SEOUL FOREIGN SCHOOL

WASC Annual Update

For Seoul Foreign School, 2011‐2012

Report on progress on Goals of Action Plan.

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WASC Progress Report for Seoul Foreign School 2011-12

General DataSchool address Head of School

Seoul Foreign School Dr. John Engstrom

55 Yonhi Dong jengstrom@seoulf o r eign. o rg

Seodaemun‐gu

Seoul, 120‐113, South Korea Enrollment for 2011‐2012:

Telephone: 82‐2‐330‐3100 British School 347

Facsimile: 82‐2‐332‐8775 Elementary School 459

Email: A d m i nistrato r @ seoulforei g n.org Middle School 252

Website: http://w w w.seoulforei g n.or g / High School

Total:

477

1535

Brief Description

Type of SchoolSeoul Foreign School (SFS) was founded in 1912 by Christian missionary parents to serve the needs of expatriate children in Seoul. In the 2011/12 academic year SFS celebrated its 100thanniversary. It has continued as a non‐profit, non‐denominational school with a distinct Christian philosophy. The school has western‐style Elementary (K-Gr. 5), Middle Gr. 6-8) and High School divisions (Gr. 9-12) and a British School providing Key Stages 1‐3 (K-Yr. 9)

Korea’s first international school, Seoul Foreign School began with one full‐time teacher, eighteen students and a single classroom. Building on its early commitment to a challenging educational program provided in a uniquely non‐denominational Christian environment, the school has grown to become the pre‐eminent school in Korea for the English‐speaking business and diplomatic communities. Today SFS is a community‐oriented, western‐style co‐educational day school serving over 1500 children from 55 nations in preschool through twelfth grade.

SFS is located in a 25‐acre setting near the heart of Seoul and features modern facilities that have been designed to support student learning including three media center/libraries, an auditorium, five computer labs, three gymnasiums, a performing arts center, an artificial turf athletic field

and an indoor swimming pool.

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Organization/Governing Structure/Financial BaseSeoul Foreign School relies on tuition as its sole source of revenue. In recent years the school ‘s facilities have been built or refurbished from budgeted cash reserves, and the school has not incurred any debt.In August 2009, Dr. John Engstrom took over as Head of School. A one‐year Interim Head of School, Dr. Nancy Price, served for the 2008‐2009 school year, succeeding Dr. Harlan Lyso who led the school for almost 20 years. The school has three governing groups:

a. An 11‐member Board of Directors who appoints the Head of School and set policy.b. The Council, an 11‐member group who appoints the Board members, approves the budget, and

acts as the guardians of the Christian nature of the school.c. The Jaidan, a five‐member body who are considered the registered “owners” of the properties

of Seoul Foreign School. This group includes the Head of School.

Student BodyStudents at SFS come from 55 countries around the world. 60% of the student population are U.S. passport holders. Ethnically, over half of its students are Korean, although the vast majority of these students hold U.S. or Canadian passports. While 42% of the students have attended SFS for two years or less (as is typical of an international school), there is a recent trend of longer‐term enrollment. Currently, 27% of its students have been at SFS for 5 or more years. For the school year 2011 ‐ 2012, the student enrollment has been about 1535 in Pre‐School through Grade 12.

FacultySFS employs a total of 186 teaching faculty and 39 Teaching Assistants. Divisional staff consists of 3 assistant principals, 1 deputy head, 7 counselors, 4 librarians, a High School registrar, an IB Diploma Coordinator, and a part‐time IGCSE Coordinator and HS Athletic Director. In 2012/13 the number of assistant principals will increase to 4 with the addition of this position in the Elementary School.

 AdministrationThe school’s eight administrators include the Head of School, Assistant Head of School –Operations, Assistant Head of School – Academics, four division Principals, and the Director of Communications and Development.  

School-wide positions include a Curriculum Coordinator, an IT Director, an Educational Technology Coordinator, two Admissions Directors, an Aquatics Director, a Christian Ministries Coordinator, Activities Director, Human Resource Director, K‐12 Drama Director, Director of Performing Arts, School Psychologist, and a School Nurse.

