It’s final.
International Christian School (ICS) and the Korea Foreign Schools Foundation (the “Foundation”) today signed a final and binding (insofar as any contract is final and binding in Korea) Operating Agreement appointing ICS as the operator of the unfortunately-named Yongsan International School of Seoul (YISS). Personally, I hope the name of the school can be the subject of additional discussion — why not “International Community School”?
Selection of ICS has provoked outrage from many expatriates who felt entitled to have the British School at Seoul Foreign School appointed as the operator. The European Union Chamber of Commerce (EUCCK) pulled out of the Foundation’s Board of Directors in protest. An aggrieved German father — whose child attends the Deutsche Schule and so is in no danger of attending anyway — wrote to the Korea Times (luckily, nobody reads the Korea Times) calling the selection of an American Christian school (you know, like the one all the expats are clamoring to get into at Seoul Foreign School) “an educational nightmare!” Strong words, indeed.
Nightmares are not reality. They are bad dreams, usually prompted by fever, delirium, bad pizza, or some other disturbance. But nightmares are not real, and cannot hurt you. Let’s take a look at the real world, rather than the dream world.
Currently, ICS has 520 students in grades K-12, and a waiting list of 183 students. Its student body is self-reported as 60% “ethnic Korean”, which is pretty close to my original estimation, if mixed kids are included as “ethnic Korean”. Members of its graduating high school classes were all (100%) admitted to universities in the United States, Europe, and presumably Korea. Just like Seoul Foreign School.
Both schools report that their graduating classes are generally not strictly “American” students. SFS says of the 59 students taking the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), 49 or 83% are “bilingual” or English is their second or third language. ICS says 94% of its students taking the SAT have English as a second or third language. Both schools have a significant population of ethnic Korean and mixed kids, as well as children from “third countries” such as the European countries.
Interestingly, the ICS SAT results are very strong: The average ICS student is at the 80th percentile nationwide (although math, surprise surprise, is a stronger performance than verbal skills) on the SAT. The “nightmare man” writing the Korea Times probably chalks this up to the “So What?” category, as he says Americans are all stupid anyway. But for the rest of us dumb ol’ Americans, this is interesting. How does ICS stack up to the “best school in Seoul”, SFS? Luckily, SFS has published information we can use to compare the two schools.
SFS reports its Class of 2005 averaged a 590 verbal, 650 math SAT score. ICS’s Class of 2005 averaged 548 verbal, 676 math. The U.S. national average for the same class of college-bound students was 508/520. Both schools did significantly above the average (both right around the 80th percentile), with SFS students being slightly better with verbal skills, ICS students being better with math. Which figures, if the ICS kids are “more Korean” than the SFS kids. But in general, ICS and SFS prepare their students equally well for college — at least according to the SAT. So much for the supposed “lower standards” at ICS, the “lesser school”.
I urge parents to give the ICS/Yongsan International School a fair chance, and spare us the moaning and groaning. The deal is done. I am a very happy ICS customer. If anyone wants to phone me up to discuss my experiences, level of satisfaction, as well as concerns (yes, I have some), my cell phone number is +82 (0)11 9788 0750 or you can ring my office at +82 (0)2 564 7997. Be nice about when you call — sometimes I like to sleep.
UPDATE July 4, 2006 20:01 - A reporter called me yesterday and today from the Dong-A Ilbo to interview about the flap. She noted that the Seoul government had donated W135 billion to “the foreigners” and the foreigners were not happy. (She thought that somehow the job of the Korean government is to make “the foreigners” happy, so we are making progress!) We mused that this outcome makes it unappetizing for the government to cough up billions of Won for construction of another foreign school.
There are a number of options. In the comments to an earlier Marmot’s Hole post, I mooted the idea of lobbying the government to permit foreign groups to establish a charter school and re-use an abandoned domestic school facility, such as Sudo Girls’ Middle School of Huam-dong. This is a worthwhile idea as it presents the possibility of a very affordably-priced alternative for foreign residents who might not be working for Exxon. If there are parents reading this who would like to explore this possibility, my phone number is above. Kushibo, give me a call.
