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 schools across the United States have been working with the Common Core since 2010. To date, 45 of 50 states have adopted the standards as benchmarks for math and English language arts for K-12 students. Michigan's Department of Education adopted the standards in 2010.

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.

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. – MANS

Our ACS curriculum committees have been carefully studying the standards as part of our ongoing review process. 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, at ACS, each of these areas is addressed through the lens of our faith. 

In summary, the CCSS:

• started with the end in mind – college and career readiness.
• were built on states’ best practices with the assistance of educators.
• require evidence of learning.
• focus on what is “essential.”
• is not a curriculum, rather a set of clear, consistent, rigorous standards that ACS will use as a floor, not a ceiling in Language Arts and Math.
• allow local flexibility for school districts, like ACS, to set its own curriculum.
• provide common expectations across our global and mobile society.
• emphasize thinking, reasoning, writing, informational text, and asking students to support a stand – a significant move towards higher order thinking skills.

Why we care about the CCSS:

• They are our state standards.
• They are improved state standards.
• The next generation of state assessments are based on them.
• They can improve our teaching and learning for students.
• They have opened up a rich wealth of best practice resources to educators across the country.
• They provide us with local flexibility to set our own curriculum to be taught from a Christian perspective.

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 your children to our care. We are grateful for your partnership!