Unleashing human potential using a student-driven, project-based approach.

Serving four high schools in two districts, Iowa BIG is a collaborative high school program in downtown Cedar Rapids where more than 100 students choose projects that partner deeply with their community. Iowa BIG was born out of a community-wide initiative to rebuild and reimagine Cedar Rapids following a catastrophic flood in 2008. As part of this process, residents looked at their schools and realized they wanted a more engaging educational experience for their students. BIG launched in 2013 in collaboration with the Cedar Rapids School District and the nearby College Community School District, expanding its reach after becoming an XQ Super School in 2016.

Through this ongoing collaboration, BIG shows how to make smart use of time, space, and tech with a nontraditional school day that enables students to go deep into their subjects and projects. Students typically join the BIG community in 11th or 12th grade and earn credits in English, social studies, and business. While most students at BIG spend about half their time continuing to take courses in their home high schools, their experience at BIG is transformative by focusing on five major tenets:

  1. Students choose or pitch projects they care about
  2. Projects are interdisciplinary 
  3. Projects must have an outside community or industry partner
  4. The success of a project is not what determines a grade; rather, the students work to achieve mastery
  5. Learning also includes seminars, like college

Educators and leaders at Iowa BIG design student learning experiences to release responsibility for time, space, assessment, and curriculum to the student. Each student manages a Google calendar with appointments, meetings, and work time. Projects can touch upon state standards in many ways. For subject matter that doesn’t appear authentically (for example, Algebra II), teachers offer seminars for students to learn the standards not directly touched. 

Student projects create a real impact on community members and the local environment. They range from advising city officials on improving their use of social media to creating a dance therapy curriculum to promote inclusion for people with special needs. Students have also investigated the use of drones for agriculture, drafted plans to redevelop an abandoned meatpacking property for recreation, and researched local water quality for residents. Iowa BIG’s partnership with neighboring school districts is uniquely generous. The districts provide teachers and support BIG financially, covering part of the rent, the director’s salary, and equipment expenses. 

Iowa BIG’s first magnet high school, City View, opened in 2023. Unlike BIG, it’s a school, not a program. And because it’s for grades 9-12, educators give students more guidance in their early years until they become more independent in project-based learning.

Student Outcomes

Because BIG’s students remain officially enrolled in their home high schools, the state does not report data on them separately. However, Iowa BIG’s leaders were able to share ACT scores for 21 BIG students who graduated in 2022 from Cedar Rapids High School and XQ analyzed this data in comparison with ACT’s 2022 data

Those students had an average ACT score of about 22 compared with a statewide average of about 21 and just under 20 nationally.

In XQ’s survey of the class of 2022, an overwhelming 97 percent of graduates reported feeling at least somewhat prepared for the future, including nine in ten saying Iowa BIG helped them develop collaboration skills that will serve them well as adults. When asked what strengths they had developed in high school that made them feel prepared, 92 percent pointed to “collaboration [and] working in groups”—a big testament to BIG’s highly collaborative, project-based learning model.

Circuit Board
“I believe that teenagers are our most underutilized resource. To witness the energy that a group of passionate students can build toward a common goal in an unrestrictive environment is inspirational and, at times, jaw-dropping.”

Becky Herman

Teacher

“I really wanted to be involved in the community and help people, and BIG helped me discover the career I want to go into.”

Lydia Nichols

Class of 2023

“It made me realize how much of a difference I can make. If I am determined enough and passionate enough to get something done, I can do it.”

Anna

Class of 2022