One other option is quite tantalizing. There is another spacious, leafy first-world facility already constructed and currently in use as a foreign school. It is also conveniently located in the Yongsan district near to where many foreign investors live and socialize. Of course, I am talking about the Seoul American High School (SAHS - enrollment 1000) and Seoul American Elementary School (SAES - enrollment 1400) facilities on the U.S. Eighth Army Yongsan Garrison, which is scheduled to be vacated and turned over to the Korean government sometime around 2008. If the European community feels shafted, now is the time to start lobbying hard for the Korean government to save those grounds for the establishment of another foreign school — this time, a completely secular school with the Socialist, UN-loving curriculum to which they feel entitled. (Or maybe we can get another American school and show these people who’s boss!)
If the SAHS/SAES facilities are saved from the pave-over which is scheduled for the rest of the Yongsan Garrison, the Korean government’s out-of-pocket cost will be quite nominal and yet another “first-class” school with capacity for thousands of foreign students can be established, in the location they want. Everybody should then be happy — although, recent experience shows that where well-off expats are grabbing for assets to be given to them for free, this is hard to achieve.
UPDATE #2 July 4, 2006 22:45 - Contrary to my earlier belief, Mike Breen does not have a child attending the British School. He is, however, still British and therefore cannot be trusted.
UPDATE #3 July 4, 2006 22:55 - I have been prompted to mention that besides SFS, Seoul International School, Korea International School, and ICS/YISS, there is another awesome new international school under construction at New Songdo City. The New Songdo City International School (NSCIS) will accommodate 2,100 students on an 18-acre campus opening in September 2008. It apparently will have a secular curriculum. Looks super expensive — must be good!
UPDATE #4 July 5, 2006 09:00 - The British International School in Shanghai also plans to open a school on Yongjong Island near Inchon, which will allow an enrollment of 1,000 elementary, middle and high school students.
UPDATE #5 July 5, 2006 16:00 - The Dong-A Ilbo’s English edition today reports the YISS will accommodate “up to 30%” Korean students. Cynics among the expat community will point to this and say “See? Bend over, here it comes!” and intimate that the secret mission of the YISS is to become a “chaebol kids’ hagwon” or English institute instead of a real school.
What’s important to note is that the 30% threshold is in fact a limit, but not a guarantee of places. Currently ICS enrolls 520 and has a 183-student wait list. Most (all?) of those kids on the wait list are Koreans in the lowest admissions category — Korean passport holders who have lived abroad for five years or more. And of the current 520, 18% are presumably already in that same admissions category. But note that those Korean kids in the lowest admissions category get pushed down in priority and could get bumped whenever a higher-category “real foreigner” applies. There is no certainty that the enrollment of YISS will in fact turn out to be 30% Korean passport holders, and in all likelihood the proportion could turn out to be less than the 18% currently enrolled at ICS based on enrollments of “real foreigners” once the brouhaha dies down.
20 Comments
In general, Europeans aren’t too fond of either America, or religion…it’s no wonder they are apoplectic over this.
I’m reminded of the time in an Irish bar in Tokyo a bunch of Brits told me British high school degrees were the equivalent to an American four-year college degree.
You know, it’s amazing really, considering how daft and thick us Americans is…..how darn good we’bb done for usselves.
Let me be the first to say that posting your personal phone numbers online is completely insane (especially in relation to an issue so many folks feel so strongly about).
I’m sure some loons will ring up to read me the riot act. (I’ve already had to delete half-a-dozen snide and unhelpful comments from mouth-breathers here, and it’s only been a half an hour.) But some parents, particularly the thoughtful and concerned long-term expats who might not be well-served by any of the current international school options, may also give me a ring. And I’m glad to speak to any of those people — or to hang up on anyone who’s unduly rude. Having no affiliation with ICS other than being a happy customer, and being more-or-less “self employed” at a small law firm instead of a “don’t rock the boat” place, I am also free to serve a steaming cup of STFU to them whut needs it.
bobshop,
in australia US students are usually required to do one year at university before they are admitted because the successful completion of the first year of university is considered equivalent to the australian high school.
