What Parents should know about American Curriculum Education

Ignite School is an authentic American school which utilizes the rigorous U.S. Common Core curriculum. When the common Core curriculum was developed, creators researched curricula from all around the globe. The purpose was to design a curriculum that was comprehensive and comparable to the best in the world. Each U.S state was encouraged to adopt the U.S. Common Core standards and tweak them to suit meet their states’ population and needs.

Ignite School has chosen the New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) because it is a challenging evidence-based curriculum which is rigorous and relevant to the real world.  We do not focus solely on curriculum, we shape creative and innovative “citizens of the world” through a sustainable student-centered learning environment fostering a sense of student well-being. We seek to instill exemplary character and life-long learning skills in our students through the School Life (well-being) program and extra-curricular activities. Every Ignite School learner will feel welcome, happy, accepted, safe and valued. The New York curriculum has also resulted in a high level of parent satisfaction with the New York State learning experience and a high-quality model which integrates parent involvement, which we believe is beneficial to the UAE students and families.

The benefits of an American curriculum based on U.S. Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) are abundant.

• The standards are internationally benchmarked
• Many of the CCLS evaluate multiple skills within each question, allowing for a greater development in critical thinking and problem-solving. Reading, writing, and other key subjects are still required and evaluated.
• CCLS make it possible for the teachers of a student to track their individualized progress throughout the year with greater detail, allowing for customized plans to be developed that can address any potential deficiencies right away.
• Students who are in a CCLS program have a better understanding of what they are learning and why they are learning it.
• In the past, it was simply good enough for a student to come up with the correct answer.CCLS forces students to do more than find the correct answer. They must also be able to show how they arrived at their specific answer and then be able to appropriately defend it.

Challenges faced by those new to Common Core Learning Standards

• The adoption of these CCLS forced some school and parents to invest heavily into computers and other technologies that would allow students to access the internet just so they could be evaluated in their progress. As we move into the 21^st century, digital learning has become a key component in the learning process for students. We are preparing our students for careers of the future…many of which have yet to be created
• Students aren’t being taught the way parents were taught. This can frequently lead to angst and confusion when parents try to assist students with their learning…the new methodology of CCLS does however, create greater opportunities for students to achieve a true understanding of each skill.
• Textbooks…text books are no longer the driving force in the curriculum….learning standards are. Parents and even some teachers still want to ‘cover’ the textbook. With CCLS, the standards are the curriculum and the textbook is ‘one’ resource used to support the curriculum. Thus, teaching an entire textbook from cover to cover, is not standards-based teaching. Standards-based teaching teaches to the standards of what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. Ignite School follows the New York State Common Core learning Standards which can be accessed here STANDARDS.