International Education News

In the United States, a right to schooling is legally guaranteed for all children regardless of immigration status. For many immigrant students, however, the right to schooling is far from certain. In addition to many other issues, students with U.S. citizenship may have family members with a different citizenship status. Mixed status families face problems such as deportation, often making sustained attendance in schools difficult. One response to these issues can be found in Deming public schools in southern New Mexico. For decades, Deming schools have welcomed students from nearby Palomas, Mexico. These transfronterizo (transborder or border crossing) students, hold U.S. citizenship but come from mixed status families. Each day, hundreds of students travel across the border to attend schools in Deming.

Hoping to learn more about Deming’s powerful work, we recently spoke to friend of IEN and Educational Change SIG Chair, Professor Kristin Kew. Kew is in the first stages of a research project with Deming superintendent Dr. Arsenio Romero about these schools and the experiences of transfronterizo students and their families. Kew notes that since coming to the New Mexico State University, she has been fascinated with the role of the border in education. Of course, as the project begins, the current political climate gives the work entirely new meanings.

2 Places and Everyday Crossings

Kew suggests that Palomas and Deming could be one city. The two places co-exist. Their economies and people are entangled, but they are separated by a border. 20 years ago, this border was simply a chain link fence with a small hut. Border patrol knew all the students crossing for school. In general, though it was still a journey and involved process, crossing the border at this time was relatively informal. Today, a 2-million-dollar border wall welcomes the students as they cross. Kew points out how these checkpoints and walls create a strangeness to the ongoing calls for building a border wall. She notes that for these students, a wall is already an everyday reality.

Each morning, the journey for nearly 1000 students from 4 years old through high school seniors begins in Palomas. Palmoas is a small town in the state of Chihuahua roughly 30 miles from the U.S-Mexico border. In the 1940s and 1950s, when Deming began welcoming students crossing the border, Palomas did not have its own high school. The town has since opened and currently operates several schools that charge fees, but many families in Palomas still prefer to send children to Deming schools.

With the vast majority of transfronterizo students coming from mixed status families, most parents must say goodbye to their children at the border. After navigating through border security, Deming schools take over. Kew points out that “it is important to note the key role that crossing guards, bus drivers, and others play in helping students safely move from home to school and back each day.” After hours of greetings and farewells and moving from one country to another, students finally arrive for the start of the school day.

Deming’s Approach

Though Deming schools are not alone in welcoming transborder students, with transfronterizo students elsewhere in Mexico attending schools in places such as nearby El Paso or California, Deming is unique in its location. Where many of these other schools are found in larger cities, Luna County, of which Deming is the county seat, is largely rural. Additionally, Deming has one of the highest poverty rates in New Mexico. Deming’s unique positioning creates distinct dynamics and issues as it welcomes students across the border. As parents who do not have documentation are not allowed to cross the border with their children, the schools must resort to alternative methods of communication. Principals have reached out to parents through Skype to discuss school matters. Deming has also stationed buses directly on the U.S. side of the border to pick up and drop off students. Yet, Deming does not have the same resources as other districts providing similar services. Kew says that these issues mixed with parents who continue to send their children to school, educators who find ways to support families, and children who make the journey to attend school every day reveal a key them in the early research. “Resilience within this community is a constant theme here,” she says.

Deming schools also show a unique situation in serving their students. Though the students are citizens, they live outside the district. The decision to welcome students from outside the district dates back to 1948. For the first few decades, Deming schools welcomed students regardless of documentation status. Recently, however, the district policy has shifted so that only citizens can come from outside the district to attend the schools. But, Romero has firmly committed to continuing the practice of welcoming students from across the border. Likewise, many of the teachers are former Deming students themselves. With the majority of students being emergent bilinguals, teachers undertake both language learning and culturally affirmative teaching.

New Directions in Deming

The current political climate has added further adversity for the students and staff in Deming. For instance, when the Trump administration threatened to close to border last spring, Romero and his staff had to consider contingencies. They faced the possibility of students being stuck on one side of the border or the other. Where students in nearby El Paso could attend school virtually, Deming does not have the infrastructure to offer regular distance learning. They did offer 3 contingencies for sheltering or helping students return home, but issues such as these are becoming routine concerns for Deming schools.