Personally i consider the US education standard to be pretty low, I think the reason the US has done so well is that it has adopted the market system far more than the europeans, in the education system as well as the rest of the economy, and the market doesn’t require everyone to be intelligent or educated, just for everyone to know what their preferences are.
Mouth-breather, eh?
Censorship on the Marmot’s? By a *guest* author? How nice…
Not you, Didier. The others.
I’d like to know how the figure of W135 billion alleged to have been ponied up by the Korean side to “keep the foreigners happy” was calculated, because this is a perfect example of what I eralier predicted would happen, viz., making the issue of foreign schools one of unwarranted and unappreciated favoritism to foreigners. The only cash outlay of which I am aware is W10 billion donated by MOCIE towards the cost of construction. Seoul City made available unused land located in a place where development of the sort with which we are all too familiar would never have been permitted (because of zoning rules designed to protect the aspect of Namsan). That ain’t cash and it hasn’t been given to “the foreigners” but to a foundation controlled directly and indirectly by various Korean govt. entities. Since the building is also owned by the Foundation, the 10 billion also has been transmuted into something owned by Korea. Unsurprisingly (but not justifiably, IMO), the Korean side now wants to basically run the show. They couldn’t get the stiff-necked Brits to buckle under. But ICS apparently is willing to bend over, for a shot at a pretty plush modern physical plant. ICS may be a fine school, but that’s really besides the point - which is about providing the targeted constituency with edcuational options for their children of their choosing and one that is insulated from the snakepit of korean politics and educational policy. Does anyone really believe that the Yongsan School is going to be such? Except for some whose interests are directly served by the designation of ICS, and considering the Korean modus operandi in these matters, of which the divestiture of the British school is just the latest egregious example, the answer seems to be (and objectively-speaking — for the record, I don’t have a horse in this contest — is) no.
The land is valued by the government at W100 billion; the buildings’ construction cost is reported as W35 billion. I agree with Sperwer that the land’s value is probably wildly overstated — that site was highly-restricted (which is why it remained undeveloped at the time of its donation to the Foundation) and probably could not have been developed for any other use.
But, Sperwer, both sides are guilty of distortion. It’s hardly fair to say the British School was “divested”. The Foundation simply gave up on trying to come to terms with them. The British School never had a contract and was never “awarded” the operating rights — it had a Memorandum of Understanding (or maybe Letter of Intent) which gave it the right to negotiate with the Foundation over operating rights. You and I both have plenty of experience with this one; it’s a classic M&A/joint venture situation. Not every MOU goes to closing. Most negotiations fail miserably, especially where one of the parties is Korean. That’s why in my own practice I always advise clients (i) don’t count your chickens before they hatch, and (ii) budget six times as long as any reasonable person would allot for your negotiations.
Ol’ Carsten is wrong. He says Korea is “…full on track to become an American outpost.” This has been an American outpost since 1945. Where’s the guy been?
Brendon: That’s pretty nutty putting your phone number up. You have some big cojones, my friend.
I do not know much about the issue, but I found myself agreeing with Sperwer’s view of things. I do not trust Koreans to run a school because to many Koreans it is more about looking good than being good.
I teach at a Korean university, and we have to give a certain percentage of A’s, B’s, and C’s each semester. Specifically, we have to give 20 to 30 percent of our students A’s, 40 to 60 percent B’s, and 10 to 20 percent C’s and below.
