PRIZES JURY
Ralph Begleiter
Former CNN World Affairs Correspondent; and Rosenberg Professor of Communication, Distinguished Journalist in Residence, University of Delaware

Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth
Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Gaston Caperton
Governor of West Virginia (1989-1997); and President, The College Board

Congressman Michael N. Castle
U.S. Representative, Delaware

Milton Chen
Executive Director, The George Lucas Educational Foundation

Robert Hormats
Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs (International)

John M. Engler
Governor of Michigan (1991-2003); President & CEO, National Association of Manufacturers

Charlotte K. Frank
Senior Vice President, Research & Development, McGraw Hill Education

Antonia Hernández
President and CEO, California Community Foundation

James B. Hunt, Jr.
Governor of North Carolina (1977-1985, 1993-2001); Asia Society Trustee

Helene L. Kaplan
Senior Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Kurt Landgraf
President, Educational Testing Service

Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering
Senior Vice President, International Relations, The Boeing Company

Richard Riley
Former US Secretary of Education

Morley Safer
CBS News Correspondent

Frank Wisner
Vice Chairman, External Affairs,
American International Group, Inc.

 

 

The Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education, a national competition first launched in 2003, recognizes outstanding achievement by those in the education sector who promote cultural awareness, world history, and an international studies curriculum as essentials in the development of the next generation of young Americans.

Four prizes of $25,000 are awarded annually to an elementary/middle school; a high school; a district or state; and a media or technology program. From 2003 - 05, there was a university category recognizing higher education programs that connected with K-12 in impactful ways. Past prize recipients represent diverse approaches to international education and different geographic regions of the country. All demonstrated impressive innovation in leveraging existing education resources, in exploring new approaches to teaching about the world, in curriculum, exchanges, teacher preparation and in integrating technology and informal learning methods.

The winners 2003 - 2007
Program impact

Stimulating awareness
Expanding models
Disseminating best practices
Increasing teacher knowledge
Broadening technology's reach
Scaling up world language instruction
Catlyzing state policies

The Winners 2003 - 2007

Elementary/Middle School Prize
2007: Sunset Elementary School, Miami, FL
2006: Washington International School, Washington, DC
2005: Richmond Elementary School, Portland, OR
2004: Chinese American International School, San Francisco, CA
2003: John Stanford International School, Seattle, WA

High School Prize
2007: Eugene International High School, Eugene, OR
2006: Walter Payton Preparatory High School, Chicago, IL
2005: Newton North and Newton South High Schools, Newton, MA
2004: International School of the Americas, San Antonio, TX, and Metropolitan Learning Center Global Studies Magnet School, Bloomfield, CT (Co-Recipients)
2003: Evanston Township High School, Evanston, IL

State
2007: Ohio
2006: Massachusetts
2005: Delaware and Kentucky (Co-Recipients)
2004: Wisconsin
2003: North Carolina

Media and Technology
2007: Reischauer Scholars Program, Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), Stanford, CA
2006: Thirteen/WNET, New York, NY
2005: Global Nomads Group, New York, NY
2004: The GLOBE Program, Boulder, CO
2003: Sesame Workshop, New York, NY and iEARN, New York, NY (Co-Recipients)

University
2005: Indiana University
2004: Michigan State University
2003: University of Vermont

Impact of the Prizes Program  

Stimulating Awareness
The prizes have garnered considerable interest across the country, bringing national attention to the critical need for investment in the development of international knowledge and skills. Press coverage of the prizes has been extensive and from this has emerged a growing interest by the press in covering international education as a part of reforming America’s high schools. Stories have run in national and international media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, International Herald Tribune, ABC, several articles in Education Week.

National organizations such as the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and others, have focused annual conferences and meetings on the topic of international knowledge and skills, exploring it as part of an educational response to globalization.

Expanding Models
All of the former prizewinning schools have become local if not national models, receiving visits from other schools and international delegations. The Chinese American International School (2004) has sponsored two conferences on teaching Chinese. The John Stanford International School in Seattle (2003), a Japanese/Spanish/English immersion elementary school, has become the model for a network of ten new international schools to be launched in Seattle. The China Exchange Initiative, which began at the Newton North and South High Schools (2005), has expanded their exchange efforts to six other states across the country.

International School of the Americas (2004) and Metropolitan Learning Center(2004) served as models to launch a new network of international studies secondary schools (ISSN), created by Asia Society and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to serve low-income students in Austin, Charlotte, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Mathis, TX, and San Antonio. These prizewinning schools are now anchors in the network, mentoring and sharing best practices.