Meanwhile, the research project is still in its early stages. Kew plans to move the research toward a critical ethnography. Beyond highlighting the work of the schools, this approach would allow for tracking student and family experiences crossing the border each day. The project hopes to explore the difficulty, uncertain, and further understand the resiliency involved in these educational journeys. Generally speaking, the work provides a powerful counter-story to current narratives about education, immigration, and border crossing.

With a focus on higher education this year, Education at a Glance 2019 highlights that, on average, 44% of 25-34 year-olds from OECD countries held a tertiary degree, an increase from 35% in 2008. However, among 18-24 year-olds, an average of 14.3% are not employed or in school or vocational training, with that percentage rising to 25% in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, South Africa and Turkey.

Tertiary degree holders also earn 57% more than those who have completed an upper secondary education.  At the same time, women earn less than men at all levels of educational attainment, and the gap is wider among those with a tertiary level education.  In 2016, the percentage of total government expenditures spent on education – from primary to tertiary – averaged 11% in OECD countries, from a low of 6.3% in Italy to 17% in Chile.

Headlines in a number of countries also emphasized the results related to higher education, but noted as well the significant gender gaps in pay between men and women, and concerns about education expenditures, class size, and teacher pay.

Australia

Australia should try to keep more international students who are trained in our universities, The Conversation

Australia’s education system takes almost one in ten of all international students from countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)… They represent about 48% of those enrolled in masters and 32% in doctoral programs.

Brazil

(Translation) In Brazil, investment per student and teacher salary remain low, Gazeta Do Povo

…although Brazil invests in education more than other members of the organization, student spending is below the average of these other nations

China

Higher education needs to step up efforts to prepare students for future: OECD

In China, the recent share of tertiary attainment is 18 percent, much lower than the OECD average. Among Chinese people aged between 25 and 34, 67 percent are expected to enter tertiary education for the very first time, slightly more than the OECD average of 65 percent.

Denmark

(Translation) New OECD figures: The class quotient is rising fastest in Denmark, Folkeskolen.dk

The Danish class quotient in both the youngest and the oldest classes has now passed the EU average. In fact, Denmark is the country in the OECD, where the class quotient in the oldest classes has increased most since 2005.

Germany

(Translation) Comparison East beats West, Spiegel Online

The people in East Germany are more highly qualified than the citizens in the West….Over-55-year-olds are doing particularly well.

Ireland

High gender pay gap among degree holders – OECD, RTÉ

The figures show that women with third level [tertiary] qualifications earn 28% less than their male peers in Ireland. The study shows the number of women who attend third level is higher in Ireland than men –  51% of women compared to 43% of men.

Israel

OECD: Israel big spender on education, students receive less, The Jerusalem Post

Israeli expenditure on education as a share of GDP may now be among the highest in the developed world, but Israel still spends significantly less per student than most other countries, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Latvia

In Latvia, women with higher education earn 20% less than men, LA.LV

In Latvia, women with higher education earn on average 20% less than men with the same level of education, but women with secondary education earn 28% less than men with upper secondary education.

Norway

(Translation) Norwegian students and universities cost more, Forskning.no

A new report shows that spending per student at Norwegian universities and colleges has increased more from 2010 to 2016 than in most other countries. Expenditure growth was 20 per cent per student. This is 12 per cent more than the average in other Western countries (OECD countries).

Poland

(Translation) Report: Polish teacher earns little, but also spends little time at the blackboard, Prawo.pl

According to the Education at Glance 2019 report, a Polish teacher earns $ 26,428 annually after 15 years of work. Teachers in Luxembourg earn the most in Europe – $ 108,624, Germany – $ 74,486 and the Netherlands – $ 63,413. The Finnish educator earns $ 42,206 and the teacher in France 37,700.

