Teacher Accountability and Student Assessment:
At Lake Country Academy we value assessment and evaluation as part of the learning process to assist the teacher in making appropriate education decisions. Every child learns at their own pace, no child will be allowed to fall below class standards. Weekly testing in reading and math help our teachers understand whether your child is on track and mastering the material.
Conversely, if your child's abilities exceed the grade level in reading and math, they will be taught accordingly. We feel teaching children means teaching to their highest capability without holding them back. We feel that teachers are wholly responsible for your child's performance.
Core Knowledge
Core Knowledge Sequence is the result of research into the content and structure of the highest performing school systems around the world. Core Knowledge is a detailed outline of specific content to be taught in language, arts, history, geography, math, science and the fine arts. It was the collaborative effort of educators and field professionals from across the country organized by the Core Knowledge Foundation.
As the basis of at least 50% of a school's curriculum, this collection of knowledge spells out clearly for parents, teachers, and students a very detailed core of knowledge that all children should know. It is sequenced to avoid gaps in learning or wasteful repetitions. This guarantees students have the necessary background preparation for successive classes. There are currently over 800 schools using this program across the country.
Additional information on Core Knowledge can be found at the following link:
http://www.coreknowledge.org
Core Virtues
What about character training? Is it something schools should teach? How do you teach patriotism, honesty, loyalty, hard work, etc.? Whose values are you teaching?
When they set about the delicate business of instituting a republican government for the first democracy in modern times, the American Founders assumed one thing: democracy in American would succeed only if her citizens were both "knowledgeable" and "virtuous". If youth is our future, educators must join parents in stressing the virtues.
The Core Virtues Program Lake Country Academy uses is a practical, non-sectarian approach to moral development. We promote basic moral, civic, and intellectual virtues such as: respect, responsibility, diligence, honesty, generosity, perseverance, courage, faithfulness, compassion, openness to inquiry, reason, and humility in the face of facts. These are virtues that we can all agree upon.
The program promotes the virtues by staff and students modeling the behavior, through classic literature that reinforces positive behaviors, and by focusing on historical and current people who have made or are making a difference. History has many examples of strong men and women who, when confronted with difficulty, temptation, danger, and vice, win though perhaps at great personal cost and sacrifice. Their heroism will inspire young minds when they ask, "Who will I be like?"
A random selection of literature could include: King Midas and the Golden Touch (self-control); Paul Revere's Ride (courage); "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech by Patrick Henry (civic courage); Song of Hiawatha (gratitude); and Dicken's, A Christmas Carol (generosity).
Lake Country Academy will join you in your effort to inspire your children to be good people!
Direct Instruction
This is a highly researched curriculum and teaching method that has been extensively field-tested and proven to work. In a typical classroom, you will see teacher led instruction with rapid pacing, frequent group responses. The teacher is following a very detailed lesson plan with over 30 years in development.
Each lesson has been field-tested and proven successful with 90% of the children in test schools or it is returned for improvement. Their program features: skills communicated with logical precision in discrete, child-sized bits; careful measurement of mastery, rapid correction of mistakes, strict schedules, and early emphasis on phonics and computation; and continual review to integrate old skills with new.
Parents like Direct Instruction because their children are in small learning groups, struggling students are not left behind while the class progresses, and students who have mastered the material are not held back.
Lake Country Academy is the only school within 80 miles to offer this curriculum.
Rated Best Method
"Direct Instruction was one of only two elementary programs rated "Best" out of 24 popular school reform methods in a report from the Washington-based independent American Institutes for Research. This research was commissioned by the National Education Association, the American Association of School Administrators, The American Federation of Teachers, The National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
300 to 500% Improvement
Siefert Elementary, a Milwaukee school riddled with social challenges, advanced dramatically after two years of Direct Instruction. The 4th grade class jumped nearly 300% in reading in one year. Their math scores increased over 300% and their social studies scores improved nearly 500%.
State Representative Terri McCormick, author of a proposed education reform bill, supports Direct Instruction as a method of teaching. McCormick states "This is a fine example of 'no excuse' education. Research says it's the methods, not the number in the classroom."
Want to know the nitty-gritty of Direct Instruction? Want to know the educational research that supports Direct Instruction? We invite you to check out the following web sites. We think it is important to be able to back up what we do with scientifically verifiable research done with real children.
American Federation of Teachers
Association for Direct Instruction
American Association of School Administrators
Education Week on the Web
