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Dear Seniors and Senior Parents,
In mid-March of this year, Sidwell Friends School became a founding member of the newly established Global Online Academy (GOA), a not-for-profit consortium of leading independent schools from the United States and around the world.  “The mission of the GOA is to translate into online classrooms the intellectually rigorous programs and excellent teaching that are hallmarks of its member schools; to foster new and effective ways, through best practices in online education, for all students to learn; and to promote students’ global awareness and understanding by creating truly diverse, worldwide, online schoolroom communities.”
The value of face-to-face learning in a brick-and-mortar setting will always be the foundation of the SFS experience, but online education will benefit our students by allowing them to:
·         take courses that we do not currently offer.
·         learn with students from all over the world.
·         experience learning in a way that will be required of them in the future.
The GOA will offer online courses to selected students at member schools.  In addition to Sidwell Friends School, the following independent schools are also founding members:
Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, NM
Catlin Gables, Portland, OR
Cranbrook School, Detroit MI
Dalton School, New York, NY
Germantown Friends School, Philadelphia, PA
Head-Royce School, Oakland, CA
King's Academy, Aman, Jordan
Lakeside School, Seattle, WA
Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii
As the program evolves, the ultimate goal among the founding members is to build the consortium on a global scale by attracting more international schools. The potential also exists to share our educational models and resources with a broader community to serve a public purpose.
How will GOA work?
·         Only teachers already in the employ of the member schools will be permitted to propose and offer courses.
·         Courses and academic policies will be reviewed, approved and evaluated by committees made up of representatives from each of the member schools.
·         Only students already enrolled in one of the member schools will be permitted to take courses through the Global Online Academy.
·         Courses will involve active interaction between students and teacher on a daily basis through online discussion threads, skype sessions, blog posts, email and other digital forms of communication.
·         SFS students may only take GOA courses that are not equivalent to face-to-face courses offered on campus. For fall semester 2011, the GOA Spanish course will not be available to SFS students for this reason.
·         SFS students may only take one GOA course per semester.
·         GOA courses will be only available to SFS seniors in school year 2011/2012 and by approval of the student’s Advisor, College Counselor and the Academic Dean.
·         Average class size is expected to be 10 students, with class sizes limited to 20 students.
·         GOA courses will be equivalent in rigor and time commitment to SFS courses.  They may not be taken as a 6th course.
·         GOA courses will receive SFS credit - 5 credit for a semester course.  This credit will appear on the student’s SFS transcript with a notation that it is a GOA course, similar to the way summer SFS courses are noted on the transcript.
·         GOA courses may not be substituted for an SFS course required for graduation but may be used to fulfill the 20-credit graduation requirement.
·         At SFS, there will be no cost to the student for enrolling in a GOA class.
This fall, the first five courses are being offered and more courses will be added as GOA grows.  Attached please find two documents – a course description guide and a course registration form. Students who are interested in registering for a fall semester GOA course should contact Mamadou Guèye, Academic Dean, before September 13, 2011.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Mr. Guèye or me.
This is an exciting initiative that puts Sidwell Friends School at the center of the rapidly changing landscape of education in the 21st century.  Not only are the tools available to teachers evolving daily, but also our understanding of how students learn.  The challenge will be to use this knowledge to provide our students with an education that will allow them to enter any field of endeavor and to become influential leaders, role models, and agents of change.
Peace,
Lee Palmer
Upper School Principal