Dear ACS Families,
In the past several months there has been some public debate about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This letter is intended to provide information about the Common Core and explain Ada Christian School's response to and use of these standards. The Common Core is a national state-led initiative designed to ensure that students graduating from high school will be well prepared to enter college or the work force. The Common Core is not a curriculum. Rather, it is a set of clear and concise standards that provide all parents, teachers, and students with a solid understanding of learning expectations in reading, writing, speaking, listening, language, and mathematics. Public and private schools across the United States have been working with the Common Core since 2010. To date, 45 of 50 states, including the Michigan Department of Education, have adopted the standards as benchmarks for math and English language arts for K-12 students.
Faith-based schools throughout Michigan have studied the Common Core to determine its relevance for their mission. Recently, the Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools (MANS), a professional organization representing Christian, Catholic, and Lutheran schools of which ACS is a member, affirmed its support of the Common Core as a set of high-quality academic expectations and an essential component in the alignment of K-12 curriculum in order to prepare students for career and college readiness. According to MANS, "The Common Core State Standards establish clear and measurable goals that assist teachers seeking best instructional methods for educating students and can be effectively woven into MANS schools' already successful faith-based curriculum content."
We are first and foremost Ada Christian School and there are no standards that will change the faith-based lens through which we approach the teaching of the covenant children that have been entrusted to our care! Our ACS curriculum committees have an established process for review and recommendation of curriculum. Teachers are surveyed with regard to current practice; examination copies are requested from a variety of publishing houses and each of them is studied and evaluated by groups of teachers. Careful review of the standards has always been a part of our ongoing process. The resource that rises to the top will often be piloted in a grade or two and then reevaluated and prayerfully considered before a proposal is made to our Education Committee.
We can use math as an example of how we blend resources to insure a rich curriculum. Our ACS teachers serving on our Math Curriculum Committee recognized a reduction in daily skill practice in the new State Standards. As a result, we decided to supplement the My Math resources with daily skill practice materials that we have used for the past several years. We value and see the importance of students knowing their math facts, while appreciating the importance of higher order thinking skills the My Math resources encourage.
ACS has the freedom to set our own curriculum and use the best resources available. As one of our ACS teachers commented, "... parents need to know that we are not throwing out our many years of experience in the teaching of kids all for what some politicians are saying is important. We are giving students the tools needed to think and solve math problems."
The Common Core State Standards are only one of many resources we use in curriculum development to assist us with the alignment of our K-8 curriculum. ACS is known to have a rigorous academic program that seeks to exceed, not just meet, identified standards. This has not changed. In addition to strong Language Arts and Math instruction, our students are blessed with outstanding opportunities in the areas of Science, History, the Fine Arts and Physical Education. Most importantly, each of these areas is addressed through the lens of our faith.
In all curriculum decisions made at Ada Christian School, you can be assured that our mission of equipping students for service in God's world is central to discerning not only what we teach but also how we teach your children. Thank you for entrusting them to our care. We are grateful for your partnership!
In His Service,
Melissa S. Brower, Principal
Julie DeKoster, Assistant Principal
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