If you choose a 20-60-20 combination, then that means that 80 percent of your students will be making A’s and B’s, and 20 percent will be making C’s and below. The problem is that in the English conversation classes at my school, students are not divided up according to their English abilities. That usually means that half the class passes the tests with A’s and B’s and the other half fails them. If 50 percent of the class fails the tests, then how do you decide which of those 50 percent will be included with the 50 percent who made A’s and B’s to achieve your 80 percent ratio? And the ratios have to exact because our computer system will not allow us to enter even one student above or below the established ratios. Also, if a teacher chooses a 20-60-20 ratio for one class, he or she must keep that ratio for all of his or her classes. In other words, he or she cannot choose a 20-60-20 ratio for one class and a 30-50-20 or a 30-60-10 for another class because our computer system will report an error.
On paper, 80 percent of our students make A’s or Bs, but the real ratios are usually quite different. Without placement tests, it is unlikely grades will form a bell curve in college English classes in Korea.
Grading procedures have worsened in the last decade it seems… Back when I was teaching at HUFS, we had instructions – which I discarded as soon as I received them, that gave us ratios – similar to those quoted by gbevers, with the difference that D’s had their own ratio, and F was *very mucho* frowned upon. Very.
I wouldn’t have been too bothered by the ratio for A’s, since few of my students deserved any. It’s the limit on D’s and F’s I had issues with – or rather, the department head. I had to give also a few Z’s – yes, Z – for bad attendance records [but that was a HUFS rule anyway]. In some classes it was so bad that I called the 출석부 the 결석부. Again, something that didn’t amuse the department head…
Rowan,
As in most areas when people use the word “American” to describe something, in this case education, most Americans twinge at the monumental ignorance the world has of our country.
The US education system is radically different than virtually all other coutries in that it is in effect tens of thousands of very indenpendent unique systems, reflecting very local situations and circumstances. It’s similar to when Europe rails about the death penalty “in America”, ignoring the fact that the death penalty is legal on the state level, not the national level, no death penalty in Wisconsin and several other states.
Same goes for education. Except even more so as education is administered at very local levels in m ost states.
anyhow, as an Australian, you may want to peruse this article by one of your countrymen..
http://www.theaustralian.news......83,00.html
Interesting link, Bopshop. It is replete with parallels to the Korean situation, including the leftist origin and the sense of victimization (!) at the hands of the Americans. Of course, for those who think that any of the attitudes mentioned within are uniquely and solely the attributes of Korea’s brand of anti-Americanism, you may be in for a bubble bursting.
Thanks, Brendon, for the information above. I believe that parents’ interest in their children’s education is both understandable and nearly always motivated toward their children’s best interests. To that end, I feel that parents who supported the alternative were ultimately doing so out of their strong desire to develop their children’s abilities, rather than as part of some distaste for things American. The issue isn’t really about Europeans disliking Americans and their American ways — it’s about securing an education for their children which they feel best suits their needs. And, FWIW, my concerns about academic quality in the previous thread were focused on SIS (about which, somewhat, I know) rather than ICS (about which I do not). To that end, perhaps your information above will aid these parents further in that process.
Those interested in exploring the international school being developed in Songdo (as well as other aspects of Gale International’s massive project) can find out more here.
Brendon:
OK, everyone knows that you’re a member of a profession that specializes in making the worse seem the better case, but let’s lose the eyeshade and the sleeve protectors for a bit Bartleby. I think I’m the only one who has used the word “divest”, and I never suggested that I meant it in a narrowly legal sense. Thus there is no equivalence of distortion being perpetrated here by critics of the Yoongsan School Foundation and its Korean and (deplorably) foreign apologists. Yeah, anyone who didn’t land just yesterday knows not only that legally unenforceable MOU are not legally enforcebale but (as you yourself have observed) that actual contracts generally aren’t either in Korea if the Korean side wants to renege on any of its commitments that have become inconvenient, for whatever reason, or if the foreign counterparty declines to perform some new, additional demand that the Korean side neglected to think of before or just wants now, for whatever reason. That hardly makes it “right”, in the sense of behaviourally acceptable, even if in the former case it’s legally defensible (which it is; I’m with Holmes here). And the fact is that the Foundation committed to various things - in particular regarding control of key personnel appointments, financial management and curriculum — in the MOU w/ the BIS upon which it later reneged - hoping/scheming no doubt that the Brit side would acquiesce after having gone so far down the road that it would lose face and seriously inconvenience many of its supporters if it didn’t capitulate to the changed terms demanded by the Koreans at the last minute. It’s called bait and switch. The Foundation induced BIS to invest its time, resources and reputation on a project on the basis of false and fraudulent promises and representations. That swindle isn’t sufficient to sustain a legally enforceable claim for damages - and one could take the position that BIS should have known better - but the Foundation’s conduct is outrageously dishonorable, and blaming the victim, either for trying to navigate the pitfalls of business as usual in Korea in the pursuit of the needs and interests of its constituents or demeaning it with the moral equivalence gambit is despicable.
