Iowa BIG places a high value on experiential and contextualized learning—learning that can be applied to many different contexts, not just separated out by subjects and lessons. This means Iowa BIG focuses on meaningful and relevant experiences that allow students to learn academic content in a real-world context instead of through traditional means. Students simultaneously master and apply academic knowledge and skills while tackling authentic community needs and learning important business approaches like the Agile Mindset. These needs come in the form of “initiatives” that are generated by community partners or by students themselves that must meet several criteria: address authentic local needs, support interdisciplinary learning, and be rigorously co-designed by students, teachers, and partners to meet Iowa state standards. Because Iowa BIG is a fully competency-based environment, each learner’s individual academic progress is carefully tracked and holistically assessed throughout each initiative.

Students add value to their community while they learn. Local partners see the value, smarts, and ambition students bring to the table, and students see the resources and opportunities that surround them in their own hometown. The challenges they take on range from advising city officials on how to improve their use of social media, creating a dance therapy curriculum to promote inclusion for people with special needs, investigating the use of drones for agriculture, to drafting a plan to redevelop an abandoned meatpacking property for recreation, to researching local water quality. Iowa BIG students worked with the Catherine McAuley Center, a nonprofit that works with immigrant and refugee families, to create a 20-plot garden for people who miss growing their own food. The value students bring is clear—demand from partners is now so great that Iowa BIG can select only the very best projects.

As a partnership among several school districts, this transformational learning system connects young people more deeply to the community and its institutions, while also opening up rigorous, real-world learning for students across the metropolitan region. The community sees young people as assets, and young people see themselves as meaningful contributors to their hometown and the world. Students and districts learn from Iowa BIG’s innovative approach to assessment, real-world learning, and community engagement. Students from other districts can join, too, and their districts pay tuition. The model has great promise and can serve as inspiration for districts across the country looking to pool local resources, provide students with deep and inspiring learning opportunities, and dissolve barriers between communities and their high schools.