NEXT YEAR AND BEYOND By Dr. Chip Kimball Superintendent
It is with great pride and appreciation that we can reflect on Singapore American School’s 60-year history. Our students, families, teachers, and our school have experienced many changes over the years, from recruiting our first foreign-hire teachers in 1964 to the establishment of our Advanced Placement program in 1968, and from our first Interim Semester trip in 1973 to the launch of the IASAS league over 30 years ago. Through it all, SAS has remained grounded in our pursuit to provide each student an exemplary American educational experience with an international perspective. The world continues to change rapidly and SAS is changing with it, offering our students the best possible international education in Asia and preparing them for the complicated future they will face. In the past several years, our entire faculty has worked tirelessly to plan for that future. As many of you know, teacher teams from every division have immersed themselves in research, visited the highest performing and most innovative schools, spoken with more than 100 college admissions officers, and discussed the future of education with community members, business leaders, and educational experts. The high school division was the first to enter this process, and the first to deliver exciting recommendations including our advisory program, a Catalyst
project requirement, new advanced topic courses, the College Board’s new AP Diploma, and increased flexibility for students’ individual courses of study. The early learning center, elementary, and middle school divisions began the R&D process a year later and developed new learning approaches and programs, including the Reggio Emiliainspired approach for early learning, continuing the advisory model through the homebase structure, introducing more project-based and interest-based learning, creating makerspaces, and planning a future elementary Chinese immersion program. All the work that we called R&D resulted in more than 100 recommendations, which are now mapped out in our new strategic plan. Some of the changes that will be rolled out in each division next year are highlighted on the right. We want to ensure that student experiences are compelling and relevant, impacting our students’ lives. We want all students to have access to new approaches to learning, personalized programs, and innovative course options. We are well on our way. It has been an incredible 60 years at Singapore American School. I’m excited about the road ahead as we continue to innovate and improve the educational experience for each and every student. Thank you for being part of our journey.
SCHOOLWIDE Professional learning communities (PLC) PLCs will continue aligning practices across divisions to match our expected learning outcomes and ensure that teachers are able to respond quickly and appropriately when students need support. Teachers will continue to increase their understanding of how we know that a student is learning at high levels, and how to engage students to become strong partners in their personalized learning journey. Assessment We are revising current guidelines that outline our beliefs about the assessment of student work, especially in areas that are harder to measure such as creativity and critical thinking. We will expect all faculty to implement these assessment strategies, and the data will continue to inform grading and reporting practices. Instructional strategies We utilize instructional practices that focus on our desired student learning outcomes of character, collaboration, communication, content knowledge, creativity, critical thinking, and cultural competence, ensuring opportunities for students to demonstrate their growth in these areas. Social studies This year we adopted the C3 Framework for social studies, which has a deliberate and strong approach around inquiry. Next year, teachers will present units as provocations or problems for students to solve, explore, and learn together. Topics of curriculum won’t