With generous financial support from U.S. corporations and foundations, the Overseas Schools Advisory Council (OSAC) sponsors an ambitious program for improving the educational programs of American overseas schools. The Council started this program, known as the OSAC Educational Assistance Program, 21 years ago and has continued it to help maintain the high quality of these educational programs in American-sponsored overseas schools.
The OSAC projects cover a variety of subjects that affect the educational programs of American overseas schools including training of teachers, administrators, staff and school boards, developing and updating educational curriculum, developing programs for handicapped and gifted and talented students, and helping students develop leadership skills. In addition, OSAC has developed a number of projects that support and increase the use of educational technologies (computers, CD-ROM, multimedia and telecommunications) to assist these schools prepare their students for the information age.
Since the inception of this program, OSAC has made available copies of these projects to international schools and to interested individuals without charge. Now the Council has decided to make these projects even more widely available to schools around the world including schools in the United States, educators, and the general public by placing the projects on the Department of State's Internet site.
This is a work in progress. At present, fifteen projects can be accessed. Projects will continue to be posted on the site as soon as they have been technically readied for posting and downloading. We welcome your comments and suggestions as we develop this site.
Count Me In! Developing Inclusive International Schools provides teachers, administrators, parents and students with a practical blueprint of practices for exceptional children based on exemplary international learning theories and research. While the project began in Africa, it is applicable to students around the world. It is a project undertaken by the Association of International Schools in Africa.
Guidance and Counseling The Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) has established a website that provides developmental guidance, personal counseling, and college counseling information for the staffs of international schools. This information addresses the needs of professional counselors in these schools, as well as teachers and administrators that are not formally trained in this specialty, but provide guidance and counseling services. In addition, the website includes a List-Serve to assist teachers and administrators in these schools in obtaining help from professional counselors that have worked in international schools and understand their guidance and counseling needs. The project appears on AISA's website.
American Education Reaches Out
This project provides the framework for a U.S. standards-based curriculum in four basic subjects (English, science, math, and history), which American overseas schools and other international schools can use to underpin their individual curriculums. In addition, the project identifies methods and techniques that these schools can use to measure student progress and achievement in mastering a standards-based curriculum. The Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (NESA) developed this project which appears on their web site.
Project Hamlet: To Build or not to Build
This is a handbook that provides information and advice for overseas schools about all aspects of school construction and renovation projects. Topics include planning and engineering, site acquisition, construction financing, requests for proposals, contracting, construction management, and inspections. It also includes several appendices in PDF format. The project appears on the NESA web site.
Clearing House for Online Resources for Professional Development for Educators in American Overseas Schools
The Clearing House for Online Resrouces for Professional Development for Educators provides online professional development for teachers and administrators in American overseas schools and other international schools, and in schools in the United States through the Internet, distance education, and discussion and chat groups. The project is available on the website of the Mediterranean Association of International Schools (MAIS) .
ECO-MAIS Planning Guide for Schoolyard Habitat Development
This project provides information and recommendations to overseas schools on developing schoolyard habitat study sites to teach students in kindergarten through Grade 12 about their local environments, ecosystems and to foster a commitment and responsibility to preserving them. The focal point of the project is the habitats of selected overseas schools in the Mediterranean region. MAIS developed the project, which appears on its web site.
Science Inquiry and Investigation Skills for Grades K-6
This project provides information to overseas schools on how to align their Kindergarten through Grade 6 science curriculum, instruction, and assessment with the U.S. National Science Education Standards and the standards of American Education Reaches Out (AERO) and the U.S. National Science Standards. MAIS developed the project, which appears on its web site.
Science-Literature Links
This project provides an instructional model for linking the teaching of science and literature and an electronic "bank" of science and literature lessons that will help overseas schools improve the teaching of science and reading and meet the National Science Education Standards. Developed by the Mediterranean Association of International Schools (MAIS), the project appears on their web site.
Project Mano a Mano provides a model for professional development designed to equip early childhood teachers in international schools with current information about best practices in early childhood education, the skills enabling them to make changes in their respective programs, and the skills to mentor other early childhood teachers. Developed by the Association of American Schools in Central America, Colombia, Caribbean and Mexico, the project appears on their web site.
MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry
This project, K-6 Science Inquiry, Investigation, and Design Technology, or, for short, MAIS K-6 Science Inquiry, prepares and assists teachers in schools to engage K-6 students in inquiry, the processes of science, problem solving and critical thinking, idesigning and conducting investigations, and communicating and defending conclusions. Developed by the MAIS, it appears on their web site.
Tool Kit for Teens: A Guide for Helping Adolescents Manage Stress provides counselors, teachers, and parents the tools to help adolescents develop life skills and the strategies to cope with the many stresses in their lives. It provides suggestions for conducting group sessions and activities designed to help students explore issues and practice essential skills. This project is useful for both adolescents living abroad as well as those living in the United States. It is a project undertaken with the help of a grant from OSAC. The National Association of Elementary School Principals administered the project.
Early Childhood Assessment and Teacher Training - ECATT
Sponsored by the Central and Eastern European Schools Association, this project provides an assessment of the current state of early childhood services in American overseas schools, identifies teachers and support personnel that can improve educational practices, and teacher training materials, activities, and strategies related to current best practices research in early childhood education.
Implementation Guide
Sponsored by the Association of American Schools in Central America, Colombia, Caribbean and Mexico, this guidebook offers coherent approaches to interdisciplinary and thematic learning with insights drawn from Kindergarten through grade 12 and practical advice on the challenges encountered.
School Board Development - Building a Board that Works
Sponsored by the Mediterranean Association of International Schools, this project offers training material for Overseas School Boards in: goal setting, policy making, budget formulation and execution, team building, conflict resolution, role playing activities, and in understanding the role of an individual board member versus that of the Board as a whole.
