Expansion of IB & International Education more quickly
Currently we have 3 schools with an International Baccalaureate regimen, Ingraham, Sealth and a pilot program at Denny. This regimen creates a rigorous liberal arts college prep curriculum, which we sorely need to offer district wide.
Additionally, district mentions in the strategic plan, that 12 schools should be repurposed to International Education in the next 5 years, with 2 elementary to middle school to high school (4 schools) in each quadrant of the city. This “home grown” program currently exists at John Stanford, Beacon Hill and Hamilton Middle School, with waiting list at all schools because of program success and popularity. Currently, they are moving forward one school at a time.
My goal would be 20 International (language immersion) schools in the next five years, with either Spanish or Chinese taught from Pre-K on in EVERY school within the next 3 years. Language instruction hires leads to an abundance of high quality teachers. The cost of an International K-5 school is about $200,000 more per year than the average elementary school budget. (Start up expenses include: professional development, bilingual library and teaching and world culture materials.) BUT the “extra” expenses phase out when the entire staff is retrained and program fully developed. Our Stretch Goal = 8 IB high school strands in 5 years, and 40 language immersion models in next 8 years.
We can pay for start up expenses through outside grants and repurposing of certain funds in the general fund possibly from the city or School & Family Levy expansion.
As someone who has traveled to more countries than the number of my age, I strongly believe it is important to show children the culture of the world. Whether it be language, art, food or custom, American children need to learn both the importance of being grounded and the understanding that English is the universal language because of the vanity of our country; a vanity which is ignorant and incompetent. And there is no better way to start a process of a worldly education than to start teaching children language young, giving them the foundation to travel and learn worldly values for themselves.
I couldn’t agree more. Americans are falling way behind international standards in this area. I also agree with the decision to focus on Spanish and Mandarin in order to target our efforts to the most business relevant languages.
Your vision is ideal but we need to figure out how we pay for even the basics, let alone the proposed curriculum advances.
I will post another idea regarding the balanced school year. Low income students especially lose months of progress over the summer and usually have little access to additional learning opportunities over the summer. A balanced school year with shorter vacations interspersed throughout the year decreases learning losses. Why not try it in some selected schools and see how it works? This is being utilized in some communities near Yakima that work with a large ELL population.
Let’s explore the Balanced School Year.
Expansion of international education in our schools is a great way to prepare ALL students for the 21st century world and make education relevant to their lives. Note that Seattle Schools did not make a commitment to expand the specific International Baccalaureate (IB) program to 10 schools, but, rather, to expand the International Schools model that Seattle Schools has been developing (starting with John Stanford International School in 2000). IB is a great internationally recognized program, but it’s also expensive and requires extensive teacher training. It may be the way to go long-term (and IB does have programs for Middle Years and Primary Years), but I think that’s a conversation the community should have. I do support Spanish and Chinese, but it is not necessary or even desirable to limit languages in that way. There is a strong Japanese program in our district that should be maintained. And other languages, such as French, German, Russian, and Arabic, may be appropriate too. This summer, there’s a middle school camp for Arabic, Persian, and Urdu that is filled to overflowing. With technology and thinking outside the box (language learning and teaching do not need to be limited to the six hours of the school day), we don’t have to limit the options arbitrarily to Spanish and Chinese.
In any case, bravo for getting the conversation started!
The IB program is making a world of difference in student opportunities at Chief Sealth HS now, and has raised achievement and recognition for Ingraham on a national basis.