Slovenia

Slovenia still below OECD average in spending on education, Total Slovenia News

Slovenia earmarked in 2016 the same share of its gross domestic product (GDP) for education as in the year before, 4.3%, which is below the OECD average.

Spain

Bad education? Why more class time has not improved academic results in Spain, El País

Spanish high school students perform worse on PISA tests than Finnish pupils, even though they spend 246 more hours in the classroom

Switzerland

Switzerland- Vocational training or degree? Employment rates are similar, MENAFN

Overall Swiss adults had a higher employment rate than the OECD average: among those with obligatory school education it was 69% compared with the 59% OECD average. For those with post-obligatory school vocational training the employment rate was 82% (OECD average 76%) compared with 89% (OECD: 85%) for those with tertiary education.

UK

Britain has biggest primary school classes in the developed world, report finds, The Telegraph

State primary schools in the UK now have an average of 28 pupils, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) latest Education at a Glance study. This is the first year that Britain has been ranked as having the highest number of pupils per class – joint with Chile – out of all the OECD countries.

Schools around the world start at different times of year (this Wikipedia page offers a calendar with a partial list). Like many other places, schools here in New York City start in September. This week, we are continuing a yearly IEN tradition of gathering headlines from different places around the world that discuss the start of a new school year. IEN’s Aidi Ban has also contributed a number of fascinating stories about students heading back to school in China.

Mexico

Mexico City Begins School Year With New Gender Neutral Uniform Policy (WBUR)
School started last week in Mexico City and with the new school year comes a new policy. Students can wear whatever they want, regardless of their gender. But that doesn’t sit well with everyone.

Photos from Omar Martinez of the 1st Day of School In Tijuana

United States

Have You Heard Podcast — The Back to School Episode
School can be a tough, even traumatic place for students and teachers alike. Four teachers tell Have You Heard what they’re doing to change that.

Larry Cuban on Seating Charts and the Grammar of Schooling

Migrant Children Separated From Parents Experienced Severe Trauma, Government Watchdog Finds. Here’s What That Means for America’s Schools (the74) A reminder of the trauma many migrant youth face as they head back to school

First Day Jitters Of A Different Kind: A Guatemalan Boy Begins School In Cincinnati (Cincinnati Public Radio)
A similar story, but about an individual student’s journey and experiences on the first day of school

China

New semester starts in China (from Xinhua Net)
Photos and stories of students heading back to school

Randomized School Admissions Rattle Shanghai’s Rat Race (from Sixth Tone)
Admissions concerns as students head back to school (or start school)

School’s Out for Prolonged Summer of Hong Kong Protests (Wall Street Journal)
As students head back to school, protests continue in Hong Kong

Students Boycott Classes on the First Day of the School Year in Hong Kong’s Latest Democracy Protest (Time)
A similar article, specifically discussing boycotting schools

Greece

New School Year Begins Today In Greece (Greek City Times)
A welcome back and overview of the school calendar in Greece

Canada

How much these Canadians spent on back-to-school shopping (Global News Canada)
An analysis of Canadian spending on back-to-school items

Ontario educational workers hold strike vote as students head back to school (Global News Canada)

Back to school: Toronto volunteers pack supplies for kids in shelters  (News Toronto)

Czech Republic

WHY ARE CZECH STUDENTS LESS HAPPY TO BE BACK IN SCHOOL THAN THEIR GLOBAL PEERS? (Radio Prague)
“According to the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, fewer Czech pupils say ‘Yes’ when asked “Do you like to go to school?””

International Headlines

A Request to All Kids Going Back to School (Thrive Global)

The back-to-school question some believe we should ditch (BBC)
Exploring why teachers should stop asking “what did you do on summer break?”

