The Independent Curriculum Group, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization since 2009, is a learning community of engaged academic leaders and schools working to promote the transformation of teaching and learning. Collaborating through our Partner Program and our events, resources, and services, individuals and institutions build capacity in the development of effective curriculum based on their unique missions and the special resources, needs, talents, and passions of their own communities of educators and learners.
We are currently a consortium of more than 130 schools who have come together for conversation, the sharing of questions and ideas, and the exchange of resources around every aspect of teaching and learning. We began nearly 15 years ago as a small group of schools, public and private, interested in developing advanced curriculum that is school-created, but since our formative years we have taken on a broader and even more affirmative mission of helping educators and schools in every aspect of programming--curriculum in the broadest sense. In 2015 we published our Principles of Independent Curriculum, which we view as a kind of academic gloss on such seminal documents as the Progressive Education Association's Principles of Progressive Education from the 1930s and the Coalition of Essential Schools Common Principles.
A number of schools in our Partnership community have been CES members in the past, and we count among our small group of non-private schools one of the great Coalition schools, the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School.
We would love to see our community grow to include more public and charter schools--our low "regular" Partner fee of $150 per year can be waived for schools that can document a significant (greater than fifty percent) enrollment of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. We embrace the ideals of the Coalition and hope that we can exchange organizational partnerships.
Webinars on many aspects of curriculum and academic program; residential retreats for school-based academic leaders; currently planning podcast series and regional face-to-face conferences and "conversations" on curriculum, assessment, student-centered teaching and learning experiences.
At the moment we do not track employment and career opportunities at our Partner Schools and Organizations, but we anticipate entering this arena within the next several years.