Jeff Haanen
Broader, Not Deeper

What will allow more pastors to see the importance of work for their church and its mission? How might the faith and work movement help pastors and seminaries to embrace ministry models that equip men and women to serve Christ in the wide array of professions in our culture today? And why is this so […]

Jeff Haanen
An Interview with Bill Kurtz, CEO of DSST Public Schools

A decade ago, with a 55 percent dropout rate, Denver Public Schools had become a “dropout epicenter.” But where most saw a hopeless situation, Bill Kurtz saw opportunity. Since founding Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) in 2003, the growing network of schools has produced stunning results: Average ACT scores rose to 24.6 (the […]

Jeff Haanen
What Mary Poplin Taught Us About Being a Christian Teacher in Public Education

In a previous post, I summarized an interview I did with Dr. Mary Poplin, Professor of Education at Claremont Graduate University. In the previous post, Poplin challenged constructivism, shared her findings with highly effective teachers, and encouraged teachers to teach about religion in public schools in a way that is fair and truthful to each […]

Jeff Haanen
What it Means to Follow Christ as a Public School Teacher

Being a public school teacher is tough — especially as a committed Christian. My mother was a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher for 35 years, my sister a middle school math teacher, and my wife has taught Spanish (and now young children) for nearly a decade. Over the years, the challenges for them have been […]

Jeff Haanen
Discovering the Soul of Education

An old saying suggests that educators teach their pupils “reading, writing and ‘rithmatic,” but the work they do, in thousands of classrooms every day, has deeper implications for the hearts and minds of our nation’s students.In addition to parents, teachers often serve as the strongest intellectual and moral influence in a young person’s life. The […]

Jeff Haanen
Education and Christian Faith

As soon as Christians bring up the topic of faith and education, they quickly divide into two camps. On one side are those that argue passionately for educational equity, and see the foundational expression of the Christian faith in public education as one of equal access and “closing the achievement gap.” Here, justice is the issue. […]

Jeff Haanen
What One Education CEO Has to Say About Faith and the Work of Teaching

Recently Christianity Today published my essay on Bill Kurtz, CEO of Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST). Having learned about Kurtz only this last Fall, his work was relatively new to me. As a charter school leader, and one who had spoken at both Q Cities Denver and at the Center for Faith & […]

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