Dr. Sarah L. Woulfin is an associate professor in the University of Connecticut’s Department of Educational Leadership who studies the implementation of instructional policy. Using lenses from organizational sociology, she investigates how policies and organizational conditions influence the work of teachers, coaches, principals, and district administrators. She has conducted several studies of instructional coaching across multiple states and educational systems. She has adopted a research-practice partnership approach to engage in mutualistic qualitative research with district leaders. Dr. Woulfin’s work has been published in AERJ, AJE, EAQ, EEPA, Urban Education, and other outlets. In her doctoral work at the University of California-Berkeley, she focused on policy implementation and institutional theory. As a former urban public school teacher and reading coach, she was dedicated to strengthening students’ literacy skills to promote educational equity. As a scholar, her commitment to raising the quality of instruction motivates her research on how policy influences—and is influenced by—administrators, coaches, and teachers.

In this interview, part of the Lead the Change series of the American Educational Research Association Educational Change Special Interest Group, Dr. Woulfin discusses her work exploring instruction and its role in educational change. As she puts it:

When researchers provide feedback and encourage reflection, this coaching increases the capacity of change agents…

It is vital that Educational Change scholars track bottom-up change as districts design structures, draft plans, and carry out activities…

With the goal of assisting transformation in educational systems, I currently use a research-practice partnership (RPP) approach to conduct rigorous and relevant research on change efforts. As described in this piece, I support change agents by adopting a coaching stance which entails observing, listening, and asking questions. Notably, when researchers provide feedback and encourage reflection, this coaching increases the capacity of change agents, enabling them to support other educators in tackling reforms.

This Lead the Change interview appears as part of a series that features experts from around the globe, highlights promising research and practice, and offers expert insight on small- and large-scale educational change. Recently, Lead the Change has also interviewed Kristin Kew and Osnat Fellus.

IEN will be off this week and next, but we’ll return at the beginning of September with posts about heading back to school around the world.

In recent weeks, we have come across a number of pieces on AI and education in China. For instance, a recent article by Karen Hao talks about how “experts agree AI will be important in 21st-century education—but how? While academics have puzzled over best practices, China hasn’t waited around. In the last few years, the country’s investment in AI-enabled teaching and learning has exploded.”

IEN contributor Aidi Bian offers further insights:

Education and AI has become increasingly popular in China during the past years. AI technologies are explored and applied in both individual learning settings and classrooms (see links below). While most of the time, high technology serves to assist students in preparing for standardized tests and learning, AI applications like the adaptive tutoring product Squirrel AI do contribute to learning efficiency and equality.

A few related reports:

AI-enabled tuition ushers in the intelligent age: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/china-watch/technology/artificial-intelligence-in-schools/

China wants to bring artificial intelligence to its classrooms to boost its education system: https://www.scmp.com/tech/science-research/article/2115271/china-wants-bring-artificial-intelligence-its-classrooms-boost

Liulishuo’s AI App Is Teaching English to 70 Million People: https://medium.com/syncedreview/liulishuos-ai-app-is-teaching-english-to-70-million-people-31d4fb38a799

TAL Education Group (in Chinese): https://www.jiemodui.com/N/108273, https://www.jiemodui.com/N/106787.html

This week, we’re sharing highlights from a recent piece from Brookings about education programs in the Philippines. You can find the piece here. As the author, Rosalina describes:

In 2016, 586,284 children of primary school age in the Philippines were out of school, underscoring demand for large-scale programs to address unmet learning needs. As a chief education program specialist in the Department of Education (DepEd) in the Philippines, I have firsthand experience planning, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating a variety of education programs. One of our main challenges is ensuring that effective initiatives, such as with our teacher professional development program, take root and grow into sustainable, system-wide approaches for improving teacher quality and encouraging responsive instructional practices to improve learning outcomes.

How was DepEd able to improve literacy and numeracy skills in recent years? We began by articulating a clear vision that focused on teachers, as they play a fundamental role in developing these skills among their students. I worked closely with my team of education experts to retool teachers’ mastery of content knowledge and pedagogical skills so they could effectively lead in the classroom. In 2015, we introduced the Early Language, Literacy, and Numeracy Program (ELLN) to improve reading and numeracy skills of K-3 learners. ELLN strengthened teacher capacity to teach and assess reading and numeracy skills, improved school administration and management, established competency standards, and introduced a school-based professional development system for teachers, the “School Learning Action Cell” (SLAC). ELLN trained teachers through a ten-day, face-to-face training module. While this approach had some impact, it was not to the extent we hoped—we wanted to reach the entire country. We understood that scaling an in-person training would be costly and time-consuming to reach primary grade teachers in all schools throughout the country. Because of this, my DepEd colleagues and I began thinking about ways we could harness technology to deliver improved teacher professional development at a national scale.

