1. SEOUL FOREIGN SCHOOL
WASC Annual Update
For Seoul Foreign School, 2010‐2011
Windows User
6/1/2011
Report on progress on Goals of Action Plan.

2. WASC Annu
ual Update
WASC Pro
ogress Report
t for Seoul Fo
oreign School
l 2010‐2011
General D
Data
School ad
ddress: Head of
f School:
Seoul Foreign School Dr. John
n Engstrom
55 Yonhi D
Dong jengstro
om@seoulfor
reign.org
Seodaemun‐gu
Seoul, 120
0‐113, South Korea Enrollment f
for 2010‐2011
1:
Telephone: 82‐2‐330‐3
3100 British Schoo
ol 3
364
Facsimile:
: 82‐2‐332‐87
775 Elementary S
School 4
424
Email: Ad
dministrator@
@seoulforeign
n.org Middle Scho ol 2
252
Website: http://www
w.seoulforeign
n.org/ High School 4
430
Total: 14
470
Brief Desc
cription
Type of Sc chool
Seoul Foreign School (S SFS) was founnded in 1912 by Christian missionary pa arents to servve the needs of
expatriate Seoul. It has continued as a non‐profit,
e children in S , non‐denominational scho ool with
a distinct Christian philosophy. The western‐style Elementary, Middle and H
e school has w High School
divisions aand a British S
School providding Key Stages 1‐3.
Korea’s first international school, Seeoul Foreign SSchool begann with one ful ll‐time teache er,
eighteen s students and a single classsroom. Building on its earrly commitme ent to a challeenging
education nal program p provided in a uniquely non n‐denominatio onal Christian
n environmen nt, the
school has grown to be ecome the pr re‐eminent scchool in Koreaa for the Engllish‐speaking business
and diplomatic commu mmunity‐orie nted, western‐style co‐educational
unities. Today SFS is a com
day schoo ol serving alm
most 1500 children from 55 5 nations in p reschool throough twelfth g grade.
SFS is loca
ated in a 24‐aacre setting neear the heart
t of Seoul and
d features mo odern facilities that have
been designed to supp port student learning including three m edia center/libraries, an a auditorium,
five comp ree gymnasiums, a perform
puter labs, thr ming arts cennter, an artific
cial turf athlet
tic field
and an ind door swimming pool.
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3. WASC Annu
ual Update
Organizat
tion/Governing Structure/
/Financial Ba
ase
Seoul Foreign School relies on tuitioon as its sole source of revvenue. In receent years the
e school ‘s fac
cilities
have been n built or refu
urbished fromm budgeted ca ash reserves, and the scho ool has not incurred any de ebt.
In August 2009, Dr. Joh hn Engstrom t took over as Head of Scho ool. A one‐yeaar Interim Head of School, Dr.
Nancy Price, served for the 2008‐20 009 school ye ear, succeedinng Dr. Harlan Lyso who led d the school for
almost 200 years. The sschool has thrree governing g groups:
a. An 11‐member Board of Dir rectors who aappoints the Head of Scho ool and set poolicy
b. Th he Council, an n 11‐member r group who a appoints the Board memb bers, approves the budget, , and
accts as the gua e Christian nature of the sc
ardians of the chool
c. Th he Jaidan, a ffive‐member body who are e considered the registere ed “owners” o of the propertties
off Seoul Foreiggn School. Th
his group incluudes the Hea ad of School.
Student B Body
Students at SFS come f from 55 coun ntries around the world. 60 0% of the student populat tion are U.S.
passport h holders. Ethnnically, over h dents are Kor ean, although
half of its stud h the vast ma
ajority of thes
se
students h hold U.S. or CCanadian pass sports. While e 42% of the s
students have e attended SF
FS for two years or
less (as is typical of an international school), there is a recentt trend of longger‐term enro
ollment.
Currently, tudents have been at SFS f
, 27% of its st for 5 or more
e years. For th
he school yea
ar 2010 ‐ 2011, the
student enrollment has been about t 1470 in Pre‐ ‐School throu gh Grade 12. .
Faculty
SFS emplo oys a total of 188 teaching g faculty and 3
36 Teaching A Assistants. Divisional staff
f consists of 6
6
counselor rs, 4 librarians
s, a High Scho ool registrar, an IB Diplom a Coordinato or, and a part‐‐time IGSCE
Coordinat tor.
