Iowa Core Curriculum: Updates from the ICC Committee

You may or may not be aware of the fact that the state of Iowa has implemented legislation to help improve Iowa schools. This legislation is titled “Iowa Core” and focuses on 6 major outcome areas for Iowa schools to focus on:
• Outcome 1: Shared Leadership within Schools
• Outcome 2: Community Involvement and Participation in Schools
• Outcome 3: Continuous School Improvement Utilizing Iowa Core Characteristics
• Outcome 4: Curriculum Alignment with Iowa Core Essential Skills
• Outcome 5: Professional Development for Faculty Members
• Outcome 6: Effective Instruction and Best Practices Used in Classrooms

For the past year and a half, OCCS has developed an Iowa Core Committee that has been working on our alignment to the Iowa Core. Committee members include: Ardene Huisman, Nicki Kuiper, Kim Philipsen, Dan Van Ruler, Sheila Van Den Brink, and Melanie Witt. Through the work of this committee, several action items have already been accomplished this past year, including the following:
• A vision statement for implementing the Iowa Core at OCCS has been written
• OCCS staff members, board members, and School Improvement Committee members have been introduced to the Iowa Core implementation process
• OCCS staff members have been introduced to the idea of curriculum mapping and will soon start to use a mapping program that will help us align and define our current curriculum
• New methods of collecting academic and behavioral data have been devised and will be used to drive our future curriculum decisions
• OCCS has been involved with other area Christian schools in joint professional development sessions revolving around Effective Instruction and Best Practices. These seminars have been organized and held at Dordt College. (There are additional seminars scheduled later this year as well.)

The Iowa Core Committee has more work to do this year, promises we’ve made to help OCCS achieve alignment with the Iowa Core:
• More communication will take place from the Iowa Core Committee to the OCCS staff, board, and community
• The OCCS staff will continue to learn and use curriculum mapping; future discussion will take place after the mapping process that will help teachers make more informed curriculum choices
• Further work will continue on collecting academic and behavioral data and using that to drive future curriculum decisions
• Iowa Core Essential Skills will be considered when making choices for future curriculum purchases for OCCS
• Options for service learning will be considered and implemented
• A rotation schedule for curriculum evaluation will be written so that OCCS will continually be looking at ways to improve each curricular area
• Teachers will work as a larger group and as smaller groups to discuss implementation of Effective Instruction practices
Our vision for Iowa Core Implementation reads:
As part of its mission statement, Orange City Christian School strives to provide ?academically sound, Scripturally-directed instruction ?to assist Christian parents in teaching their children ?to know God and His world, leading students to acquire knowledge, skills, and values ?to fulfill their calling as His servants. To that end, the Orange City Christian School staff considers different curricula and teaching practices to determine the best materials and practices to use in our education process. The Iowa Core Curriculum has components that may assist us in accomplishing our mission. A leadership team has been established to review, recommend, and integrate components of the Iowa Core Curriculum that fit appropriately into our Biblical framework.

The Iowa Core Committee at OCCS is committed to using the Iowa Core model to help improve instruction, assessment, curriculum alignment, and professional development to help our students better succeed at Orange City Christian School. If you have any questions about this work, please contact Nicki Kuiper. Future postings and information will be available on the OCCS website.