Based on a multiple sample case study of six cce schools, this seminar offers a holistic framework for thinking about a school’s journey from apprentice to journeyman to master. Two schools were examined under each maturity level, and the conclusion of this case study is a clear improvement pathway focused on (1) diagnosing stage of maturity, (2) develop future targets with stage-based wisdom, and (3) discerning the best means to measure progress on those targets. The schools were studied by examining public records about the school as well as interviewing the leadership of the school.

The benefit of this study is that it helps smaller schools not try to be Geneva, Veritas or Ambrose but instead offers them a framework that can guide them to chart a faithful path for their schools’ future. Moreover, this leadership study for schools is explicitly guided and governed by both the philosophy and theology of the classical Christian movement rather than the philosophical pragmatism and materialistic empiricism of many leadership and management works.