National Charter School Conference, Washington D.C.

Last year at this time I was at the National Charter School Conference in New Orleans.  One of the visions that I had during the conference involved returning in subsequent years with a strong SLLIS team that would be able to absorb even more information than I could do on my own.  That vision is happening as I type.  Debra Cole, Head of The Spanish School, Rebecca Powell, Director of Operations and Amber Simpson, Board of Directors, are in Washington D.C. for this year’s conference.  Hopefully we can get them each to post about their experience.

The American profiles one of our Board directors

Check out this week’s American for Up close and personal with Amber Simpson.  Yea Amber!

MO charter school conference

Amber Simpson, Board Director extraordinaire, attended this year’s MCPSA conference in Columbia. Here’s what inspired her weekend:

From October 16 – 17, 2008, the Missouri Charter Public School Association presented their Second Annual Conference, “Delivering on The Promise”. Aaron North, current Executive Director (MCPSA) perfectly summarized the import of this theme in his letter to the conference attendees:

“The charter school model holds a great deal of promise for revitalizing the public school sector – but more importantly and immediately, it must deliver on the promise of its students. With more charter resources in Missouri than ever before, and more national attention focused on charter public schools and their relevance to the future of public education, we must all work to continually improve the operations and programming in our charter community as more becomes expected of us.”

The ‘promise’ to our students, their families, the community and our nation is to provide safe, balanced, quality educational spaces to help students reach their highest potential. This latent potential, once cultivated, can lead to an ‘educational renaissance’ where students are truly learning, exploring and creating new paths. Charter public schools provide the flexibility in curricular models that address the whole child – academic success, social development and community engagement.

Get involved! Thursday, Oct 9th

Bonjour & Buenos Dias!

The French School and The Spanish School are officially in motion! Our main focus at this point is to begin our recruitment efforts for staff and families, as well as get volunteers to participate in our marketing endeavors. To that end, we will have a combined School Project Group meeting next week.

When: Thursday, October 9th, 6 – 8 PM

Where: St. Louis Public Library, Buder Branch, 4401 Hampton Avenue, St. Louis, 63109

Library number: 314.352.2900

I look very forward to seeing those of you who can make it. Of course, we will send out minutes from our meeting to share with the team.

Salut! Saludos!

Amber Simpson

Education as innovation

What inspires Board Director Amber Simpson to be a part of the SLLIS team? Here it is in her own words…

Greetings! My name is Amber Simpson and I serve as one of Directors-at-Large on the Board of St. Louis Language Immersion Schools, Inc. There are many organizations locally that are focused on the cultural, educational and socio-economic enrichment in St. Louis that I have been involved in, including: the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the National Black MBA Association–St. Louis Chapter. As a Vice President in the International Banking Group at US Bank, I believe that what I bring to this school project is a strong sense of the global economy and a sensitivity to the significance of cultural diversity awareness as it affects–not only one’s personal character–but its real applications in an economic sense. Thomas Friedman got it right, “The World Is Flat”; and, those who can navigate in the global market are those who will be able to quickly adapt and survive changes in the economic landscape.

With my background in International Business, I have had the opportunity to visit other countries and gain first-hand experience of the effects of socioeconomic factors on micro and macroeconomic performance. Education level is one such factor that drives economic output of a nation. In broad terms, innovation is the catalyst for economic growth. Yet, innovation in any sector is best fostered in environments that, not only value education, but have students that are performing at high levels–particularly in math, science and reading. By extension, those individuals that can perform in various environments (such as foreign countries), are usually at the forefront of the ‘innovation cycle’, thus increasing their personal wealth and the wealth of the nation through their increased contributions to the market.

Bringing this discussion to a local level, the sad truth is that the math, science and reading competencies of American students is waning. Several public school districts in St. Louis, including St. Louis Public Schools, have lost their accreditation. The reasons for such lackluster performance are vast, but one issue that I feel is affecting all of our public schools is the model itself. Are our schools really preparing students to be innovators and high-performers in a globally integrated economy? Thus, I am an advocate for alternative school models that are focused on providing the tools necessary to guarantee increased proficiency performance in academic skills, while preparing students for success in the 21st Century. This new school model must include high-level components of math, science, reading and foreign language. The SLLIS full-immersion model, coupled with the International Baccalaureate transdisciplinary curriculum, will bring a learning experience that is not currently available in St. Louis, but is imperative if we truly want to shift the academic and economic performance paradigm of students in the City.