Why Choose CKS?

Christ the King school follows an educational curriculum approved by the Catholic Diocese of Des Moines and is fully accredited by the state of Iowa. All classroom teachers are licensed by the State of Iowa and hold endorsements essential to their position.

Our educational efforts are directed at developing reading and writing competency and math proficiency. We proudly offer this challenging academic environment, complemented by a well-rounded fine arts department of art, music and physical education. A full complement and variety of extracurricular and athletic activities are also available.

Every classroom is equipped with new laptop computers. An excellent teacher to student ratio ensures each student receives a personalized, quality education that remains faith-based.

The religious formation of children is the primary reason for the existence of Catholic schools. Thus, Christ the King School’s religious education program is of special curricular importance. Scripture, doctrine, prayer, and liturgy are related to children at their developmental level, beginning with their own experiences. Prayer is an important part of the day. It begins and ends each day, lunchtime and is experienced daily in religion class.

All children have the opportunity to celebrate liturgy together at least once a week. Mass is scheduled for Thursday at 8:40 AM. Parents, grandparents, and friends are invited to attend school liturgies. Throughout the year students have the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation during the school day. Special service opportunities, renewal days and seasonal activities are shared throughout the year, as well.

Using Best-Practices and Universal Principles

The Leader in Me is aligned with best-in-class content and concepts practiced by global education thought leaders. It provides a logical, sequential and balanced process to help schools proactively design the culture that reflects their vision of the ideal school.

Content from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a key component of the overall The Leader in Me process. The 7 Habits is a synthesis of universal, timeless principles of personal and interpersonal effectiveness, such as responsibility, vision, integrity, teamwork, collaboration, and renewal, which are secular in nature and common to all people and cultures.  Click here for a synopsis of the habits in kids’ language.

This program is designed to teach the proper writing standards needed to help our students be successful.  We felt as a team we needed a supplement to our Journeys and our team researched different programs and felt this was the best fit for our students at CKS.  We are implementing this program to our 2-5 grade students.  Here is the link if you would like more information on Write Steps:   http://www.writestepswriting.com/

Star 360, the leading interim and formative assessment, lights the learning path for grade-level domain mastery down to the sub-skill level. You’ll see precisely what students have mastered, the goals they need to reach, and the optimal path to proficiency. In less than 20 minutes, one-third the time of other assessments, you’ll gain valid, reliable insights to make informed decisions, personalize learning, and lead every student to mastery.  https://www.renaissance.com/products/assessment/star-360/

Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn’t know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions. A student who shows a high level of mastery of an ALEKS course will be successful in the actual course she is taking.    https://www.aleks.com/about_aleks
ALEKS also provides the advantages of one-on-one instruction, 24/7, from virtually any Web-based computer for a fraction of the cost of a human tutor.