About the 30% policy. One thing to note is that that is not particular to this school. As far as I know, it is being applied to all new international schools coming to Korea (not sure about already existing ones, however).
I can’t imagine that KIS, SIS, et al, could fill their enrollment quotas (ie make their break-even points) if it didn’t apply already to them. I doubt there are sufficient numbers of Korean kids with foreign passports. But Jodi is correct about the scope of the rule. My recollection is that the promotoers of the Songdo school wanted an even higher percentage to ensure that “their numbers would work.”
Songdo seems like a remote option, literally. For a community of rich expats that is supposedly centred in Sungbuk and Yongsan, going all the way out to the edge of Incheon doesn’t seem likely. It has been pointed out elsewhere on this site that there seems to be some reluctance among some to send kids even to much closer Pangyo or Bundang.
Bopshop: “monumental ignorance the world has of [your] country”? Staggering use of irony. Even if the world’s ignorance of U.S. affairs could, in general, hold a candle to the ignorance at work in the opposite direction, what is your reason for calling this particular example one of “monumental ignorance”? There is a death penalty “in America” while presumably there is not in said railers’ countries so where is the ignorance? Would you agree that are railing because their governments have banned the death penalty on a national level and the U.S. government has not? Again this is true.
So, are you saying they ignorant of the fact that this is impossible in the United States because capital punishment is a state decision? Wait a minute, that’s a function of the constitution and amending the constitution is not really impossible if the political will exists, right?
So what they’re ignorant of must be that the political will exists and that it just hasn’t happened yet? No? So, in other words, America as a whole, is unwilling to ban the death penalty? If that’s what they’re railing against, it doesn’t even sound like ignorance, let alone “monumental ignorance”.
Sorry this is off topic, but the following deserves a comment:
“So what they’re ignorant of must be that the political will exists and that it just hasn’t happened yet? No? So, in other words, America as a whole, is unwilling to ban the death penalty? If that’s what they’re railing against, it doesn’t even sound like ignorance, let alone ‘monumental ignorance’.”
This is irony at its greatest. This effort to counter the idea that people are ignorant of the US, its cultural variances, and political history and workings is a wonderful evidence of missing the target entirely. I should point out that a depressingly increasing number of Americans, having conceded too much to European socialism, are missing the point as well.
The longer I live abroad the more I am convinced that the gulf of misunderstanding of each other’s (US/non-US) political sentiments is too broad to cross. With accusations slung back and forth, neither side seems to understand exactly what they are arguing against.
As an American, I will say this: the Constitution and its emphasis on limiting the power of the Federal Government is as near a state religion as we will ever have. At the heart of American politics is the sentiment that strong central government is a BAAAAAAAD horrible, ghastly, filthy thing. Any talk of national “political will” falls short at the altar of our preference for limiting Federal power. It is not NOT the answer to anyone’s problems. My one fault of the Bush administration is that they have loosened conservatives grasp on that idea. But, his inflation of Federal power didn’t happen overnight (he just took advantage of it more than his predecessors) and it has been accomplished through collaboration and alliances with those nasty socialist Europeans. Coolidge for President!!
Does any one have a copy of the “Operating Agreement”? Or know where I can get a copy?