This morning, the plan was for us to visit one of the best private prep k-12 schools in the country, so we can learn about the kind of curriculum used at the school and how it got started. The plan was to attend lectures there from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm and also enjoy a midmorning snack at the school. The name of the school is, “Colegio Intisana”, which has a website located here: http://www.intisana.com/ This school only admits boys, but also has a sister school which only admits girls. Nevertheless, due to the fact that the sister school is located elsewhere and because of the time constraints, we only visited all boy school.

Here is a picture of the inside of the all boys school. As shown, you will notice that this school is located in a scenic part of Quito.

The school got started when a bunch of neighborhood parents got together and decided that their children needed a different type of school than the schools that were available at the time. The parent group decided that the new school needed to do more than just educate students. Specifically, the new school needed to hire faculty whom were also pillars of the community and who modeled exemplary behaviors that students could emulate to help them become outstanding citizens. The visionary school also needed to address the student’s spiritual needs and had to be non denominational.  Therefore, whatever religion was practiced in the student’s home would be respected by the school.  The school also had make learning the English language a high priority. The school finally opened it’s doors on October 26th, 1966 with a handful of teachers and a few students. 

As previously stated, presently this school is one of the best quality private k-12 prep schools in Ecuador. The tuition at this school is very expensive, however many students who attend get scholarships. Many parents who send their children to the school, do so because many other generations of their families also attended. Surprisingly, some of the first set of teachers whom were hired to teach at the school are still employed there. Additionally, wealthier parents who send their children to this school support the school scholarship fund so that the school can admit students regardless of socioeconomic backgrounds and keep operating.

However, what distinguishes this Ecuadorian school from others, is that on July 27th, 2013, their high school got approval to start participating in the, “International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme  (IBDP)”.  The IBDP organization has a website located here: http://www.ibo.org/ According to the website,  the the IBDP program is recognized worldwide as having high quality rigorous academic standards and that the high school credentials of any student graduating with an IBDP HS diploma, makes them eligible to apply for admission to any university in the world.

In the year 2014, the school also became a pilot school participating in the, “Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)”, exam program. The PISA webpage can be found here: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ According to this website, these are international standarized exams that test high school students in the subjects of reading, mathematics and science. The webpage also states that students benefit by having their test scores in these three subject areas recognized worldwide as adequate credentials, for admission purposes to universities in all countries that participate in the PISA program.

Additionally, the website states that PISA exams are financed by the governments who participate in the program. The PISA webpage states that some of the schools in the USA also participate in this exam program. Nevertheless, as of the date of this post, Ecuador is still in the pilot stages of participating in this exam program.  Therefore  the county is not yet listed as one of the participating countries on the PISA webpage. You can however, read more information about Ecuador’s pilot plan participation on this webpage here: http://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/pisa-comenzara-ecuador-pruebas-piloto.html

One of the things that impressed me the most about this school is that the school offers ministry to the entire family. They have counselors available at the school to advice the family’s of the students with any personal problems that they may have. I believe that this is essential if students are to truly thrive in an academic setting.  I was also  impressed that the school has a policy of not assigning homework on the weekends to allow students to have more time for family activities. Finally, this students of this school currently has the highest overall scores on Ecuadorian National Standardized exams. In my opinion, this fact leaves no doubt in my mind regarding the academic success of the students at that school and it’s rigorous academic standards. We left the school around 1:00 pm and went to a local restaurant to have lunch.

Then, we went on to do some shopping for several hours. We visited the. ” Artisanal Market” located in Quito’s Mariscal Region. We stayed in the area until approximately 4:30pm and then returned to our bed/breakfast location until dinner time. Here is a short video showing what the shopping area is like:

 

Next on the agenda was going out to dinner and also listening to a presentation by an invited guest speaker. The speaker was Ryan Cobey, an American who works in  as the advisor to the Secretary of Commerce in Ecuador in matters regarding International Trade Agreements and Articulations. He is also currently a professor, teaching International Relations at the University of the Americas in Ecuador. This university’s webpage is located here: http://www.udla.edu.ec/

It was during his extended stay in Ecuador for the purpose of doing research for his masters level thesis regarding International Trade Agreements, while a graduate student at East Carolina University in the US, that he decided to make this country his new home. At the time, he was pursuing a Masters Degree in International Relations and National Security. He spoke to our group from 6:30 until 8:30 pm about his duties in his role as an advisor to the Secretary of Commerce in Ecuador and the classes he teaches at  the University of the Americas.. Ryan’s LinkedIn webpage can be found here: https://ec.linkedin.com/in/ryan-cobey-6b9b3657/en

We finished listening to the presentation and called it a day.