CICS Northtown Academy Campus provides a rigorous, college preparatory education to all students, regardless of their academic ability. Three main components make up the curriculum: skills, content, and integration. The skills referred to are the academic skills outlined in the ACT College Readiness Standards. The Standards serve as a direct link between the skills students have learned and what they are ready to learn next. At CICS Northtown, the Standards are aligned with three achievement levels (basic, academic, and honors). Teachers constantly review skills gained as well as introduce skills that apply to the next achievement level. Teachers create innovative methods to teach the skills within the context of the dynamic content and integration that completes the curriculum.

The curriculum is content-based. During the sophomore, junior and senior years, students take a course of studies that examines chronologically World, American, and Western cultures. As freshmen, students study contemporary topics and issues in a heavily aligned program that integrates the study of biology and health with courses in communication and the social sciences. The curriculum and instruction develops students’ critical thinking skills through an emphasis on teaching conflicting interpretations and an orientation to controversy. The curriculum is dedicated to the civic purposes of education: preparing students for economic and personal success.