Classified StaffSFS employs 124 classified staff. Members of its full and part‐time classified staff are employed across the areas of maintenance, housing services, transportation, general accounting, secretarial, safety and other services critical to the functioning of the campus. Classified staff employees are hired locally.

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Curricular programSeoul Foreign School is committed to academic excellence. Its college preparatory curriculum, which includes the International Baccalaureate Diploma program, and its dynamic learning environment, challenges students to achieve their full intellectual potential. Equally, its community cherishes Christian values which encourage its students to develop strong character, live and work with integrity, and accept responsibility for themselves and others. SFS enrolls students from all religious faiths and backgrounds, and provides a nurturing Christian atmosphere of acceptance and tolerance.

The British School uses the UK National Curriculum. The high school offers the IB Diploma and International General Certificate of Secondary Education. Aside from these two programs, other curriculum in the school is predominantly American in origin. These programs are implemented using the inquiry based model embedded within the Understanding by Design curriculum development framework.

The Action Plan

The original Action Plan in the Self‐Study was revised, submitted to WASC June 1, 2010, and approved by WASC as part of a six‐year term of accreditation 2010 – 2016. The five main goals of the Action Plan are:

Goal 1: Create, implement, and regularly review a coherent, accessible, articulated, standards‐based K‐12 curriculum to ensure improved student learning.

Goal 2: Implement systems that analyze SFS data in the categories of student learning and achievement, school programs and processes, perceptions, and demographics.

Goal 3: Identify approaches that will accelerate the integration of technology to improve learning.

Goal 4: Create a comprehensive, SFS‐wide Professional Development Plan that organizes and expands professional and staff development and aligns with school goals.

Goal 5: Endeavor to streamline the school’s governance structures which include the Board, the Council, the Jaidan, and the Governors.

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Accomplishment of each school‐wide action plan section:

Goal 1: Create, implement, and regularly review a coherent, accessible, articulated, standards‐based K‐12 curriculum to ensure improved student learning.

STANDARDS BASED CURRICULUM: Work continues on adopting and implementing a standards based curriculum for the Elementary, Middle, High School sections. The 2011/12 academic year built on the standards adopted in 2010-11 for the majority of the curriculum and has included: The National Standards for Social Studies for Gr. 4-8, with Foreign Languages, French, Spanish and Korean adopting the UK Modern Languages Standards to cover their programs. These standards have been used to devise Korean placement test for students moving into the Middle School Program. Christian Studies have also developed and adopted a comprehensive set of standards across the school.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FUNDAMENTALS: With the adoption of standards largely completed to cover the courses offered at SFS considerable work was done on refocusing school systems to support the further development of the curriculum. This involved refocusing the use of the Understanding by Design (UbD) Curriculum Development Model as the inquiry base for curriculum development and rejuvenation of Atlas Rubicon the school’s curriculum mapping program to support curriculum development.

1. UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN – INQUIRY BASED DEVELOPMENT MODEL: The services of school based UbD trainers were accessed to provide a comprehensive training program for a core team of 45 teachers representing grade and subject levels across the school. The role of these teachers was to support their colleagues in using UbD as the basis of their unit planning across the school.

2. CURRICULUM MAPPING – ATLAS RUBICON: Atlas Rubicon, the school’s curriculum mapping program was rejuvenated to further support the UbD Inquiry model. Representatives from Rubicon came to the school to initially work with the curriculum coordinator and assistant coordinator to review and update data in the system. The template was redesigned to include UbD updates and school initiatives. These initiatives included more program specific information for the IB Diploma, IGCSE and the school-wide introduction of the IB Leaner Profile and Trans-disciplinary skills. The latter involved the adoption of skill sets which supported the development of the IB Learner Profile, the school’s ESLRs and skills necessary for the 21st Century. Grade level specific skills based benchmarks are to be developed in 202/13. In May ’12 Core Team T raining occurred in the use of Atlas. This core team of 33 teachers was trained over 2 days in the use of Atlas to develop greater awareness of how this program is useful not just in documenting the curriculum but in analyzing and refining it to promote curriculum articulation. Again this core team is responsible to support their colleagues in this use of Atlas.