In the Philippines, the following approaches helped us to create, adapt, and scale programs with the aim of sustainable impact:

• Identify learning champions at all levels: There is a need to identify and empower a pool of champions at multiple levels of the system—in the regions, divisions, communities, and schools. By doing so, these champions become agents of change. In the case of ELLN, regional directors play a critical role in implementing the program by liaising with school division superintendents and public school leaders.
• Adapt programs to local context: Those implementing programs at larger scale or in new locations should be equipped to make the programs work in their areas by contextualizing approaches to suit local needs. This includes identifying and articulating the “non-negotiables” of the original design to ensure adherence to a set standard, but those implementing in new contexts should feel agency to adjust to fit local needs. Setting specific standards on program implementation through policy guidelines or memoranda can help maintain the appropriate level of consistency in implementation between different areas. On ELLN-D, we encourage slight variations in the structure and format of SLACs in ways that make sense for a given context.
• Recognize that every idea is valuable: It is important to allow champions to implement the program with standardized guidance but recognize that adjustments and changes are not only inevitable but also beneficial. Have faith that even when the originating organization or institution is no longer around, others implementing can successfully deliver the programs and have sustained positive impact on the people they serve.

**This post initially appeared on the IOE London Blog, a blog written by academics at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), University College London.**

In an effort to turn schools into academies too little attention has been given to constructing a middle tier oversight system that is fair and efficient for all.

This is an unescapable conclusion of our new study, Understanding the Middle Tier: Comparative Costs of Academy and LA-maintained Systems, which has uncovered the cost of England’s systems for overseeing academies and local authority (LA) schools. We found a complex and confusing picture that reinforces the Public Accounts Committee judgement that the Department for Education’s ‘arrangements for oversight of schools are fragmented and incoherent, leading toinefficiency for government and confusion for schools.’

The ‘middle tiers’ are the systems of support and accountability connecting publicly-funded schools and academies with the DfE – functions that were formerly carried out for all state schools by local authorities (LAs).

We found inequity: the middle tier functions for academies cost 44% more than for LA-maintained schools in 2016/17 (latest available data). The overall cost of the middle tier for the academy system was £687.4m or £167.05 per pupil, compared to £524.4m or £115.71 per pupil for the LA school system.

The difference can largely be explained by extra grants provided to multi-academy trusts (MATs) for functions previously undertaken by LAs. The top-slicing of academy budgets by MATs further increases the available funding for senior leadership posts to undertake middle tier functions. These leadership posts have not only increased in number but salaries have been unregulated. This has led to headline-hitting figures, such as those for Harris Federation’s CEO, whose salary without on-costs was £440,000 in 2016/17. Perhaps this is a reason why large MATs (11+ academies) did not demonstrate the economies of scale that might be expected. Academies belonging to these large trusts had the highest cost per pupil.

We identified middle tier functions under four main headings of finance, accountability, access and people. In simple terms, these were carried out by LAs for all schools before the policy of large-scale academisation was introduced in 2010. In 2016/17 70% of schools were LA-maintained and 30% academies but the proportions have changed. 60% of schools are now overseen by the 152 LAs and 40% are academies overseen by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, the Regional Schools Commissioners and by 1,183 multi-academy trusts and 1,608 single academy trusts.

Assessing the comparative costs of the middle tiers has been extremely complex and difficult. The Department for Education (DfE) does not publish information about the costs of middle tier functions performed by its agencies and refused our Freedom of Information requests. It is clear that greater efficiency, fairness and transparency are needed in the funding and oversight of England’s school system.

