School Evaluation Summary

I am currently living and teaching in South Korea, in an urban region just out of Seoul. The student body is 100% Asian, English Second Language Learners. The students attend this school as a supplementary education in English. They attend their traditional Korean schools during the day, and then come to this school at the end of the

day. There is one out of just over 250 students with a special need, but it is not physical handicap rather than a learning disability. The majority of the students come from two parent, single income, educated families, some have grandparents living with them but most do not. The socioeconomics of this group is upper middle class to upper class. The student to teacher ratio ranges anywhere from 3:1 - 8:1. The teachers could teach up to 40 kids in a week but rarely more than 8 at a time. There are two separate programs that the students attend. On the 7th floor, they attend English lessons using the American curriculum and are being taught by foreign teacher, 9 Americans and two Canadians. They attend our classes for 4 and hours a week. Then, for another 1 hour per week, they attend English classes with the Korean staff on the 6th floor. On the 7th floor everything is done in English. On the 6th floor, however, most communication is done in Korean and on the computer using downloaded programs in English.

100% of the foreign teachers have at least a bachelors degree. 22% of the teachers have higher than a bachelors degree, and 66% of the teachers have a teaching degree. 55% of the foreign teachers are female. The average age of the teachers is 33 years old, and teaching experience ranges from 5 to 18, years with the average being about 9 years. The school has a female principal, but her role at the school is not the typical role of a principal. This is not a typical school but is instead a private business. It has an owner and it is ran like a business. The communication between the owner and leaders, and the foreign teaching staff is nonexistent. The owner is an educator at the university level. He and his wife developed the program that the school follows. There is an intermediary who provides the staff with information deemed necessary.

This is a very expensive private school. The parents are educated and pay a high tuition for their children to go here. Their goal is for their children to grow up and attend American universities, preferably an Ivy League school. They have a heavy influence over the decisions being made. They have high expectations of their children and of the program in general. This is not an easy school to get into. Before attending, the children have to go through a one to two year homeschool program, using CDs on the computer, meeting with the Korean staff, and then they must be test in.

Although the school has what it refers to as grades kindergarten through eight, it is based on the texts being used and the level of the students, not the students ages. Grade one students range in age from seven years to twelve old. Grade five students range in age from twelve to fifteen years old. Although the students are grouped by levels and ages, it is not uncommon to have a grade 1 group of twelve year olds, and a grade 5 group of 12 year olds.

Because I have only been at this school for four months, I asked several of my teaching peers to do the survey also. In most cases our results were in agreement on the maturity of the technology in the school but there were areas that showed a discrepancy. This reminds me that technology use is subjective, especially in this school as it is also pretty random as to what room has access to the kind of technology provided. Here is a breakdown of what my peers and I thought.

Administrative Filter:
Policy: Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent Because this school is ran as a top down business, there is no collaboration or discussion of what technology is accessible or provided. Technology is selected based on some unknown leader and finances. Planning: Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent Twice a year the students are required to make presentations to parents in order to demonstrate their English speaking abilities. In grade one, they are required to write, memorize and recite a one to two minute report or written story. They are also required to create a poster board visual that is then photographed and put on the screen for all to observe as the child presents. Grades 2-8 are required to write, recite, make a PowerPoint, and present a 2-3 minute presentation. This is the one and only project that requires the students to use technology in their learning process. Budget: Behavioral: Emergent Resource/Infrastructure: Emergent The budget that is allocated for technology is limited and sporadic. Some rooms have more technology advantages than others. What a room gets as far as technology is based on the business leaders interpretation as to what they need in educating the parents, in their parent programs. Administrative Information: Behavioral: Islands+ Resource/Infrastructure: Islands The foreign teachers are required to do several weekly and monthly reports on their students and their progress. All reports are paperless and done in a shared folder with our intermediary person. Although, according to the survey results, this ranked in the

Islands category, it is ranked very high in Islands, and only because of its limited usage does it not meet the Integrated category.

