International Teachers attend AP® Practicum at the American School Foundation of Guadalajara, Mexico.

As part of its 100th anniversary commemoration in November, the American School Foundation of Guadalajara hosted an AP® practicum for teachers at high schools throughout the state of Jalisco. The purpose was to give Mexican teachers an opportunity to see how the Advanced Placement Program® could enrich their curricula and provide more opportunities for their students.

"AP is not new to Mexico or Latin America," explained Michael Hogan, an organizer of the practicum and a College Board consultant who coordinates AP university recognition efforts in Latin America. "However, until now, AP courses and exams were offered primarily at U.S. State Department-assisted schools and other American-style and international schools that have U.S.-accredited high school programs." According to Hogan, these schools are attended by American dependents studying outside the U.S. — the children of embassy staff, of other government employees or of business executives whose companies have stationed them in the region. Yet such schools also have a large component of local students, and most of them have proven to do quite well in AP classes.

It was this success with local students that prompted school director Janet Heinze and curriculum head Des Sjoquist to "share the wealth" by inviting schools throughout the country to visit their school in Guadalajara and attend sessions in AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Calculus and AP Spanish Literature Visiting teachers attended daylong seminars in these three disciplines, which were held at the school’s six-acre facility in Providencia and facilitated by experienced AP teachers and exam Readers, including Hogan, Leticia Espinoza and Maria de Lourdes Govea.

According to Sjoquist, "the purpose of our conference was not so much to ‘sell’ AP as to provide local teachers with ways to bring both rigor and enrichment to their class offerings and raise the bar for all their students. There are many ways of doing that, of course. We just feel that Advanced Placement® is the best way."

Heinze said that it was a natural move for the American School Foundation, which has been an academic leader in the region for the past 100 years. "Over 64 percent of our students took AP classes last year," said Heinze, "with 76 percent getting grades of three or higher. We are very proud of our committed teachers and our hardworking students." Leo Diaz, the school’s college counselor, noted that last year students at the American School Foundation received more than $3.5 million in scholarship offers from universities all over the world. "It is only fitting that we share this model for student success with the other schools in the region," he added.

Forty-five teachers representing 15 high schools attended the all-day event. "Many had thought that the College Board was just about evaluations and tests. They were delighted to discover all this help for teachers, with ways to enrich and add rigor to their curricula," noted Carmen Castillo, Spanish program director, as she collected teacher evaluations. She read one aloud from Yolanda de la Torre Gutierrez: "It was so refreshing for the American School of Guadalajara to open its doors and for their teachers to share with us. Too often one school has no idea what another is doing, and when we do share it is usually about general education practices, not about what we are passionate about. This conference was a breath of fresh air. "

Dorothy Mushayavanhu, international environmental and human rights lawyer, and former College Board visiting scholar (2003-05)

A Pew Research Center study on "global attitudes" found that, although strong majorities in all world regions believe that increased global interconnectedness is a positive thing, the concept of globalization is far more popular among the world’s young people than among their parents and grandparents. Such findings have led John Zogby, who penned the influential book "The Way We’ll Be", to brand this emerging group of students and young adults as the first "global generation."

Two vibrant speakers representing the College Board delivered major keynote addresses at leading international education conferences last fall. As the world closely watched the historic U.S. Presidential election approach, representatives of the College Board addressed ways that educators can better prepare this global generation for a future that will demand their leadership.

College Board Vice President James Montoya was invited by the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools to deliver a keynote address at the NESA Fall Leadership Conference in Amman, Jordan, last October. Sponsored directly by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Overseas Schools, NESA is a leading advocate for educators within this complex region and a key partner of the College Board for 25 years. More than 300 leaders in international education — superintendents, principals, curriculum coordinators, trustees, business managers and technology coordinators — attended Montoya’s keynote address, "The Global Generation: They’re Counting On Us." Drawing from his rich professional experience in admissions and student affairs at Occidental College, Vassar College and, most recently, Stanford University, Montoya discussed ways in which the College Board and its leading higher education members are anticipating the needs of an emerging generation of students. Montoya discussed ways the College Board seeks to support educators who are guiding this global generation and addressed how approaches to foster global competencies and skills are critical to connecting all students to success at the tertiary level. Montoya had a full schedule in Jordan, delivering an address at the University of Jordan, after which he engaged students and faculty in a vibrant exchange, and meeting with officials at the Jordanian Ministry of Education.

About the same time last fall, but on a different continent, Dorothy Mushayavanhu, an international environmental and human rights lawyer and College Board consultant and former visiting scholar (2003-05), represented the College Board at the Association of International Schools in Africa All-Africa Administrators’ & Teachers’ Conference, held in Kampala, Uganda. AISA, like NESA, is directly supported by the U.S. Department of State and is a longtime partner of the College Board. A native of Zimbabwe based in Beijing, Mushayavanhu works to expand the role of educators in addressing global issues. Her keynote address, "Promoting the Role of Education Through an Environmental Framework," tied her extensive research — which spans international environmental issues, environmental management systems, land reform, gender, human rights, HIV/AIDS and the law, and the law and development — to the classroom. Her message inspired the audience of hundreds and harmonized the way in which AISA pursues its mission to support the concept of service to the human family, promoting programs that nurture an understanding and appreciation of African cultures and embraces a world view that celebrates human unity in diversity.

The College Board is proud to be represented by such strong advocates for global educators.

The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco was the setting for the inaugural meeting of the Council of International Schools Forum on International Admission & Guidance. Attendees from the College Board and some of its member institutions are pictured as follows: Front row (l-r): Jennifer Desjarlais, dean of admission at Wellesley College; Maria Lesser, College Board; Douglas L. Christiansen, associate provost for enrollment and dean of admissions at Vanderbilt University; Back Row: Clay Hensley, College Board; Pamela T. Horne, assistant vice president and dean of admissions at Purdue University; Janine Farhat, College Board; Christine N. Van Gieson, director of admissions at UC-Santa Barbara; Ron W. Moss, dean of undergraduate admission and executive director of enrollment services, Southern Methodist University.

Key members of the College Board Task Force on Admissions in the 21st Century contributed to the College Admissions Update from the College Board at the Council of International Schools (www.cois.org) Forum on International Admission and Guidance, held in Monaco last November. A panel composed of Douglas L. Christiansen of Vanderbilt University, SAT® Committee Chair Jennifer Desjarlais of Wellesley College and Christine Van Gieson of the University of California-Santa Barbara was joined by task force members Pamela Horne of Purdue University and Ron Moss of Southern Methodist University. Panel members discussed the newly released College Board report “Preserving the Dream of America” in front of a large audience that included international school counselors and admissions deans and officers from the U.S. and around the world. They also analyzed current issues and practices in admissions among public, private and liberal arts colleges. Desjarlais and Van Gieson continued on to the annual conference of the European Council of International Schools (www.ecis.org) in Nice, France, to present a similar session on “Trends in U.S. College Admissions.” ECIS is the regional association representing international schools in Europe but also draws participants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The College Board offered three additional sessions for counselors, teachers, school administrators and international universities at the ECIS conference, including “Guidance Update,” “Tools & Resources to Enhance the Benefits of AP® at Your School” and “AP & Higher Education: Trends and Perspectives on the Use of AP by Colleges and Universities.”