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Since 1967, leading American business firms have been engaged in helping bring educational excellence to American children attending schools overseas through the Overseas Schools Advisory Council (OSAC). The Department of State established OSAC that year to seek the advice and capabilities of American leaders from the business, foundation, and educational communities in pursuing the goal of assuring quality education for American children attending schools overseas. The Council is comprised of senior executives from U.S. corporations and is chaired by Mr. Robert W. Norton, Senior Vice President, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group. OSAC encourages corporate and foundation participation to support its principal objectives. These include:
In addition, the Council encourages U.S. firms, foundations, and individuals to provide both financial and in-kind assistance directly to American-sponsored overseas schools. The Council has also provided materials to assist these schools in their own fund raising activities. Last year, American-sponsored overseas schools generated over $12 million in such assistance from U.S. and host and third country sources. With generous corporate and foundation support and with administrative assistance that the National Association of Elementary School Principals Foundation provides at no cost, OSAC has undertaken an ambitious program for improving educational opportunities abroad. The Council's Educational Assistance Program provides grant awards totaling approximately $150,000 annually for educational projects that ultimately reach over 93,000 students in 131 countries. To provide the widest possible benefit, the Council makes awards to regional associations of overseas schools rather than individual institutions. The Council rates proposed projects on the basis of their potential benefit to other schools in the region and around the world, the number of students and teachers that will benefit, and the facility with which the project can be replicated in the other regions. Since its inception in 1983, the Educational Assistance Program has funded 83 projects totaling approximately $2.3 million. The program has provided an array of videotapes, handbooks, study guides, student and teacher manuals, transparencies, computer software, lesson plans, and instructional packages. During the first 12 years of the program, OSAC projects were concentrated on faculty and staff training, enhancing the skills of school board members, developing and updating educational curriculum, developing programs for both handicapped and gifted and talented students, and helping students develop leadership skills. Although OSAC has continued to fund projects in these categories in recent years, the Council is placing increasing emphasis on projects that support and increase the use of technology, and is requiring that all project proposals include a technology component. This policy is intended to assist all American-sponsored overseas schools in incorporating educational technologies (computers, CD-ROM, multimedia and telecommunications) into the educational process in order to prepare their students for the information age.
Office of Overseas Schools Advisory Council |