The research report by Sara Bubb Associates was commissioned and part-funded by the Local Government Association, but its content expresses the independent evidence-based views of its authors: Dr Sara Bubb, Jonathan Crossley-Holland, Julie Cordiner, Dr Susan Cousin and Professor Peter Earley.

THINK Global School is a “traveling” school that takes students to four different countries every year, twelve countries total. In this week’s post, IEN talks with Joann McPike who founded THINK Global in 2010.  We met McPike during the US-China Education Forum, organized by the Columbia-Teachers College Chinese Students’ Association. In a previous post, Launching a new school in China, we talked with Wen Chen about newly opened Moonshot Academy, and a future post from the Forum will feature Christopher Bezsylko Head of the Imagination Lab School.

Where did the idea for Think Global school originate?

Joann McPike: When my son, Alexander, was young, we traveled a lot. We took schoolwork with him, and we did it while we were travelling.  By the time he was thirteen, we had been to seventy-two countries. When we were in these countries, the questions that he was asking, the answers he was getting, and, consequently, what he was learning became so much more relevant.

At one point, we were in Vietnam, and our guide said “I’m going to show you some American propaganda.”  In my head, I was thinking “Americans don’t have propaganda,” but he took us into a room, and it was full of American propaganda from the Vietnam war. It hit me right then that we so often learn history from just one perspective. If you go to school in America you talk and think like an American; if you go to school in France, you talk and think like you’re French; in China, you talk and think like you are Chinese. I didn’t want that for Alexander, I wanted him to have a global perspective. I wanted him to be able to look at different countries, and say, “Okay, why is this society where it is now?”

We get so stuck in the world today looking at whathappened, but we don’t spend enough time looking at whythings happen. Why is the world the way it is? Why is a society where it is? Why is a country where it is? Why is a person where he/she is? Why are they angry? Why are they bullying you?

I wanted to start asking those “why” questions. So, when it was time for Alexander to go to high school, I said to him maybe we could just get a big boat and travel around the world and take a tutor.  But he said “That would be really boring. It would be more fun if there were a bunch of kids.” I said, “Okay, I’m going to get a bunch of kids and teach, and we can travel the world.”   But my husband said “You are insane. Nobody is going to want to go to a school like that.”  But I just felt like that was the way for Alexander to get an education, so we did it.

That first year, we found fifteen kids with very brave parents. Our curriculum was minimal to start off with and our first head of school came and left — just walked out one day.  But we did that first year in such a beautiful way. It was really philosophy heavy. The math was a great. The science was a little bit haywire, but every country we went to, it was the food, the sports, the history. We read books from local authors and it was so rich and full, and I thought that’s the way I wanted it to be. Then, during the second year, the board at the time thought we needed to have students take the International Baccalaureate because that would give us some credibility, academic rigor, and respect. So, we did the IB for a couple of years. At some point, though, the students pulled me aside, and they sat me down and said this isn’t working. Many of them had been part of that first year where they just travelled, and learned, and experienced, and lived, and they grew as human beings.

So how did you respond?

JM: I said “Yeah, I know.” We were on a lawn in India and they had me in the middle of a circle. They said “We are an IB school that offers travelling. We’re not a traveling school that’s offering the IB.” and I said “I agree with you.” They were so stressed out about exams, and they were so stressed out about the number, you know “What am I going to get?”  It just made me so sad. The teachers were stressed out as well. So I went back to the board and I said, “Look, this isn’t working. This is not the school that I envisioned. This doesn’t feel right. So either we close it or we change it.” That’s when we looked for a new head and found our current head, Jamie Steckart.  The students were the ones that interviewed him, and they were the ones that said, “Okay, by far he’s the one we need.”

So, the key step was to work with the students to identify a new principal, and then for the principal to hire new teachers?

JM: No, at that point, we didn’t hire new teachers. When Jamie came in, he sat down with the students and said, “Look, the IB isn’t working. We want to get rid of it, and I know exactly what we’re going to do.” Jamie had been teaching project-based learning for twenty-five years before it was a thing. He was an Outward Bound instructor, and he used to use project-based learning and saw the turnaround and the engagement it brought.

