Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania’s International Education Advisory Council (IEAC) continues to promote best practices on the website, www.GlobalCoin.org, and work toward meeting the state global learning goals. The IEAC partnered with the Pennsylvania International Education Council (PaCIE) and Independence Charter School on a presentation at PaCIE’s annual conference. The commonwealth has looked to the “global citizen” students in schools with migrant, refugee and English Language Learner (ELL) populations through efforts such as the first Refugee Student Education Forum in May, which highlighted the positive outcomes for refugee students in Pennsylvania schools. ELL students’ contributions to their schools were featured at the annual ESL conference in June. Workshops at both forums provided teachers with strategies to globalize their curriculum.  

The state IEAC is developing a needs-assessment tool that will help educators, administrators, Local Education Agencies and State Education Agencies assess the integration of international education components into their programs. The Pennsylvania Department of Education will receive evaluation data from all 21^st Century Community Learning Center grantees to assess the implementation of global efforts in afterschool and summer programs.  

The Governor, in his 2008 World Languages Proclamation, emphasized the importance of World Languages in the commonwealth. He urged citizens to take advantage of the services and benefits offered by Foreign/World Language education programs in communities. The state’s IEAC is preparing documents to re-submit a resolution for World Language standards for all students, which will be presented to the State Board of Education before the upcoming year. The state’s Accountability Block Grant (ABG) currently offers schools the funding to operate K-6 world language programs. 

Pennsylvania is proud that Independence Charter School in Philadelphia was the 2009 winner of the Goldman Sachs award for excellence in elementary school international education. The school promotes cultural awareness, world history and global curriculum as essentials in the development of the next generation of young Pennsylvanians. Independence Charter will work with the state to serve as a demonstration model to promote the importance and value of global learning.  

Contact information:      Shazia Waters shwaters@state.pa.us