In This Issue       International Education Summit              2006 Workshop Dates
                       Summit Fishbowl Results       

Attendees heard keynote speeches by Dr. Ken Vedra, Secretary-Treasurer of International Baccalaureate North America and Jose Ignacio Gonzales, Executive Director, Hemisphere, Inc. Vedra's speech focused on educating attendees on the measurable benefits of international education and language programs. Gonzales' speech featured a stirring plea from the business community for Georgia to improve educational offerings, insisting that attitudes must change in order that all Georgia's students are challenged in their public schools.

The goal was made to significantly increase the number of International Baccalaureate and dual-language immersion programs, where Georgia lags far behind other states in the region and across the country. In this way CASIE hopes to lead the effort to bring about significant improvement in Georgia's overall education performance, and help prepare the State's workforce for the global labor market of the 21st century. The business leaders present were in unanimous agreement that improved international and language education in Georgia's public schools would play a real part in attracting and retaining international businesses to Georgia.

Attendees included five members of the State Board of Education, three members of the Georgia Legislature, one member of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, senior officials at the GA Department of Education, board members and senior administrators from several individual school districts. There was also strong representation from individual businesses and several Chambers of Commerce.

CASIE has pledged to continue leadership in the international education and language program field.

Summit Attendees Participate in Fishbowl Session
All seventy-five attendees at the International Education Summit participated in a Fishbowl Session where three questions were discussed. The questions raised were:

1. What needs to be done to internationalize the educational offering to Georgia students?
2. What can business and industry and the GA legislature do to facilitate international education initiatives in GA?
   
3. What are the next steps after today?

The innovative format was a success with participants agreeing on the following action steps:

• A priority should be to increase the number of IB and language programs at all levels
• Parents should to be educated on the value of international/language programs
• We should look at best practices and IB program support in other States
• Use state resources (e.g. Spanish speakers)
• Awareness should come from the top: Governor, State Board of Education
• Foreign Language education and State standards should be consistent, K - 12
• State legislature should look at ways to fund international/language programs.
• Legislators need to understand importance advantages of IB and language programs
• Business community should support and fund international programs in schools, including student exchanges and teacher training
• There should be consistent recognition of IB for college credit in all State Universities.

CASIE Announces 2006 IB Workshop Dates
June 20 - 22: Middle Years Programme, Level 1

• IB Coordination
• English A1
• Heads of School
• Humanities
• Mathematics
• Physical Education
• Science
• Spanish
• Visual Arts
• Technology
• Music

June 27 - 29: Primary Years Programme

• Level I: 4 sessions
• Level 2: 4 sessions

July 11 - 13: Diploma Programme

• Level 1
  • Administration
• IB Coordination
• Counseling
• English A1
• French B
• German B
• Spanish B
• History of the Americas
• History of Europe
• Spanish Ab Initio
• Chinese (Level 1 and 2 combined)
• Math Studies
• Math SL
• Level 2
  • English A1
    

October 12 - 14: Diploma Programme

• Level 2
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Physics
  • IB Coordination
  • History of the Americas
  • Math Studies
  • Math SL
  • Math HL
  • Psychology
  • Spanish B
  • ITGS
  • Theory of Knowledge

Additional information is available on our website. Register now at www.casieonline.org.

Notes from Alex

This has been an exciting year for CASIE, highlighted by four strong IB workshop sessions, with well over 900 participants, and the International Education Summit, which CASIE hosted in October. We also made significant progress is developing and refining the CrossWorlds program and CASIE's other consulting services. We were oversubscribed for all of our IB training workshops this year, which is symptomatic of the increasing popularity of all three IB programs throughout the United States and the world. At CASIE we believe strongly in the value of all IB programs, and feel very comfortable working with IBNA and the overall IBO to further the ideals of these premier international education programs. We have already set our preliminary list of workshop offerings for 2006 (agreed with IBNA and other workshop providers) and this is now posted on our website. In 2005 we had to establish waiting lists for all workshops, so we urge potential participants to register early for 2006 to ensure space. Although the majority of participants in 2005 were from US public schools, we also had significant representation from Canadian schools, international schools in different parts of the world and US independent schools.

The idea of the International Education Summit grew out of a CASIE board retreat in early 2005, and proved to be a tremendous success. The challenge is now for us to build on the momentum of the day, where all the participants were in complete agreement with the need to expand significantly international and language education opportunities in Georgia. I am working closely with a Georgia Senate task force on language offerings in public schools, with a goal to ensuring the continuation of language options in elementary schools, as well as to establish at least one dual-language immersion program in each major school district in the state. There is a growing feeling that the establishment of dual-language immersion Charter schools may well be the best way to further this. Such schools should also seek to become IBPYP authorized to add to their appeal.

Although the Summit was designed specifically to look at issues in Georgia, CASIE continues to work with schools in other parts of the USA and overseas to further the ideals of international education. We are setting aside funds in 2006 for research, as well as for special events designed to promote our ideals.

At CASIE we are fortunate to have a wonderful team of professionals to working on our programs, and also to have the resources of Atlanta International School behind us. I am confident that 2006 will prove to be a year of further growth and development, and a time for us to see real progress in international and language education. I hope that you will continue to support us in this endeavor, and wish all of you the very best for the upcoming holiday season and for 2006!

Sincerely,
Alex Horsley

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