenches dichotomous sacred/secular thinking.

A third factor inhibiting students from developing a distinctively Christian worldview results from the previous two:  without an ability to think Christianly, students influenced by cultural and philosophical pluralism develop an eclectic worldview.  Without a definitive worldview, students incorporate not only the predominant worldview of the culture, but also elements of other views found in the global marketplace of ideas.

In his book Subversive Christianity, Brian Walsh confronts this inability to think Christianly when he writes that “our consciousness, our imagination, our vision have been captured by idolatrous perceptions and ways of life.  The dominant worldview, the all-pervasive secular consciousness, has captured our lives.”  Harry Blamires, a Christian apologist, echoes the thought in his book The Christian Mind when he says that “except over a very narrow field of thinking, chiefly touching questions of strictly personal conduct, we Christians in the modern world accept, for the purpose of mental activity, a frame of reference constructed by the secular mind and a set of criteria reflecting secular evaluations.”

Regretfully, the observations of Walsh and Blamires are confirmed by the fact that many Christian school students and graduates cannot articulate or apply the biblical Christian worldview in their daily lives.  Many waver in their faith when confronted with the carefully articulated arguments for secular humanism, socialism, pantheism, and other non-Christian views.  Swayed by popular culture, they have been taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

Aware of this intense spiritual warfare for the minds of children and young adults, Apple Valley Christian Academy is committed to developing a learning environment that can help students articulate and apply the Christian worldview to every aspect of reality.  A key strategy in this battle for the mind is the development of a PS-12 Classical/Christian learning model.  The following objectives present a structure that reflects this strategic development.

Objectives/Expected Schoolwide Learning Outcomes

Students will:

Spiritual and Moral

1.    Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37):

• Become a member of God’s family and mature in that family relationship.
• Grow in wisdom:  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5).
• Become excellent/virtuous people.

2.    Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:38).

• Learn to respect other people/fellow image-bearers of God.
• Understand and grasp the implications of man’s sinful/fallen nature.
• Learn to understand and respect authority.
• Learn to apply Biblical thought to all areas of life (what it means to live under God’s authority).

Social and Personal

3.   Learn to be good stewards in God’s world.

• Learn to discover and use their unique talents and gifts.
• Learn to understand and apply God’s cultural mandate.
• Learn to live a life of service.
• Learn to be people who respect and apply God’s ideas within the various institutions of life.
• Learn to understand and apply God’s ideas on material possessions and their use.

4.   Learn to be good disciples of their Master, Jesus Christ.

• Learn to understand and apply God’s ideas related to a disciplined life style.
• Learn to understand and apply their role as God’s ambassadors.

5.   Learn to understand and practice servant leadership.

Intellectual and Academic

6.   Learn the tools and practices of a skilled reader.
7.   Learn the tools necessary to master cultural literacy.
8.   Learn strategies for identifying objective truth and the tools to establish real knowledge (a justified, true, belief).
9.   Learn to establish the attitudes and habits that lead to academic excellence.
10.   Learn to become an excellent thinker.

• Learn the foundational set of facts and particulars of the various subjects that create learning tools that serves the student in later stages of the learning process.
• Learn formal logic, correct argumentation, analysis of information and deductive reasoning in a manner that allows students to analyze the how’s and why’s of our physical and spiritual world through discussion, deduction, and constructive criticism.
• Learn to be excellent thinkers who can communicate their thoughts both verbally and in written form.
• Learn to become explorers with the tools to seek understanding and truth in the various academic areas.

11.   Learn to be able to develop, defend, and communicate a comprehensive Christian worldview.
12.   Develop an excellent foundation for higher and lifelong learning.

The Trivium

Apple Valley Christian Academy students are encouraged and prepared to become “thinking Christians” through an educational system that treats all subjects as part of an integrated whole, with Scripture at its center.  The Trivium is the methodological foundation of an AVC education.  Comprised of three contributory phases, Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, the trivium leads students through a course of learning that correlates systematically with their natural development.  Excellence in the highest order, with Christ as our model, we strive for excellence in all that we do.  At Apple Valley Christian Academy, we feel passionately that a classical, Christian education best prepares students to become “thinking Christians,” who confront every challenge with confidence and scholarship.

The Grammar Stage:  The Tools for Learning

This period of learning, also termed the “Poll Parrot” stage, corresponds with the elementary years of a child’s development, when observation and memory are most keen.  During this time, students are best equipped to memorize and order the many facts and particulars of various subject areas.  All subjects can be broken down into a foundational set of basic facts and rules.  These rules are referred to as the grammar of each subject.

Students at Apple Valley Christian Academy learn to use the tools that will serve them in the later stages of the trivium, when reason, analysis, and expression are realized.  During the Grammar stage, students are trained in Latin, which is a vital foundation for understanding a wealth of material at its fundamental basis.  In addition, AVC students memorize and learn the essential “grammar” of English, History, Science, Mathematics, Geography, and Theology.

Knowledge is absorbed collectively and forms the beginnings of a more complete and full Christian understanding of our world.

The Logic Stage:  Reason…Engage…Understand

Formal logic, correct argumentation, analysis of information, and deductive reasoning comprise the “master faculties” of the Logic stage.  Students will use the tools they have acquired to develop understanding and advance theories and arguments based on logical processes.

Learning in all aspects will progress, allowing students to analyze the how’s and why’s of our physical and spiritual world through discussion, deduction, and constructive criticism.  Students will ask questions and develop their own answers systematically, assertively challenging fallacy, faulty reasoning and unsound arguments.

This process is integral to the growth and exploration of a child’s imagination:  the basis for learning in the final stage of the trivium.

The Rhetoric Stage:  Experience In Bloom

The Rhetoric stage, also known as the “Poetic Phase,” affords students with a level of freedom to explore self-expression, creativity, and scholarly appreciation.  This period of education meets with students when they are most naturally passionate, providing them with a structured base to explore their scholarly passions with wisdom at its root.

Students learn to express themselves with excellence, applying digested and investigated materials in open presentation.  Students reinforce the communication skills that blossom most prevalently in these later, high school years.  The result is informed, engaging, and articulate students who are representative of the excellent, Christian education provided them at Apple Valley Christian Academy.

For more information…please read “Discover Classical Christian Education” and “The Lost Tools of Learning.”