Smiling bald man with a short beard wearing a dark suit, patterned tie, and dress shirt outdoors.

Andrew Elizalde

I am on a mission to partner with classical Christian schools that would benefit from experienced academic leadership on a part-time basis. I am glad to serve your school as a fractional academic dean, help strengthen instruction, develop leaders, and advance your mission without the financial commitment of an additional full-time administrator.

My long-time work as an executive administrator has given me a broad experience in academic leadership and a deep appreciation for the responsibility of shepherding the hearts and minds of faculty and students. Consulting, mentoring emerging academic leaders, teaching cohorts, speaking at conferences, and serving on accreditation teams have also given me insight into the challenges schools share – and the practices that help them flourish. It is a great blessing to now be stewarding this experience for the good of the classical Christian school movement.

The kind of partnerships I enjoy are shaped around a school’s particular priorities. Areas of support can include developing academic leaders and faculty; strengthening curriculum and instruction; guiding significant projects or transitions; and establishing clear systems, policies, and practices. Throughout this work, I aim to build trust, foster collaboration, and help school leaders translate their vision into faithful, sustainable action.

I am open to a variety of arrangements, including initial, on-campus visits to understand your school’s needs, periodic on-campus time, and ongoing offsite work. My interest is in developing a sustained partnership that provides consistent support, meaningful relationships, and the capacity to carry important work through to completion. The scope, schedule, and structure of the partnership is developed together to fit your school’s needs and resources.

If this kind of partnership could serve your school – or a school you know – I would welcome an introductory conversation. I would be glad to hear about your needs and explore whether my experience could help strengthen the good work already underway.

  • Gordon College | Master of Arts in Leadership: Classical Schools | Wenham, MA (2023)
    California State University Long Beach | Teaching Credential in Mathematics | Long Beach, CA (2004)
    Depauw University | Bachelor of Arts: Math Major, Physics Minor | Greencastle, IN (2000)

  • Society for Classical Learning | Instructor for Cohort of Academic Deans (2021 - 2022)
    Covenant Classical School | Algebra I, Algebra II, Precalculus, Calculus; Physics (2014 - Present)
    Veritas School | Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Algebra II, Precalculus, Calculus; Physics (2010 - 2014)
    Collegiate School | Geometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus AP; Girls Soccer, XC, and Track (2006 - 2009)
    Palos Verdes High School | Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, Calculus AP; Girls Soccer (2004 - 2006)
    Richard Gahr High School | Algebra I, Geometry (2002 - 2004)

  • Covenant Classical School | Academic Dean, Lower School Head, Upper School Head (2014 - Present)
    Veritas School | Academic Dean, Lower School Head, Math & Science Chair (2010 - 2014)
    Palos Verdes High School | Research and Technology Integration Committee (2004 - 2006)