Curricular Filter:
Electronic Information: Behavioral: Islands Resources/Infrastructure: Islands We have limited teacher resource materials, so we rely heavily on getting support materials from the internet. Teacher Use: Behavioral: Islands Resources.Infrastructure: Islands The amount of technology each teacher has access to varies by the room they are in. All teachers are provided with desktop computers and high speed internet access. All of the documentation between the foreign teachers and the intermediary is paperless. Student Use: Behavioral: Islands Resources/Infrastructure: Islands+ Students rely on technology for their English lessons with the Korean staff. Approximately one of the five and a half hours that they spend at this school a week is spent learning and testing on the computer, through downloaded computer programs.

Support Filter:
Stakeholder Involvement: Behavioral: Emergent Resources/Infrastructure: Emergent There is little group involvement in the decision making of technology. The planning and implementation is random. Administrative support: Behavioral: Emergent Resources/Infrastructure: Emergent It is not obvious that there is any formal administration time and support allocated to the planning and implementation process. Training: Behavioral: Emergent Resources/Infrastructure: Emergent

There is no technical training provided. If a teacher needs or wants to improve on any skills or learn programs he or she must rely on other teachers for assistance. It is all independently and individually driven. Technical and Infrastructure Support: Behavioral: Emergent Resources/Infrastructure: Emergent There is no technical learning support available other than what an individual seeks out. There is, however, an office support person who can trouble shoot through most glitches.

Connectivity Filter:
Local Area Networking: Behavioral: Islands Resources/Infrastructure: Islands All teachers have high speed internet in their classrooms, however, it gets a little more sporadic throughout the common areas of the building. The staff uses the network often for assistance in communicating and finding support materials, but the students rarely use it for learning. Student use is primarily before and after classes or during breaks for personal use. District Area Networking (WAN): Behavioral: Emergent Resources/Infrastructure: Emergent As we are not really in a district, this applies only because the city internet is provided pretty, openly so it is accessible in most surrounding areas. Internet Access: Behavioral: Islands Resources/Infrastructure: Integrated The Internet is used by most students and staff on a regular basis. Teachers use it to enhance and research their subject area, and students use it for personal use, research and teacher/student communication. It is available in most areas of the building. Communication Systems: Behavioral: Emergent Resources/Infrastructure: Islands Although, it is used sporadically between staff and students, it is available in the classrooms. Most students have their own or can use their parents email from their home or personal device. Students do not have school email accounts to use for academic purposes.

Innovation Filter:
New technologies; Behavioral: Islands Resources/Infrastructure: Islands It is difficult to get new technologies approved and implemented, however, whatever is made available the staff is eager to learn and use. Comprehensive Technologies: Behavioral: Emergent Resources/Infrastructure: Islands The school provides the basic technology with some areas having more diversity than others. Some classrooms are limited to just the computer, and others have computers, digital projectors, and televisions.

Conclusion: In conclusion, I rate this school at a high emergent level. There is technology, and there is wireless access throughout most of the school. They do depend on paperless interaction with the administration. The teachers depend on internet access, although most of it is used for searching for supplementary materials. Everyone is provided with a desktop computer and has open access to it. The students are expected to use technology in their learning, but not while in the school environment. However, because of the lack of support and planning that is put into technology in this school, it is not able to advance. There is little technology support other than an office staff member who is able to trouble shoot through small glitches. There are no training programs. If a teacher wants to learn something new, he or she must depend on a peer for guidance. At this school, teachers are not given an opportunity to influence technology development. However, I think that in a more traditional school, where you have diverse teams working and collaborating together to develop programs, I would be anxious to work on a technology team. Although I understand how when new technology is first introduced to a school, it might need to be brought in slowly and to only a limited extent. However, I also think having technology sporadically placed is not productive. The way the technology is dispersed in the school that I am at makes little sense. After teaching in the states at a public school for 16 years, I now have a much greater appreciation for the teams that work together to develop programs and technology. The lack of collaboration that I am seeing now is not proactive nor productive in advancing the state of technology at the school.