Hello parents and teachers, and community, this is Public Announcement using alternative outlets. Unique and exciting, if you are a teacher in Maryland in general and Howard County, a resident or a parent, we would love to hear from you. Every other informed persons can send us feed back. The two page summary will published by the Board of Education.
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Thanks, MsJoe, designer of the models.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."
Decision of United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education
Both general and specialized educations have assumed greater importance in the civic, social, and economic strength of Howard County and the nation; the personal development of individuals; and the search for global solutions facing humankind. Our county's future depends on the priority given to the development of new knowledge and investments in human capital in the knowledge-based 21st century.
While Howard County Public Schools System performs higher than other counties in the Maryland Public School Schools based on MSA tests, achievement gaps between African American and low-income students, who are also underrepresented in advance placement courses, and their higher performing peers need to be closed. The founders believe students of all racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds can achieve in competitive standards in the words of Tucker and Codding "standard is not a cut point on a curve but rather a clear target for everyone to shoot at, a target that all students can achieve if they work hard enough."
Racing to the Top with an early start, Kisepel International Scholars – Gerty Montessori (KIS) provides early college preparation with a highly personalized student-centered approach to education using the acclaimed International Baccalaureate (IB) framework. The content and performance standards are aligned with the Maryland State Curriculum. Beyond academic rigor, the trans-disciplinary IB curricula address the development of the "whole student" - the intellectual, social, physical, aesthetic and cultural.
KIS will operate the IB Primary Years Program from kindergarten to fifth grades. The School will open with kindergarten through second grades in August 2013 and add one grade in each academic year. In our Small Learning Community, the estimated number of students in the first year is 120 and 300 at full capacity in the fourth year.
Today's global economy, interdependence, instant communication and information technology are major determinants in contemporary life that extends beyond national boundaries. Global markets are increasingly open with goods, ideas, and investments moving freely around the world. To remain competitive, with vigorous institutions reinforcing adaptation to new knowledge, our students must acquire the skills, knowledge, and values to participate in the world economy and world affairs. However, the abilities to understand and apply knowledge cannot be attained only through world history, foreign language classes, multicultural events, or cultural sensitivity workshops. These knowledge, skills and values are incorporated in all aspects of the curricula and extracurricular activities.
Therefore, KIS' educational program and scope are international in conception, in content, and in execution. They focus learning by reflecting it in the mirror of global understanding and economy sustained by global information technology. The significance of international education often resides in the opportunity to partake in an intensive language program coupled with the prospect of developing skills that result from complete immersion in a foreign culture.[1] KIS offers two dual language immersion programs. Students will have the option to enroll in either the English-French or English-Spanish Language Immersion. From kindergarten, a student can take the regular or an advance course in each subject based on abilities. Information technology is infused in all subjects.
In the fourth and fifth grades, students will study rhetoric as part of our Character and Leadership courses, which will include foreign student exchange. The lessons and activities are designed to inspire, harness, and channel the natural instincts and intellectual curiosities of our young scholars and welcome their instincts to wonder, explore, and take positive action as a fundamental part of their adolescence development and early foundation for intellectual freedom, honesty, and integrity – traits that drive idealists and visionaries who have shaped our world.
Each student will have an I-GOAL (Individual Gateway On Acquiring Lessons.) It consists of academic benchmarks and desired social and personal attributes in the student's profile. Respect and acknowledgement for each student's individuality, background, and learning styles will establish the basis for trusting relationships because trust is essential for collaboration, learning, and growth to flourish.
KIS will use Montessori and Inquiry as the principal pedagogical approaches, which allow for multiple teaching methods. Both approaches are personally connected with the development of the student's comprehension of the world. The explicit expectation is that adept Montessori and Inquiry instructions will lead to responsible action, initiated by the student as result of the learning process. The action may extend a student's learning or may have broader social and community impact. Teachers will receive ongoing professional training with opportunities to interact with other IB teachers around the world, which is another element that makes the IB experience unique.
Unaddressed social and health care needs, inconsistent housing, unsafe environment, lack of educational amenities in the neighborhood and home interfere with learning and cause low attendance.[2] Designed as a community school, anti-poverty, around services will be offered to bridge to improve student's academic, personal and social development.
KIS is a parent-teacher management model that highlights the insights, energy, and aspirations of parents and teachers as vested partners in educational outcomes. KIS will use site-based management and performance-based accountability to evaluate employees and programs.
Ultimately, the most effective accountability strategy will rely on those closest to students: staff and parents having the authority, information, and training to assume the responsibility of directing teaching and learning. The school, home, and community are seen as interdependent and essential components of institutional development that will be put into practice in order to significantly improve the contributions that schooling makes to the welfare of students, the county, state and society as a whole.
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