ACT Quality Core Curriculum Implementation Plan 2010-2013Grove City Christian School

**Please refer to the Quality Core website at www.act.org/qualitycore/

Purpose: The purpose of choosing Quality Core Curriculum (QC) is to improve the quality, rigor, consistency and permanence of the core high school courses taught at GCCS thereby preparing our students to be college ready when they graduate. QC curriculum was developed as the result of studies done by ACT that showed even students who pass their state graduation tests and attend “blue ribbon” schools were not scoring at or above the “college readiness” standards on the ACT test (see Using Data). In short, students, who have been taught at what are defined by the Dept. of Education as excellent schools, are not ready for college. The mission of GCCS, to cultivate quality Christian leaders in a distinctively Christian atmosphere while providing a solid spiritual and academic foundation, calls us to provide an excellent education for students which should include a curriculum that challenges, motivates and prepares our students for life after high school. QC curriculum is “designed to help ensure that the outcomes of high school preparatory courses are aligned with essential postsecondary skills” and is based on research. Four hundred high schools who have graduates with higher than national average “college readiness” indicators were identified and studied. Course offerings, teaching styles, teaching philosophies, lesson plans, assessment types and level of rigor were observed and studied. The result is a series of core high school classes with high-level standards and consistent rigor. “ These courses include: English 9,10,11,12, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 and US History. Details of Quality Core Curriculum: QC is a comprehensive curriculum that acts as a guide for teachers to help them assess their current course and work to align that course with the QC standards and rigor. This allows teachers to use their professional training and creativity to meet the needs of all of their students. QC is not a cut and paste curriculum that is one size fits all. Teachers will be provided with a set of Educators Resources that they will have in hard copy and be able to access online. These resources include College Readiness standards, course description and sample syllabus, course outline and instructional units, a model instructional unit, guidelines for development of instructional units and quarterly assessment pool. Quality Core benchmark assessments are to be given after the appropriate set of benchmarks is covered in units throughout the year. These assessments are graded by the teacher and used to guide the direction of the class. Each course also has an end-of-course assessment to help educators assess the level of college readiness of their students and to help guide the development of their course for the next school year. This assessment is given formally and evaluated by the ACT quality core people and reported to GCCS.

Implementation:A. Teaching Staff:

QC is designed to promote a team approach to implementation. The keys to effective implementation is to create a supportive environment where teachers are given the time needed to learn about the QC components and are encouraged to think creatively and try new strategies in the classroom. Creating “study teams” helps to develop a deep understanding of the components presented because it relies on collegial collaboration and encourages analysis, discussion, problem solving, and solution sharing. Teachers within a discipline will meet regularly to utilize the Educator Guide “Modules ” created by Quality Core to help implement this program