  • Presentation Highlights in Reverse Chronological Order

    Confessing, Believing, and Expecting the Truth (SCL Retreat 2026)
    Inspiring Teachers to be Lifelong Learners (SCL Fall Retreat 2023)
    Building a Thriving Faculty Culture (SCL Fall Retreat 2023)
    Bearing One Another’s Burdens in Community (JECA Faculty Retreat 2022)
    Shepherding the Hearts and Minds of Image-Bearers (JECA Faculty Retreat 2022)
    Stewarding an Ancient and Counter-Cultural Tradition (JECA Faculty Retreat 2022)
    Transforming Disordered Loves (JECA Faculty Retreat 2022)
    Renewing an Exemplary Commitment to Lifelong Learning (JECA Faculty Retreat 2022)
    Admissions Assessment and Placement (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2022)
    Hiring and Keeping Good-Fit Teachers (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2021)
    Project and Change Management (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2021)
    Self-Care and Personal Boundaries (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2021)
    Navigating Organizational Tensions (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2021)
    Observing and Evaluating Teachers (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2021)
    Supporting Exceptional Students (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2021)
    Critical Friends and Lesson Study (SCL Academic Dean Cohort 2021)
    Classical Elements of Singapore Mathematics Curriculum and Pedagogy (CCCA 2021)
    Counting Strategies, Number Bonds, and Number Composition (CCCA 2021)
    Teaching from the Concrete to the Pictorial to the Abstract (WHA 2021)
    Shaping the Mathematical Affections of Your Students (WHA 2021)
    Teaching from the Concrete to the Pictorial to the Abstract (DOM 2021)
    Awakening Wonder Through the Beauty of Mathematics (DOM 2021)
    Gateways to Building Intuition and Rigor (SCL Conference 2020)
    Mathematical Reasoning and Rhetoric (SCL Conference 2020)
    A History of Ineffective Reform and the Revival of Our Tradition (SCL Conference 2019)
    Inspiring Wonder and the Imagination (SCL Conference 2019)
    Storytelling and Memorable Metaphors (TCS 2019)
    Movement and Formative Liturgies (TCS 2019)
    Teaching Like Socrates Through Problem Solving (SCL Preconference 2018)
    The Beauty and Persuasive Power of Language (SCL Preconference 2018)
    The Socratic Method | Plato’s Meno (CHCS 2017)
    The Current Condition of Math Education and the Classical Response (CHCS 2017)
    Preparing and Supporting Parents Through Seasons of Academic Reform (JAA 2017)
    Pitfalls, Triumphs, and Measures of Success (JAA 2017)
    The Mathematical Experience (CCS Symposium 2017)
    Backward Curriculum Design for Humanity’s Sake (CCS Symposium 2017)
    The Priority of Transforming Pedagogy (SCL Preconference 2017)
    Addition, Subtraction, Bar-Modeling, and Algebraic Thinking (SCL Preconference 2017)
    Classical Christian Pedagogy (CDA 2017)
    Integrating Rhetoric in the Maths and Sciences (CDA 2017)
    Curriculum Mapping and Conceptual Threading (CDA 2017)
    Teaching Arithmetic Classically (SCL Conference 2017)
    Slaying Mathematical Dragons (SCL Conference 2017)
    An Introduction to Math Circles (SCL Conference 2016)
    Making Math Memorable (SCL Conference 2015)
    The Contagious Embodiment of Affections (SCL Retreat 2015)
    A Call to Self-Giving Love (SCL Retreat 2015)
    Essential Elements of Classical Christian Mathematics (SCL Conference 2014)
    Proof Writing as Mathematical Rhetoric (SCL Conference 2014)
    Teaching Mathematics Classically (SCL Preconference 2013)
    Habitus: Rhythms and Routines of a Class Schedule (SCL Conference 2013)
    The Beauty of Mathematics (TCA Conference 2012)

  • Transforming faculty culture
    Managing workflow, projects, and change
    Principles of UbD-based curriculum design and reform
    Observing and evaluating teachers
    Critical Friends Tuning Protocols
    Teaching mathematics classically
    Adopting a Singapore-based math curriculum

  • Regular coaching calls with teachers, chairs, academic deans, and divisional heads (since 2012)
    Mentorship of emerging academic leaders and administrators (since 2021)

  • SCL think tank regarding the launch of accreditation services (2023)
    Contributing author to SCL Thriving School Playbook standards 2-3 (2024)
    Accreditation team member re Classical Commitment and School Culture (since 2025)

  • I am committed to lifelong learning through the regular reading of great books. Listed below are just a few of the books that have shaped me personally and professionally.

    Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
    Aristotle, Rhetoric
    Augustine, On Christian Teaching
    Jerram Barrs, Echoes of Eden
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
    James Bradley and Russel Howell, Mathematics Through the Eyes of Faith
    William and Susan Bridges, Managing Transitions
    Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education
    John Byl, The Divine Challenge: On Matter, Mind, Math, and Meaning
    Stratford Caldecott, On the Re-Enchantment of Education
    Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain, The Liberal Arts Tradition
    Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium
    Cicero, On the Orator
    Don Clifton, Strengthfinders
    R. Connors, T. Smith, and C. Hickman, The Oz Principle
    Harris Cooper, The Battle Over Homework
    Edward P. J. Corbett, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student
    Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh, The Mathematical Experience
    Jeffry Davis and Philip Ryken, Liberal Arts for the Christian Life
    Stanislas Dahaene, The Number Sense
    David Dockery and Timothy George, The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking
    Norman Dodge, The Brain that Changes Itself
    Dunham, William, Journey through Genius
    Umberto Eco, Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages
    Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections
    Kieran Egan, Teaching as Storytelling
    Kieran Egan and Gillian Judson, Imagination and the Engaged Learner
    Euclid, Elements
    Anthony Esolen, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child
    Donald Fairbairn, Understanding Language
    Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline
    Gottlob Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic
    Howard Gardner, The Unschooled Mind
    Edward Grant, A History of Natural Philosophy
    John Milton Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching
    G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology
    Peter Harrison, The Territories of Science and Religion
    Eric A. Havelock, The Muse Learns to Write
    David D. Hicks, Norms and Nobility
    Arthur Holmes, Building the Christian Academy
    Russell Howell and James Bradley, Mathematics in a Postmodern Age
    James Davison Hunter, To Change the World
    H. E. Huntley, The Divine Proportion: A Study in Mathematical Beauty
    Robert and Ellen Kaplan, The Art of the Infinite: The Pleasures of Mathematics
    Robert and Ellen Kaplan, Out of the Labyrinth: Setting Mathematics Free
    George Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition
    George Kennedy, Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose, Composition, and Rhetoric
    Kho, The Singapore Model Method for Learning Mathematics
    Morris Kline, Morris, Why Johnny Can’t Add
    Christian Kopff, The Devil Knows Latin
    Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
    Abraham Kuyper, Wisdom and Wonder
    Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage
    Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
    Patrick Lencioni, Death by Meeting
    Patrick Lencioni, The Ideal Team Player
    Levi-Strauss, Claude, Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture
    C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
    Robert Littlejohn and Charles Evans, Wisdom and Eloquence
    Mario Livio, Is God a Mathematician?
    Paul Lockhart, A Mathematician's Lament
    Liping Ma, Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics 
    J. Gresham Machen, Education, Christianity, and the State
    Louis Markos, From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics
    Robert J. Marzano and Debra Pickering, Classroom Instruction that Works
    Rick Maurer, Beyond the Wall of Resistance
    John Mays, Teaching Science so that Students Learn Science
    Barry Mazur, Imagining Numbers
    Alister McGrath, The Open Secret
    Alister McGrath, The Science of God
    P. B. Medawar, The Limits of Science
    James Murphy, A Short History of Writing Instruction
    David Naugle, Philosophy: A Student’s Guide
    John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University
    Isaac Newton, Principles of Natural Philosophy
    Nicomachus of Gerasa, Introduction to Arithmetic
    James Nickel, Mathematics: Is God Silent?
    Albert Jay Nock, The Theory of Education in the United States
    Richard Gamble, The Great Tradition
    Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy
    J. I. Packer, Knowing God
    Nancy Pearcey, The Soul of Science
    Josef Pieper, Leisure, the Basis of Culture
    Josef Pieper, Faith, Hope, Love
    John Piper, Desiring God
    Plato, The Republic
    Plato, Meno
    Plato, Theaetetus
    Neil Postman, The End of Education
    Vern Poythress, Redeeming Science
    Vern Poythress, Redeeming Math
    Richard Riesen, Sport: A Christian Critique
    Richard Riesen, The Academic Imperative
    Philip Graham Ryken, Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts
    Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish Lessons
    Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning
    J. Schwartz and S. Begley, The Mind and the Brain
    D. Smith and S. M. Felch, Teaching and Christian Imagination
    David Smith, Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning
    James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom
    James K. A. Smith, Imagining the Kingdom
    Richard Sorabji, Aristotle on Memory
    J. Stigler and J. Hiebert, The Teaching Gap
    Ida J. Stockman, Movement and Action in Learning and Development
    Francis Su, Mathematics for Human Flourishing
    James Taylor, Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education
    E. Thelen and L. Smith, A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action
    Tedd Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart
    Stephen Turley, Awakening Wonder: A Classical Guide to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
    Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design
    Frances Yates, The Art of Memory

  • Bouldering and running
    Camping and backpacking
    Singing and songwriting
    Reading and discussing great books
    Volunteering at church
    Karaoke and pickleball with my wife

Professional, personal, and pastoral references available upon request.