Five states have already copied the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes by creating smaller prize programs regionally: Kansas, Vermont (2003), Massachusetts (2006), Washington and West Virginia have established prizes and Ohio (2007) is establishing one.

Disseminating Best Practices
The best practices gathered thus far have been published in three reports: Schools for the Global Age and States Prepare for the Global Age, and Educating Leaders for a Global Society. These reports detail how schools, states, and corporate philanthropies, respectively, can take to address this urgent need.

Also, in response to growing interest by schools in creating Mandarin language programs, Asia Society published Creating a Chinese Language Program in Your School: An Introductory Guide, which draws in part on prizewinners as examples. In April 2008, Asia Society and College Board will continue to provide support for these programs through the first National Chinese Language Conference.

Increasing Teacher Knowledge
Teacher professional development groups like the Model Schools Conference, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), and Phi Delta Kappan, have made international education a theme of their annual meetings and conferences – showcasing winners and helping teachers to bring an international dimension to their classrooms.

Recognizing that the next generation of teachers will need to be more internationally knowledgeable, teacher preparation programs are also becoming interested in adding an international dimension. The Council of Academic Deans from Research Education Institutions, an assembly of deans of education from research and land grant institutions throughout North America, turned its attention to international education during its Annual Meeting in October 2007. Following on this interest, Asia Society co-sponsored a meeting in February of teacher preparation institutions to highlight the importance of bringing global perspectives to pre-service teacher preparation and recommend strategies to do so. A report on the meeting will be widely disseminated to schools of education.

Broadening the Reach of Technology
Winners of the technology prize have used the recognition and attention generated by the prizes program to expand to countries around the globe – and use low-cost methods to allow students in every state access to world, right in their own classrooms. Sesame Workshop (2003) expanded its global awareness programming including: the recent launch of the website Panwapa, which aims to teach kids the world over about their roles as global citizens; and new Mandarin and Hindi speaking Muppets which expose students to other languages. A Sesame pilot program with the Ohio State Department of Education will infuse Chinese language and culture into preschool and kindergarten programs. iEARN (2003) reaches over one million students daily through online collaborations with international peers in more than 115 countries. States such as Washington, New Jersey, and Ohio, have formed partnerships with iEARN to involve teachers in these international online activities. The GLOBE (2004) network has grown to include representatives from 110 participating countries. There are more than 40,000 GLOBE-trained teachers representing over 20,000 schools around the world.  

Increasing World Languages
There is a growing realization at all levels that any response to globalization must include learning a second language. The Prizes program has put a major emphasis on effective approaches to language learning through recognizing immersion programs at the elementary level and extended language study, including in critical languages, at the high school level. Nationally, federal funding has increased for programs on critical world languages. Many states including Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Utah, and Georgia, have allocated or are considering funding for elementary world language programs – realizing the need for a K-12 pipeline to produce students fluent in a second language. At the local level, schools and parents have increasingly demanded world language programs for their students. An example is the growing number of schools offering Chinese programs: in just two years the number of programs has roughly doubled. Also, in 2004, when the College Board surveyed high schools across the country, 2,400 schools expressed interest in offering the AP course in Chinese language and culture.  

Implementing State Policies
Twenty four states are now promoting international education through participation in the States Network on International Education in the Schools in which North Carolina (2003), Wisconsin (2004), Delaware (2005), Kentucky (2005) and Massachusetts (2006) are leaders. Examples of efforts advanced by the network:

• nineteen states have developed Governor-appointed councils and state summits to assess the status of international education;
• twelve states have issued state reports/action plans
• twelve states have introduced state legislation to incorporate a global dimension into their schools
• seven states are creating internationally themed high schools as part of high school reform
• six states have initiated early language programs or expanded world languages requirements
• fifteen states have created new educational partnerships with China
• seventeen states have new professional development institutes to build teacher capacity
• seven states have appointed international education coordinators.

None of these efforts would have been possible without the recognition and awareness raising that has happened through the Goldman Sachs Prizes for Excellence in International Education. The increase in applications each year demonstrates that the awards program continues to significantly increase the number of organizations and education practitioners aware of the importance of international knowledge and skills. The prizewinners are models which demonstrate that international education can be realized while also meeting high achievement standards in the core curricular areas and in a way that motivates students.