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LOWER SCHOOL CURRICULUM

 
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LCA offers a college preparatory curriculum based on a Christian perspective of education. The most suitable materials and resources have been selected to aid in accomplishing our objectives. LCA’s Core Curriculum is based on educational goals and objectives that have been developed through reviewing the State of Georgia performance standards, national education guidelines, and selective publisher’s curriculum guides. Benchmarks have been put in place for each subject and grade to aid in holding to this set of standards.

LCA uses a variety of publishers for its curriculum. Textbooks are chosen with much research, thought, and prayer. Both secular and Christian texts are evaluated for their academic soundness and their appropriateness in relationship to our Christian environment.

In 2013, LCA implemented a dedicated Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) course work through the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) STEM curriculum. The PLTW STEM program brings a whole new world of possibilities to LCA students through a comprehensive and robust program that embraces real-world applications. For more information on the STEM program and our state-of-the-art STEM labs, visit our STEM page.

COMMON CORE

Over the course of the past few years, the term “Common Core” has come to elicit a strong reaction from many people. Common Core was developed by a group of governors in an effort to provide consistent standards for schools across the nation on a grade by grade basis.  While there may be other implications for Common Core implementation in public schools, we want to be clear about LCA’s position.

Since inception, LCA has used state and national standards as a minimum benchmark to develop our curriculum guides. When the State of Georgia adopted Common Core in math and English, our team went to work reviewing the new standards. In every case, we found that our standards surpassed these new minimum requirements.

So, how does Common Core affect students enrolled at LCA?

Testing
As mentioned previously, LCA has always maintained standards that far surpass what is required by Common Core. We believe, however, that it is imperative to be knowledgeable about any changes to the minimum requirements in either depth or breadth of content to ensure that our students are prepared for nationally standardized testing.

Curriculum Guides
At LCA curriculum guides are living, breathing documents. These include not only the standards set for each grade level in every subject area but also lesson plans that ensure learning. Our faculty spends hours developing and updating lesson plans from year to year that are in line with LCA’s mission statement and promote a biblical worldview. 

Textbooks
There is no doubt that you may see the words “Common Core” stamped on a textbook. Since the public school market far surpasses the Christian school market, publishers utilize this stamp as a marketing tool for their materials. 

Members of the academic administration, along with several faculty members, carefully weigh publisher options against the school’s curriculum guides in each subject area and grade level before determining the recommended adoption.

It is important to recall that textbooks are just one tool utilized by our classroom teachers. Content is continually filtered through a biblical lens.

Methods
Common Core does not dictate methods. Our faculty has full control over what content is taught and how it is presented. No compromise to our biblical foundation has or will be made.