Information Guide for Parents

Frequently Asked Questions

What have you done to maximize safety at Mt. Calvary?

Safety is essential at Mt. Calvary.  In addition to having a facility that is located on a hilltop and off the street, our faculty and staff devote time talking about safety, evaluating our current safety procedures, and how we can make Mt. Calvary a safer place for our students.

Some of the safeguards we have in place include:

• Fingerprints for all faculty, staff, coaches, and people who spend time with our students.
• We have and rehearse a detailed crisis plan that includes intruder/lockdown procedures, earthquake, and fire drills.
• All of our faculty and staff are certified first aid and CPR administrators.

How competent and prepared is the teaching faculty?

All of our educators are professionally trained in the academic discipline of education, and all of our teachers hold (at minimum) a B.A. degree from a regionally accredited university in additon to a Lutheran teacher's and/or California Teaching Credential.  In addition, over 50% of our teachers hold a Master's Degree in Education.

What curriculum do you use?

Our school does not involve the use of merely one academic curriculum.  We work hard to evaluate and employ the best curriculum available that either meets or exceeds the California State Standards.

How does your school perform on national standardized tests?

Mt. Calvary Lutheran School utilizes the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) assessment tool which is a nationally standardized testing product.  This assessment is given annually in the fall, giving teachers a diagnostic tool which allows them to evaluate the students' strengths and weaknesses.

Some parents ask why our school uses this achievement test over others, such as the California Achievement Tests (CAT) or the Standford Achievement Test (SAT)?

The Iowa Tests advantages lie in the fact that first, the ITBS can be administered across wider groups of children than the SAT, second, there are additional unnecessary restrictions placed on users of the SAT that do not apply to our school, and third, the ITBS evaluates higher order thinking skills while the CAT tests rely more heavily on rote memory.

For more information regarding this assessment tool visit:

http://www.education.uiowa.educ/itp/itbs/

To see how Mt. Calvary students in grades 2 through 8 performed on the ITBS tests administered in October, 2008, please click on the link below. (ITBS test results 2008-2009 school year, fall testing)