Administr ration
The schoo ol’s eight admministrators in nclude the Heead of School, , Assistant Heead of School –
Operation ns, Assistant HHead of School – Academics, four divisiion Principals s, and the Dire
ector of
Communi ications and D Development t. School‐wid
de positions in
nclude an IT D Director, two
o Admissions
Directors,, an Aquatics Director, Chr ristian Ministr
ries Coordinaator, Activities
s Director, Huuman Resourc ce
Director, K‐12 Drama D Director, Director of Performing Arts, Sc chool Psycho ologist, and a School Nurse e.
Classified Staff
SFS emplo oys 119 classi ified staff. Meembers of its full and part‐‐time classifie
ed staff are employed
across thee areas of maintenance, ho ousing servicees, transporta
ation, genera al accounting,, secretarial,
safety andd other servic ces critical to the functioniing of the cam
mpus.
Classified staff employ yees are hired d locally.
2

4. WASC Annu
ual Update
Curricular
r program
Seoul Foreign School is s committed t to academic e excellence. It
ts college preparatory curr riculum, whic ch
the Internatio
includes t onal Baccalaureate Diplom ma program, a and its dynam mic learning ennvironment,
challenges students to achieve their full intellect tual potentiall. Equally, its community c cherishes Christian
values whhich encourag ge its students to develop strong charac cter, live and work with integrity, and
accept ressponsibility fo
or themselves s and others. SFS enrolls sttudents from m all religious faiths and
backgroun nds, and prov vides a nurturring Christian atmosphere of acceptanc ce and tolerance.
The British School uses s the UK Natioonal Curriculuum suppleme ented in certa ain areas, suc
ch as math
and mode ern languages s. The high school offers thhe IB Diplomaa and Interna tional Genera al Certificate of
Secondary y Education. Aside from these two pro ograms, other r curriculum in the school is
predomin nantly Americ can in origin.
The Actio
on Plan
The origin
nal Action Pla
an in the Self‐Study was re
evised, subm
mitted to WAS SC June 1, 2010, and approved
by WASC as part of a ssix‐year term
m of accreditation 2010 – 2
2016. The fiv
ve main goals
s of the Action
n
Plan are:
Goal 1: C ment, and regularly review
Create, implem w a coherent
t, accessible, articulated, s
standards‐ba
ased
K‐12 curriiculum to ens
sure improve
ed student leaarning.
Goal 2: Im
mplement systems that an
nalyze SFS daata in the cat egories of stu
udent learnin
ng and
achievemment, school p
programs andd processes, p
perceptions, and demogra aphics.
Goal 3: Id
dentify appro
oaches that w
will accelerate
e the integrat
tion of techn
nology to imp
prove learning
g.
Goal 4: Cr
reate a compprehensive, SF
FS‐wide Profeessional Deve
elopment Pla
an that organ
nizes and exp
pands
professional and staff developmennt and aligns w
with school g
goals.
Goal 5: Endeavor to st e school’s governance str uctures whic
treamline the ch include the
e Board, the
Council, the Jaidan, an
nd the Governnors.
Accomplis
shment of each school‐wid
de action plan
n section:
Goal 1: C
Create, implem
ment, and regularly review
w a coherent
t, accessible, articulated, s
standards‐ba
ased
K‐12 curriiculum to ens
sure improve
ed student leaarning.
During the 2010 ‐ 2011 1 school year each subject group met to o confirm or wwork toward agreement o on
standardss for their sub
bject area. By
y May this yea
ar, all subject agreed on a set of standards,
t areas have a
and Atlas shows that those standards are in plac ce, ready for u
use in buildin
ng units of ins
struction.
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5. WASC Annu
ual Update
Discussion
ns, based on research artic cles and profeessional orgaanizations’ publications we ere conductedd in
PK‐12 subbject groups aand in division
nal teams. B
Benchmarks in n each subjec ct area are a w
work in progr
ress
and have not been com mpleted yet. Assessments s, rubrics, and
d samples of sstudent work k are being
collected and stored fo or sharing pur
rposes in Atla
as and Accred ditation Plus. There has beeen progress on
making At tlas a collaboration and planning tool foor teachers, a
as well as a co
ollection of vi
iable informa
ation
about SFSS’ curriculum.
