Academics

Our Curriculum

Early Childhood | 3K/JK/SK

Our early childhood classrooms (3K, Junior Kindergarten, and Senior Kindergarten) provide an engaging environment rich in experiences and resources to cultivate growth and development. Children actively participate in center-based learning, guided play, and instruction as the foundation of this time. We celebrate and foster emerging literacy — the ability to speak, listen, read, and write. Children work as investigators, authors, mathematicians, and scientists as they explore a central theme and discover God’s truth in the world around them. Even our youngest students have opportunities to discover God's world through math, science, reading and writing in a play-based learning environment. 

Lower School | 1st-4th Grades

The Lower School employs a balanced literacy approach which includes shared, guided, modeled, and independent reading and writing instruction. Word study is given specific instructional attention and is embedded in the study of literature and writing. Students explore and analyze truths in God’s world through units that incorporate social studies, science, Bible, and literacy content. Mathematical study includes numeration, geometry, measurement, probability, operations, and algebraic readiness.

As students progress through Central, they grow in their ability to take risks, solve problems, be comfortable in struggle, think critically, and apply their learning to new contexts.

The Summit | 5th/6th Grades

In preparation for middle school, our Summit (5th/6th) students receive instruction from two teachers rather than one --  a math/science teacher and a literacy/social studies teacher. Each teacher instructs their own homeroom in Bible. Our Summit teachers collaborate and invest in the growth of each scientist, mathematician, linguist, historian, and theologian in a nurturing environment that provides a bridge between the elementary and middle school. We foster interpersonal communication, collaboration, organization, self-initiated study, and time management.

Mathematical studies in the intermediate grades move into more advanced exploration of mathematical concepts and procedures. This includes work with positive and negative integers, long division, fraction or decimal based operations, geometric work with angles and lines, measurement work in all areas and conversions of units, probability, basic statistics, algebra, and more.

Field Trips

At Central, we value the way off-campus experiences deepen learning for our 3K-6th Grade students. From appreciating masterpieces at the St. Louis Art Museum (JK) to touring The Hill on foot (2nd) to contemplating and grieving oppression at a local Holocaust museum (5th), we provide experiences for children to reflect and make connections in new contexts. Our Central culture welcomes dads, moms, and grandparents as chaperones on these field experiences, and the cost of most field trips is included in tuition.

Academic Assessments

List of 3 items.

  • For Students in 3K/JK

    We give ongoing developmentally appropriate classroom assessments to measure fine and gross motor skills, phonemic awareness, rhyming skills, letter identification, letter/sound correspondence, concepts of print, 1:1 correspondence, patterning, and rote counting. Each trimester in Junior Kindergarten, we give a comprehensive assessment to determine student progress prior to Parent-Teacher Conferences. We also provide feedback to parents on their child's social-emotional and spiritual development.
  • For Students in SK-2nd Grades

    All SK through 2nd Grade students participate in benchmark assessments throughout the year in three areas—math, reading, and writing. We use math benchmark assessments, DRA2, and writing prompts to measure progress during the school year and from year to year.

    To help us measure students' reasoning ability, we administer the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) each spring. When compared to other classroom and benchmark assessments, the NNAT guides individual student instruction and gifted identification.
  • For Students in 3rd-6th Grades

    All 3rd through 6th grade students also participate in benchmark assessments in math, reading, and writing. Math benchmark assessments, Teachers' College Assessment, and Central writing prompts help teachers gauge student progress.

    As an outside measure of student progress, we annually administer the ERB Comprehensive Testing Program (CTP5). The CTP5 is a combination of achievement and reasoning tests and is widely recognized as the most rigorous and respected standardized test. View more details on how Central students compare using this data.

Feedback to Parents

We provide trimester progress reports on all students (3K-6th Grade) to provide feedback on a child's journey toward educational goals and standards. Our standards-based report cards are issued three times per year prior to parent-teacher conferences.

Outside of the formal trimester reporting season, Touchpoints offer parents insight into their child's ongoing progress in core disciplines. Parents receive written communication at least once a trimester with individualized suggestions and strategies to promote parent partnership and student ownership in learning.