The Core teams in both cases mentioned above were very supportive of the school’s administration decision to allow this training to occur during the normal daily schedule.

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CURRICULUM DOCUMENTATION GOAL: With the adoption of standards based curriculum, refocusing of UbD as the school’s curriculum development model and Atlas as a curriculum mapping program, the building blocks for building and documenting the dynamic SFS curriculum have been laid. In 2011/12 all teachers were expected to apply their learning to develop 1 quality unit based on UbD and have it documented in Atlas. The time line for the documentation of the standards based / UbD curriculum has collaboratively been set for June 2015. Each year leading up to this time subject areas will be expected to identify unit planning expectations to meet this deadline. Management structures are in place to monitor progress on these developments. In setting this goal it is also understood that the curriculum is dynamic and will be continually revised as part of the normal teacher planning process and according to the more formal review cycle.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT ACTION PLANNNG: In the two whole faculty work days set for the year subjects areas meet across divisions to develop action plans aimed at addressing school wide initiatives as well as identifying their own subject specific initiatives. School-wide initiatives came from WASC recommendations and included 1. Curriculum Articulation; 2. Professional development. These formed the focus of further meetings throughout the year.

CURRICULUM REVIEW: Curriculum Review continues in-line with the school’s established curriculum review cycle.

1. MATHEMATICS REVIEW: This year Mathematics progressed through the adoption phase. This entailed development of a vision statement based on current research and best practices. This statement outlines the values and beliefs about what is to be taught and how it will be taught and how the school mission statement can be implemented in this subject area. These beliefs guided the adoption of programs and resources to support the direction set for the teaching of Mathematics at SFS. At this stage Mathematics is adopting the new ‘Maths In Focus’ program K-8. The pedagogical base of this program supported the school’s focus on a standards based program, the use of manipulatives, a variety of activities and authentic problem solving to develop a solid conceptual understanding.

2. SCIENCE REVIEW: Science as part of the review process of the curriculum review cycle, has drafted a vision statement for the purposes outlined above. A focus being the use of scientific inquiry to support student learning. Several teachers attended conferences in the US to gain insights into programs available to support this direction.

3. FOREIGN LANGUAGES REVIEW: This is an out-of-cycle review initiated by the HOS. A task force was establish consisting of AHOS- Academics, the curriculum coordinator, IB coordinator, IGCSE coordinator, curriculum leaders for Korea, Spanish & French, the British school principal, and parent representatives from each of the four divisions. The focus of this task force was to: 1. Consider the provision of our current foreign languages courses i.e. should we consider offering more – possibly Mandarin; 2. How effective are the practices and structure of our current foreign languages program in promoting continuity of learning. This task force commenced its task in April and will continue into 2012/13. A language consultant, Greg Duncan has been contracted to work with the task force on this review.

WHOLE SCHOOL LANGUAGE POLICY: The school’s language policy is being revised. The policy recognises that all teachers are language teachers. The policy will state the vision of languages at SFS. Sections within the document will identify philosophy and practices related to: 1 The language of Instruction; 2 Support for the Language of Instruction; 3. Support for the language of the Host country; 4. Provision of Foreign Languages; 5. Professional development.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES: The work on developing organizational structures to support curriculum development within and across divisions is in progress with clear job descriptions, equity across divisions in expectations and allocations being considered as part of a school wide focus to promote career opportunities within the school as well as curriculum articulation. Transition to a structure to support positions of responsibility is planned for over the next three years.

