|
| MIIS Releases State Report |
 |
The Massachusetts Initiative for International Studies
(MIIS) has just released a report based on its December
2004 conference.The report, entitled Global
Education: Massachusetts' Next Challenge, outlines
the challenges and goals of the international education
initiative in Massachusetts. Guest speakers at the
conference (who are also featured in the report)
included: Education Commissioner David Driscoll, State
Representative Kay Khan (who introduced IE legislation
in December) and Martin L.B. Walter, Vice Chairman of
the Massachusetts Alliance for International Business.
To learn more about the report or the December
conference click on the report cover.
MIIS Report »
|
| IE News and Announcements |
|
The national media's interest in Chinese language
classes continued in May. Both NPR and
Newsweek featured stories on the
growth in popularity of Mandarin Chinese classes in the
United States. They explore why Chinese is not offered
in more schools despite higher levels of student interest
than ever before. The NPR piece includes an interview
with Asia Society's Vivien Stewart. Click the
InternationalEd.org logo above to be directed to these
stories.
The Christian Science Monitor featured
an article
on the global studies program at Evanston High School,
winner of the 2003 Goldman Sachs Prize for
International Education. The article gained national
attention when Rush Limbaugh attacked the Global
Perspective graduation requirement saying Evanston
students are so focused on other cultures, they "don't
know anything about World War II," and "They've
probably never heard the name Adolf Hitler, but they
know everything there is to know about the UN and all
of its efforts."
Evanston students took offense to these comments and
challenged Limbaugh to a debate on history;
he did not respond to the challenge. To read the
Christian Science
Monitor article, click on the internationaled.org logo.
Asia Society will be releasing a report later this month
entitled, Expanding Chinese Language Capacity in
the
United States: What would it take to have 5% of high
school students learning Chinese by 2015? This is
the
result of a meeting of Chinese language leaders in April
2005. To receive a copy of the report when it is ready
please email Marta Castaing at: martac@asiasoc.org.
For more information on this meeting, see last
month's newsletter:
http://internationaled.org/Digest/0505IENewsletter.htm
News »
|
| UNA and Merrill Lynch Announce Young Ambassadors Program |
|
At the US State Department on May 16, Merrill Lynch
and the United Nations Association of the United States
of America (UNA-USA) announced a groundbreaking
partnership to cultivate young ambassadors and
enhance how young people learn about other countries,
world affairs and economics. Merrill Lynch has made a
$7.5 million grant to UNA-USA to extend the Global
ClassroomsŪ program to 14 countries over the next
five years and to develop a new curriculum to engage
students in global trade, finance and development.
Global Classrooms brings Model UN into public
high schools and middle schools around the world.
Global Classrooms »
|
| Grant Opportunity: NFLI Chinese K-16 Flagship |
|
The National Security Education Program (NSEP)
announces a new major effort as part of its National
Flagship Language Initiative (NFLI). This project - the
Chinese K-16 Flagship -- will, for the first time, focus on
the development of an articulated K-16 student pipeline
with the goal of graduating linguistically and culturally
competent students. A language critical to the U.S.
now and in the future, NSEP has chosen Chinese as the
prototype for this effort.
NFLI is a strategic partnership between the U.S.
national security community and higher education to
address serious short- and long-term deficits in
expertise in languages critical to national security.
Funded by Congress, NFLI supports a number of highly
innovative programs at major U.S universities that focus
on developing and implementing intensive U.S.-based
and overseas curriculum to produce students across
fields and disciplines with a high level of proficiency in
critical languages.
The RFP is currently available online. Proposals are due
by July 8, 2005 and will be reviewed by an independent
merit review panel.
Only one grant will be awarded. NSEP expects to
announce the grant award no later than September 1,
2005. Click on the NFLI logo to be directed to the
website.
NFLI »
|
|
| Senators Lieberman and Alexander Introduce Chinese Language Legislation |
|
|
On May 25, 2005, Senators Lieberman (D-
CT) and Alexander (R-TN) introduced The United States-
China Cultural Engagement Act. The legislation provides
for Chinese language instruction in American schools
and authorizes an increase of American consular activity
supporting American commercial activity in China and
provides for physical and virtual exchanges among a
broad spectrum of individuals in the two nations. To
learn more go to:
http://internationaled.org/congressionaltestimony.htm
|
|