It did take a lot of trust, because even though I wanted something different, I didn’t know how to make that happen. I knew it had to happen, but just didn’t know how. So I had to have that trust in Jamie and in the process. When he said “Okay, this is what we’ve got to do. We need extra money in the budget because we’ve got to send these teachers around the world for the next year to develop curriculum and set up the projects for the next incoming class,” I went, “Okay, whatever you need. Let’s just do it.”  Through a lot of work, Jamie and a team of educators self-designed the Changemaker Curriculum, which we have in place today and has completely transformed our school, bringing it much closer to the highs we experienced during that first year.

When you describe the school, what are some of the key features you talk about?

JM: It’s a nomadic boarding school with a curriculum based on project-based learning and a heavy emphasis on social emotional learning.  I always say that our kids live their learning, and the learning is relevant. I tell them when they arrive: “You can go into any class and ask your teacher ‘Why am I learning this?’ and the teachers have to be able to tell you why. If the teachers can’t tell you why you’re learning that, why it’s relevant to your life, then come and talk to me.” That’s so different from my education. I did two years of algebra and calculus in high school. I have never used algebra and calculus. Someone once said to me, “Well, you need to have algebra and calculus so that you have linear thinking.” But my thinking is completely lateral. What kids are going to need in the future is lateral thinking. They need to be able to look at a problem from many different angles. Come at it sideways and not look at it the standard way.  That’s what we do with the kids as they travel around the world.

You might expect pivoting away from the IB would make our curriculum less challenging, but the opposite is true. The difference now is that our students are held to their own lofty standards rather than just that of an academic status quo. Instead of spending hours in a classroom being talked at by a teacher, our students are creating projects relevant to the communities they visit and answering driving questions that tackle real problems in the world.

How can we deliver potable water to rural communities in India? How should Japan’s government approach the nuclear debate? In each of the four countries they visit on a yearly basis, students integrate into the local community, gaining firsthand perspectives from locals and experts. Our students come from all over the world and apply their own unique take to everything they do. It’s incredible to see the different ways they approach each project’s driving question.

One of the key things I’d like to stress about education today is that we should be encouraging individuality in students instead of the standard one-size-fits-all approach, as no two students learn in the exact same way. This is where our focus on social-emotional learning and our curriculum truly shines. Our kids are gaining mastery in the subjects they truly care about and the 21st-century life skills that will truly help them as they leave high school and enter the next stages of their life.

We just graduated our first class of non-IB students in Greece, and the majority of them are now headed off to university or a gap year with a clear picture in their mind of what they want to pursue, and that’s because they’ve had hands-on experience doing it over the last two years. Their educational experiences at THINK Global School have been invaluable in getting them to that point.

As a school, what are you working on now? What’s one of the challenges that you face?

JM: With the school one of the challenges is getting full-pay students. Right now, it is a scholarship-based system. Most of the students have scholarships because I always said that it’s not just a school for rich kids, it’s a school for the right kids. There are a lot of amazing kids out there that would never be able to afford to go to a school like this but who are really going to do something good to change the world. They are the ones I want to go to this school. But we’re not a normal standard school, so another one of the challenges we have is to show that what we’re doing is safe. We’re not putting your children at some future risk that they’re not going to be able to get a job or they’re not going to be able to get into university. So our challenge is to prove to parents that it is academically safe to be so diverse.

What are some of the things that you’ve learned that you think might be helpful to those who are trying to create new schools, even ones that are quite different from yours?

JM: Be brave. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Just keep going. Dare to be different. Connect with other people who are doing similar things. Reach out. The people that I’ve met who are doing innovative things in education, we all want to know one another. There is support in numbers. It’s not a competition. I’m not competing with anyone. I want to help you build your school to be the best school that can be and you will help me do the same thing. I think in education, especially with these top boarding schools and universities, it’s all such a competition. It’s not a competition. If we truly want to save the human species, education is the key. We have to get everybody a decent education and help them develop a true belief of who they are, of their potential, and of what they’re capable.