All teacheers have unit maps in Atlass that accurattely reflect wh
hat is happenning in their c
classes. The w
work
of revising
g each unit us sing Understa
anding by Des sign as a mod del is underwaay. Eight facu
ulty members s
were sent t to an Under rstanding by D
Design weeke end workshop p, and two facculty membe ers have
completed a two‐year train‐the‐trainer program m for UbD. Th ese ten peop ple serve as reesources withhin
the faculty. Next year SFS will continue to provid de staff deve lopment on UUbD and to encourage the e use
of UbD pr rinciples to de
evelop and re
efine units.
Articulatio
on of each ph hase of the Cuurriculum Rev view Cycle ha as been tabled d for larger discussions wit
th
the new CCurriculum Co oordinator wh ho will join SF
FS next year. The challeng cula
ge of aligning several curric
across thee four division
ns makes the work of artic culation comp plex. A clear system of mo ore frequent,
regularly‐scheduled su ubject‐focusedd meetings w within division ns, as well as a
across divisio
ons needs to b
be
establishe
ed. Clarifyingg the roles and
d responsibili ities of the Ele
ementary Sch hool Curriculuum Coordinat tor,
the schoool‐wide Curric culum Coordin nator, the Curriculum Liais sons in the M
Middle School, , the Departm
ment
Chairs in t
the High Scho ool, and thosee responsible for curriculu m leadership p in the British
h School Key
Stages will promote a more cohesiv ve school‐wid de curriculum .
Goal 2: Im
mplement systems that an
nalyze SFS daata in the cat egories of stu
udent learnin
ng and
achievemment, school p
programs andd processes, p
perceptions, and demogra aphics.
The Head of School initiated the Sta ate of the Sch 010. This is a document fo
hool report in the fall of 20 or the
Board and d the Adminis strators which
h organizes thhe various typ
pes of data w we collect aboout student
performance, program ms, and other demographic c and percept tion data that t we collect. This has serv
ved as
a starting point for disc
cussions abouut the current reality and t
then about possible interv ventions. The
e
State of th
he School willl continue as an annual puublication for internal analysis of “how we are doing g.”
Many addditional forms s of grade‐lev
vel and course essments are
e internal asse e being collected on the Shhare
Drive and in Atlas. The
e use of internal assessment data (DRA A, 6 + 1 writingg skills, MAP, SATs, IGCSE)) has
become mmore of a focu us in divisiona
al meetings, in team plann ning, and othe er settings as
s we begin to shift
the organ
nization’s thinking toward “continuous i improvement t” and “data‐ ‐driven decisioons”. SFS wil
ll be
researchin
ng and exami ining models for data analysis next yea r.
Goal 3: Id
dentify appro
oaches that w
will accelerate
e the integrat
tion of techn
nology to imp
prove learning
g.
During the fall of 2010, a One to On
ne Laptop task force was foormulated too study the feaasibility of
beginning
g a laptop proogram at SFS. The work of that group re
f esulted in sol
lid philosophiical and finanncial
support fr
rom the Boar rd of Directors. The Metirii Group from southern Cal
lifornia was id
dentified as the
4

6. WASC Annu
ual Update
consultannts who would d provide the e initial bulk o
of professiona al development to SFS facuulty this year and
next. Elem
mentary grad des 5 and 6, as well as Briti ish School Yea were chosen a
ars 6 and 7 w as the first gra
ades
to roll out
t the laptop in
nitiative in the fall of 20111. Training fo r teachers in those grades
s began in Jan nuary.
Working o
on the prepar e launch of this program ha
ration for the as resulted in
n:
1. Taargeted profeessional deve elopment about technolog y integration for the coho ort teachers,
provided by M Metiri, both in person and o online. This in
ncludes the revising of cur rrent teaching g
units in Atlas, t
to add value by integrating g technology when approp priate and to promote add ded
earning value to the unit.
le
2. Thhe addition oof 1.0 FTE acro oss the divisio
ons and a red deployment o of technology teachers’ tim me to
promote techn nology integra ation; ie, each division wil l have a 0.5 T
Technology In ntegration
Sp
pecialist next year.
3. Thhe addition o to re‐distribute the worklo
of 2.0 IT staff t oad of other IIT staff and to
o increase thee
le
evel of IT supp
port in all diviisions.
