Lutheran Academic Standards near completion

By Mary Henrichs

“The Holy Scriptures are not only the foundation of faith but also the framework for understanding every discipline,” reads the introduction to the newly drafted Lutheran Academic Standards. The standards, which were called for by Resolution 12-01A at the 2023 convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), offer guidance for integrating Lutheran identity into the teaching of history, English/language arts, science, mathematics and fine arts.

Acknowledging that schools already operate under a variety of grade-level standards that vary state by state, committee member Dr. Lisa Clark, senior editor of curriculum resources for Concordia Publishing House (CPH), explained the committee’s approach to composing standards that would fill a current gap: “We wanted to look at a picture of a [Lutheran school] graduate. … We didn’t necessarily worry about writing down, ‘Kids will learn addition or multiplication.’ Those kinds of things are going to be covered by other standards.

“But what, specifically, does a Lutheran school bring to make sure that by the time our kids are graduates … they think about science as a Christian? That they look at literature through the lens of the Word of God? What kind of things make us stand out, distinct from other schools and other standards?” Clark continued.

“Theology — religion — isn’t just a class,” said Dr. James Pingel, committee member and dean of the School of Education at Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor, describing the new standards’ approach. “As Lutherans, especially under the Lutheran tradition of vocation, we see God in all things, in all subject areas, all vocations. … [Jesus] is our beginning, our all, our everything.”

At the start of the process two-and-a-half years ago, Dr. Alan Freeman, then director of LCMS School Ministry, made it a priority to assemble a team with a wide variety of educational perspectives and backgrounds, aiming to make the standards useful across all Lutheran school modalities, including classical and traditional schools, homeschools, micro-schools and more.

Ultimately, the team comprised 12 members, including two who were on the original floor committee that presented the resolution at the 2023 convention: Eun Chu Kim, education executive for the LCMS Pacific Southwest District, and Dr. Christopher Cody, then education executive for the LCMS South Wisconsin District, now principal at Martin Luther High School in Greendale, Wis. Members of the team paired off to draft standards for a specific subject area, which the committee then revised as a group.

“There were a lot of incredible discussions,” said Freeman. “You can really see [in the committee] the love and passion for our school ministries, for the work of our educators, our administrators and those who serve in our schools.”

As the standards were developed, the committee sought feedback from Lutheran school teachers and administrators, holding numerous focus groups, including at the Lutheran Education Association Convocation in St. Louis in October 2025. Eventually, after the standards are published and a report on their completion is presented at the 2026 Synod convention, they will be incorporated into Standard Five of National Lutheran School Accreditation (NLSA), which focuses on written curriculum and instruction.

For this first iteration of the standards, the committee focused on what they considered the core academic subjects, making a point not to omit fine arts, largely due to the importance of “our Lutheran heritage of music,” explained Freeman. In the future, the standards could expand to cover even more disciplines, such as physical education.

Pingel expressed hope that the standards would be well used: “I hope it’s a living, breathing document that inspires, informs, encourages and uplifts Lutheran educators, and not one where they feel like, ‘It’s one more thing I have to comply with.’”

Clark agreed, hoping that the standards work to “complement, supplement and enhance” what Lutheran schools are already doing.

Previously, Clark took part in developing Lutheran Religion Standards for Lutheran schools, which offer goalposts for each grade level’s knowledge of the Lutheran faith and can be found at lutheranschools.org. The new standards, on the other hand, address the place of religious education in subjects beyond religion class.

“As a Lutheran educator who loves Lutheran schools, this has always been a crucial point for me: We are not just some private schools that have a religion class that students can pay attention to or not, but our faith breathes through everything that we do — our discipline, our lunchroom, everything — and of course, that applies to our subjects as well,” said Clark.

As the preface to the standards expresses, Lutheran schools are meant to raise up young Lutherans to be firm in their baptismal faith: “By embedding apologetics and a biblical worldview into all learning, Lutheran Academic Standards prepare students to engage the world as faithful witnesses of Christ.”

The committee will meet again in March to finalize the standards, insofar as they can be finalized, and give them to CPH for publication in May or June of this year. Said Freeman, “We don’t really call it a finished product, because it’s always ongoing — curriculum is always ongoing and tweaked. But it has a great foundation for us to continue to build on.”

Mary Henrichs (mary.henrichs@lcms.org) is a staff writer for LCMS Communications.

Posted Feb. 3, 2026