Global Initiatives & The Global Online Academy

Developing global citizens

Dalton students live in one of the most international cities in the world. The Dalton School mission and the Dalton Plan promote the theory and practice of service learning throughout the K-12 curricular program. In this regard, the school’s mission statement is explicit that “the world outside Dalton is an intrinsic element of the school’s educational process.”

Dalton Global Initiatives (DGI) was established to realize this goal and serves to provide students with rigorous, individualized experiences that cultivate global leadership and promote greater understanding for responsibility in the world community. Dalton recognizes that a twenty-first century education must focus on creating and providing new opportunities and programs for both its students and faculty that will expand their understanding of the world far beyond New York City, enabling them to be global citizens. To fully realize its mission and the larger vision of Helen Parkhurst’s Dalton Plan, the focus of DGI connects academic excellence, global awareness, and cross-cultural understanding with the development of global leadership skills in a community context. This includes a global service learning component to its programs which encourages students to think about their own lives and communities. Service inspires students to actively participate in their local communities and lead others in effecting change beyond it. This will prepare Dalton students for success on the local, national, and global stage.

Faculty have actively pursued ways to achieve this goal, visiting schools in countries including Peru, China, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Turkey, among others, while also establishing partnership schools and creating mutually beneficial and innovative student and faculty programs. Often utilizing both real and virtual exchanges, DGI’s current programs are constantly expanding. A range of projects currently flourish in Dalton’s different divisions. In the wake of the hurricanes in Puerto Rico, First Program students engaged in discussions around disaster preparedness and relief. They partnered with a small school and exchanged letters and words of support. Middle School students engage in language immersion and service learning in Peru and Spain. High School students continue to participate in programs in countries such as Fiji, Morocco, Italy, New Zealand, and South Africa and consider issues of environmental and cultural sustainability.

Global Online Academy

The Global Online Academy, of which Dalton is a founding member, spans four continents, eight countries, and twelve time zones. There are over seventy-five participating schools including independent schools in Japan, China, Jordan, South Africa, Indonesia, and Europe, as well as peer institutions in the U.S. The mission of GOA is to replicate, in an online classroom environment, the intellectually rigorous programs and excellent teaching that are the hallmarks of its member schools. This innovative program fosters new and effective ways, through best teaching practices, to promote students’ global awareness and understanding by creating truly diverse, worldwide, online schoolroom communities.

Students commit up to seven hours per week to a single GOA course. Teachers and students, who are located across multiple time zones, gather synchronously and asynchronously, collaborating on assignments, projects, and discussions. GOA provides elective courses that enhance Dalton’s vast array of curricular offerings including: Advanced Statistics and Data Science, Comparative Religions, Game Theory, Medical Problem Solving, Music Theory and Digital Composition, Arabic Language Through Culture, Global Health, Microeconomics, Neuropsychology, Bioethics, Digital Photography, iOS App Development, Multivariable Calculus, and Digital Journalism. Consistent with Dalton’s mission, GOA promotes thoughtful collaboration, intercultural understanding, and intellectual challenge. Students work with global peers in innovative ways to shift perspectives and develop appreciation for the future of teaching and learning.