As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 292 students and 27.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.6:1. The school's student body was 51.4% (150) White, 20.9% (61) Asian, 11.3% (33) Hispanic, 9.9% (29) Black and 6.5% (19) two or more races.[2]
Academics
Eastern Christian follows a program called "Faith in Action" in which every student in the high school is required to complete a certain amount of volunteer hours in order to get their high school diploma.
ECHS offers seven different Humanities and STEM Fields concentrations. Just like a college major, these concentrations allow students to identify their budding interests and talents, then develop skills in a focus area.[5]
Project Acceleration is a set of courses designated for dual credit, which allow a student to receive both high school credit toward a diploma and also college credit from a specified institution. Eastern Christian High School has dual credit courses which are offered in an online format and also dual credit courses which are offered in our classrooms in partnership with Seton Hall University in our Project Acceleration program. Upon completion of a course, the student may receive credits on a college transcript.[6]
For Academic Support, ECHS aspires to help students with academic subject areas study skills, and self-advocacy delivered in three ways:
The least restrictive environment is being enrolled in the resource room (offered on an alternating or daily basis.) This is a credit class that includes study skills and help with a student's current academic schedule.
A greater degree of service is through an inclusion model. Supported through EC staff or County services as in-class support. Teachers with expertise in differentiation work alongside high school staff. As we make the curriculum more accessible for students who learn differently, all students benefit. (Universal design)
The highest level of intervention is a remediation class that parallels the grade level college prep curriculum.
While ECHS does support students in all academic areas, their most common differentiation takes place in English, Language Arts, and Math.[7]
As the oldest and largest Christian day school in the New York Metropolitan area, Eastern Christian is also affiliated with Christian Schools International, which includes 425 school systems in the United States and Canada. The faculty is New Jersey State certified with an average teaching experience of 15 years; almost half having earned advanced degrees.[8]
Athletics and extracurricular activities
The Eastern Christian Eagles[3] participate in the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference, which consists of small-enrollment schools in Bergen, Hudson, Morris and Passaic counties. The high school offers 23 teams across 12 sports with 252 students participating in at least one of these offerings.
While 60% of students are involved in the athletic program, ECHS also offers a range of other activities to meet student interests. These include fencing, fly fishing, musical production, astronomy, robotics, gardening and more.
Antonique Smith (born 1983), actress/singer best known for her starring role as Mimi in Jonathan Larson's Broadway production of Rent and starred as Faith Evans in the film Notorious[15][16]
^"Brain Awarded Physiology Doctorate", Paterson News, July 11, 1966. Accessed December 27, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "Dr. Brain, a graduate of Eastern Christian High School, North Haledon, and Taylor University, Upland, Ind., will be a research associate and teacher in the physiology department at Harvard."
^Hotz, Alexander. "Girls visit Oprah, meet teen idols", Glen Rock Gazette, May 9, 2008. Accessed December 27, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "The Jonas Brothers are composed of three brothers: Joe, Nick, and Kevin. They are originally from Wyckoff, and attended Eastern Christian High School in North Haledon."
^ abcOrr, Tamara. The Jonas Brothers, p. 17. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011. ISBN1-4358-3572-7. Accessed July 11, 2011. "Eastern Christian High School is a small private school in North Haledon, New Jersey.... Famous graduates include actresses Katie Sagona and Antonique Smith, and Alex Noyes, the drummer for the band Honor Society."