Chinese Educators’ Visit Marks Beginning Of A Partnership

By Martha Coville

“I’m very excited to have you here,” Newtown High School Assistant Principal Jason Hiruo told the 20 educators visiting NHS from Shandong Province, China, “because this is our first opportunity to develop a working relationship with schools in China.”

The educators’ interest in Newtown High School was both general and particular. During their February 29 visit, they poked their heads into classrooms, took a look at the infamously overcrowded cafeteria, and wandering purposefully through the lobby. They also asked NHS staff and students direct, specific questions about the college application process. Why did you choose the college in which you decided to enroll? If a student retakes the SAT, is the highest score reported or the two scores together?

“One reason that I chose Newtown to participate in this visit was because the assistant principal and a social studies teacher are going to China with me in the spring,” Daniel W. Gregg said. Mr Gregg is the director of Connecticut Shandong School Partnerships for the Connecticut State Department of Education.

The visiting educators, Mr Gregg said, work as administrators in high schools, called “middle schools” in China, and colleges, in municipal appointments, and also for the Shandong Province Department of Education. Ninety-three million people live in Shandong, which is in northeastern China, on the Yellow Sea.

Xiao Jing Chu, who visited Newtown with the group, is an official with the Shandong Department of Education, and plans on working with Mr Hiruo and Ms Parvis when they visit in April.

“They were interested in learning about assessment” in the American school system, Mr Gregg said of the visiting educators. “When I issued the invitation letter to the group last fall, that’s what I set up the itinerary for.” He explained that he wanted to show the visitors how student assessment is measured in secondary schools, and what use colleges make of that information.

At NHS, the Chinese educators heard a presentation from Head of Guidance Cathy Oster explaining how the guidance department helps students select colleges. Mr Gregg said that he also arranged for the group to visit the Connecticut State Department of Education, in Hartford, and Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic. In Hartford, Mr Gregg said, the state gave a presentation on how the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) are constructed; in Willimantic, he arranged for the visiting educators to learn how colleges select students for acceptance.

 

Exchanging Ideas

Although the visitors spoke no English, their enthusiasm was not dimmed by the language barrier. They spoke through an interpreter, and also with the aid of four NHS students. Tenth graders Felicia Pan, Wending Lu, and Calvin Song, and eleventh grader Biota Hung said that they spoke Mandarin or other regional Chinese languages at home, and assisted with the translating.

The Chinese educators were eager to speak one-on-one with American students. Seated in the lecture hall, they nearly shouted out over each other in Mandarin to learn about American education from the students’ perspective. “What do you like to read?” they asked Felicia, Wending, Calvin, and Biota. “Where do you want to go to college?” They nodded thoughtfully as Felicia and Biota explained they were looking at schools with strong programs in their selected majors.

Ms Oster began her presentation with a PowerPoint slide reading “The College Application Process Doesn’t Just Happen Senior Year,” and explained how guidance counselors work with students beginning in the eighth grade to help them select courses and build a transcript. “At Newtown, we work to make our large school feel small,” Ms Oster said. Through the interpreter, the audience explained that there are no guidance counselors per se, in their system. “Every teacher counsels his students,” said one teacher.

Mr Xiao said, “We notice that some things in your education system are very similar to ours and some are very different. The most impressive so far is the close relationship between the teacher and student in the US. It is very difficult to do that in China because of the student/teacher ratio there, which is around 50 students to a classroom.”

Mr Xiao and the other visiting educators also had very specific questions about the SATs and ACTs. They asked what the tests cost, how they differ, why a student might choose to take test over the other.

Other tests interested the visiting educators as well. Several asked, out of curiosity, if they could take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a vocational test developed by the army, which the guidance department offers online. Certainly, Ms Oster and Mr Hiruo said. They would show them how to access the website online. Visitors and hosts paused together for a moment, wondering if their vast cultural gulf separating the Chinese educators from the intended subjects of the test would skew the results.

Language barriers made it difficult for The Bee to communicate with the educators during their tour of the building. As the tour ended, though, they sat down to a lunch prepared by students in the NHS culinary students.

“I very much enjoyed the visit,” Mr Xiao said, as he was called to sit down. “I really appreciated the state Department of Education’s arranging of this trip. I really appreciate the educators here and the hospitality and warm welcome they have shown us.”

‘Infusing’ The Curriculum

“I think it’s a very big project,” said Assistant Principal Hiruo of what he hopes will come from the brief morning’s visit. Mr Hiruo and  Ms Parvis will be living for China on April 11. Their visit includes several days of orientation, including an overview of the Chinese education system, and cultural side trips, like a tour of Confucius’s house.

“I think that the most compelling reason for developing US-China sister schools is to infuse curriculum into international perspectives and skills,” Mr Hiruo said.

He said that Superintendent Janet Robinson and former superintendent Thomas Jokubaitis selected him and Ms Parvis visit the Liaocheng #3 Middle School in the Liaocheng municipality in Shangdong. “It was a major surprise to me, being selected,” Mr Hiruo said. “It was humbling and an honor.”

Mr Hiruo said, “Martha’s role is to primarily observe the classroom culture,” at the Liaocheng #3 Middle School. His job, he said, will be to work with administrators to develop an agreement creating an ongoing exchange program between Liaocheng and NHS. In the future, Mr Hiruo said, the program will allow for student and teacher exchange between the two different schools.

“I see language programs in Connecticut schools from the partnerships,” said Mr Gregg, who is arranging Mr Hiruo and Ms Parvis’s visit. Mr Hiruo also said he hopes the visit will help NHS develop a Mandarin program. “It’s important as we go into the 21st Century that our kids develop 21st Century skills,” he said.

Mr Hiruo said he hopes to bring “intercultural, in fact, international” perspectives back to NHS with him when he returns. “The important thing is that we’re going over there to establish this relationship. Imagine how this will expand,” he said. “As we start to focus on that culture, it’s just a ripple effect,” said Mr Hiruo, explaining that the partnership will enhance instruction across disciplines, and even in subjects outsides the language arts, like math and chemistry.