4. Data collectionn as a baseline measure fo or tracking the e impact of th
he laptop init tiative on stud
dent
engagement, s student and p parent percep ption, and mo ore diversity iin the use of technology a as a
ool in the clas
to ssroom.
5. Opportunities to enhance a
O and promote the school’s c cognitive, aff
fective, and sppiritual ESLRss
th
hrough the infusion of tech hnology.
6. A more unified d approach to o teaching and d learning acr ross the four divisions by p promoting more:
co
ollaboration a among teache ers, common planning tim me, opportuni ties for cross‐divisional
professional leearning comm munities to de evelop, and au uthentic reassons to incorp porate resear rch on
le
earning theory, technology y integration, and the prin ciples of Und derstanding by Design.
Goal 4: Cr
reate a compprehensive, SF
FS‐wide Profeessional Deve
elopment Pla
an that organ
nizes and exp
pands
professional and staff developmennt and aligns w
with school g
goals.
The Metirri Group (http
p://www.met tiri.com/ ) has
s been provid ding foundatio onal researchh, data collect
tion
and synth
hesis about SFFS students an nd teachers, and expertise e on infrastru
ucture, communication
systems, a
and the nuts and bolts of wwhat student ts and teache rs need for su uccessful impplementation of a
one to one laptop prog gram. They h
have cited the e research, lin
nked our data a to the resea
arch, and proovided
a framework and strategies for teac chers to incorrporate into u units. They encourage the e use of Atlas and
UbD to doo this work; so the teacherrs are now seeing the inte r‐connectedn ness of these tools to teaching
and learning. The worrk with studennt data will se
et the stage foor a more inttentional mov ve toward
analyzing student work k and student t data to get improved stu udent perform mance. The llaptop initiati
ive
provides a
a drive wheel l for changing
g many dimen nsions of teac ching and learning at SFS.
In addition, there have
e been some eexamples of o other intentio velopment that are more
onal staff dev
closely aligned with the school‐wide
e goals listed in this Action
n Plan and in the Curriculu
um Review Cy
ycle:
a. Math consultant who worked for 4 days with math te
M eachers acros ns. The topics
ss the division
were integrating technology and increas
w sing the types
s and amountts of problemm solving.
5

7. WASC Annu
ual Update
b. Fo
oreign Langua age consultan
nt who worke ed with teachhers on adapting the UbD t
template to bbetter
match the nee
m eds of languag
ge teachers wwho deal withh a considerab
ble number o
of skill‐based
outcomes.
c. Sm
mall groups oof teachers we nferences on UbD, techno
ere sponsored to attend t raining or con ology
in
ntegration, mathematics, SSocial Studies
s, the IGCSE p
program, and Internationale Baccalaureeate
co
ontent and asssessment wo orkshops.
Next yearr will bring mo
ore focus on eestablishing a
a more clearly ong‐term plan for
y articulated system and lo
a cohesivee and compre ehensive prof fessional deve
elopment pla an that promo otes professio
onal growth f
for
teachers a
and a stronge er overall academic progra am for SFS stu
udents.
Goal 5: Endeavor to st e school’s governance str uctures whic
treamline the ch include the
e Board, the
Council, the Jaidan, an
nd the Governnors.
After discussions with the Board thi
is year, the Co
ouncil has ag reed to dedic
cate next year to reviewing the
governance structure oof SFS.
The only o other change that has affeected the schoool has been the change inn Korean law that now alloows
students w who do not h
hold foreign p passports to b
be eligible to a
apply to enro
oll at SFS. The
e law change
generated d an Admissio
ons Task Force at SFS, mad de up of Boar d, faculty, and administrat tors to discus
ss the
impact of the law on o
f our admissions’ policies and practices. A Agreement o on changes ne eeded to be d done
in a collab
borative manner and has d demanded that the organi zation reflect t on many pra actices,
assumptio ons, and traditions. This h
has not been aan easy task, but has been
n a healthy ex xercise for SFSS.
Overall, th
his has been a
a productive year. Clear p
progress has b
been made on als, and the next
n the five goa
steps for e
each goal hav
ve been identtified.
Submitted b
by Dr. Shirley Dro
oese, Assistant H
Head of School‐A
Academics 01 Jun
ne 2011
6