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ASSESSMENT. With the adoption of standards based curriculum a focus this year has been to connect these standards with a variety of assessment tasks. To help guide this practice the high school has developed an assessment policy while the Middle School has been revising their assessment methods. Both these divisions have adopted 5 common types / Approaches To Assessment (observations, performance / contextual product, designated responses, academic prompts, self assessment). These will be used to guide the development of the assessment tasks and then track these across the divisions to ensure this variety in assessment tasks. The Elementary and British School are also considering adopting these. Assessment will continue to be a focus of our curriculum development. In 2012/13 the focus will be assessment and standardisation practices with 2013/14 focusing on restructuring the reporting process.

Goal 2: Implement systems that analyze SFS data in the categories of student learning and achievement, school programs and processes, perceptions, and demographics.

STATISTICAL REPORT: The Head of School again communicated a statistical report detailing the school’s academic performance with regards to standardized tests such as the Educational Record Bureau (ERB) scores; the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT); IB results and results from the Standardised Assessment Tasks (SATs) and SOSCA for the British School. This document also communicated student’s performance in sporting events, participation in Christian Ministry events and student and staff demographics.

ATLAS ANALYTICAL TRAINING: As mentioned in the curricula section of this report, training has been undertaken in the use of Atlas as a mapping tool to analyse the curriculum. Using this tool, the standards for each curriculum area can be analysed to determine how they are being used to focus student learning and gather evidence of this learning. This tool allows subject groups to readily analyse their curriculum to identify trends to aid them in the program reviews.

STUDENT DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: The school has undertaken a process to acquire a student data management system (SDMS) that integrates with its existing student data system, Power School. The preferred system being considered is the ‘Inform’ system offered through Pearson. It is planned to implement this system in the 2012/13 academic year. This system will integrate existing student demographics and achievement results currently contained within Power School and collate this with standardized results from MAP, ERB, SAT and PSAT, results from IB Diploma and IGCSE as well as common internal assessment tasks. The ability to compile these over several years will give us a clearer indication of trends in subject, grade, class and individual academic performance. Analysis of such data will assist in identifying and remediating trends promptly and hence optimize student learning opportunities.

Goal 3: Identify approaches that will accelerate the integration of technology to improve learning.

ONE-TO-ONE LAPTOP PROGRAM: The one –to-one laptop program was initiated this year for Gr. 5, 6 and Yr. 6, 7 in the British School. The program was overseen by the newly appointed ET coordinator and two technology integrationalists. These ET personnel worked closely with the Metiri Advisory group contracted to implement the program and support teachers in integrating technology to enhance student learning. They further supported the cohort trained prior to this year’s implementation and also trained a new cohort responsible for the expansion of the program to Gr. 8 / Yr. 9 in  2012/13. With the expansion of the program in 2012/13 two additional personnel have been appointed to the ET dept.

TECHNOLOGY TRAINING: In addition the ET dept. sourced reputable professionals to develop skills and awareness in the use of technology in education. These included Jeff Utecht and Susan Brookes –Young. These presenters worked with teachers and parents to develop a community understanding of the direction the school is taking with regards to technology. The ET team also provided regular ongoing optional training for all teachers through-out the year on tools and devices to support learning. They have also developed podcasts to highlight developments and effective classroom projects that embraced technology. Where possible school personnel

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have been sourced to provide this training for their colleagues with funds being provided to presenters in recognition of their willingness to share their expertise.

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLAN: As part of the school’s strategic plan an Educational Technology Plan has been developed to outline the school’s developments in technology. This program is developed until 2016 when it will be revised. A group consisting of the Curriculum Coordinator; ET/ IT coordinators; parent, board, administrators and teacher representatives worked for the majority of the year to identify strengths and needs, and develop an action plan covering the next four years.  Information from the Metiri Group and the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) were valuable for research and advice on structures and initiatives to support the development of this plan.

Goal 4: Create a comprehensive, SFS‐wide Professional Development Plan that organizes and expands professional and staff development and aligns with school goals.

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRAINING: The Metiri Group (ht t p ://www.metiri.com/ ) has continued to be sourced to provide online and onsite training for teachers and advice on further development encapsulated in the school recently developed Educational technology Plan to promote effective use of technology to promote learning.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT FUNDAMENTALS – With the adoption of standards based curriculum, training was undertaken to refocus UbD as the school’s curriculum development model and Atlas as a curriculum mapping program. These programs form the building blocks for the development of a dynamic curriculum at SFS.

1. UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN (UBD) TRAINING. The services of school based UbD trainers were accessed to provide a comprehensive training program for a core team of 45 teachers representing grade and subject levels across the school. The role of these teachers was to support their colleagues in using UbD as the basis of their unit planning across the school.

2. ATLAS CURRICULUM MAPPING TRAINING. In May ’12 a Rubicon trainer trained a core team of 33 teachers over 2 days in the use of Atlas to develop greater awareness of how this program is useful not just in documenting the curriculum but in analyzing and refining it to promote curriculum articulation. Again this core team is responsible to support their colleagues in this use of Atlas.

SUBJECT SPECIFIC TRAINING: Small groups of teachers were sponsored to attend training or conferences on: technology integration; Mathematics, Science, the IGCSE and International Baccalaureate programs, content and assessment workshops.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTION PLANNING: In the two whole faculty work days set for the year subject areas meet across divisions to develop action plans aimed at addressing school wide initiatives as well as identifying their own subject specific initiatives. School-wide initiatives came from WASC recommendations and included 1. Curriculum Articulation; 2. Professional development. These formed the focus of further meetings throughout the year.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - FUTURE INITIATIVES: A Professional Development long-term plan has been developed based on needs identified from administrators and specific subject area needs as identified in their action plans. These are offered at a school level with several being opened to EARCOS schools.

2012/13o Aug. 9-13 Math Training to support the new ‘Math in Focus’ program K-8 – Dr.

Yeap (author of the program).

o Oct. 18-20 Best Practices in Assessment – Bambi Betts –School wide and also open to EARCOS schools

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o Oct. 22-26 P.E. Multi-skills Program: 4 day workshop SFS PE staff and also open to local schools, 1 day KORCOS workshops. Developing coaching standards and movement skills across all ages.o Oct 26-27 Brain Gym: Optional - Introduces 26 physical movements to promote

cognitive Development.o Jan. date TBA Math Training follow-upo April 5,6 Leadership Training for Middle Managers: Supporting SFS middle

managers in their leadership responsibilities. School wide. Open to EARCOS schools.

2013/14 – Identified training options. Dates TBAo Assessment – Reporting – Bambi Betts – school-wideo ESL in the mainstream – Virgina Rohas – school-wideo Teaching strategies – Dr. Spencer Kagan – school-wide

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - SCHOOL BASED WEBSITE. A School Based Professional Development Google website has been created to enhance communication of training opportunities. This site gives details of workshops available locally, and internationally.

Goal 5: Endeavor to streamline the school’s governance structures which include the Board, the Council, the Jaidan, and the Governors.

Although we have not been able to make any substantial changes to our governance structure per se, I believe we are positioning ourselves for improved structure and alignment.  Here are the various points of discussion and change:

1. The British Division’s Governors have agreed with the SFS Board to place British Governorrepresentatives on each of our Board standing Committees including the Development Committee and the Academic/Personnel Committee.  The Fiscal/Property Committee and the Planning Committee already had a representative from the Governors.

2. The Governors are piloting the viability of their group serving as a standing committee of the SFS Board versus a “governance” body.  They recognize that they can address many of their concerns in that structure. They also understand, rightly so, that they would be more influential in the direction of our school while participating in this fashion. This would be a good way of streamlining our school governance.3. The School Board has implemented changes in the way it conducts business which has streamline

itsfunctions.  In the 2011/2012 school year the frequency of meetings was reduced to five full-board meetings (from ten full-board meetings).  The committee meetings (aside from Fiscal-Property) were reduced to four meetings per year/per committee (from ten committee meetings per year).  This creates a more effective Board governance structure and paves the way for evaluating ways to improve the effectiveness of the entire governance structure.

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At this point, there has been no change in the Council or Juridical Person governing groups.