I just concluded a trip to Hanoi Vietnam. The trip purpose was to serve as a visitation team member for Concordia International School’s pre-accreditation process with WASC. I worked with the WASC’s Executive Director, Dr David Brown. It was my sincere pleasure to get to know Dr Brown personally and professionally. He is an enthusiastic proponent of using the accreditation process for school improvement. He is also a big baseball (Giants) fan and I enjoyed our conversation and musings about a subject of mutual interest.
Concordia International School in Hanoi is in its first year of operation with approximately 90 student grades PS – 7. They are located on three floors of an office building in a busy uptown location in Hanoi. They have significantly altered the business environment of the location and turned the place into a warm and welcoming school environment that looks and feels like a high performing school.
CISH has a credentialed and experienced team of administrators and teachers that are committed to providing a high quality of college preparatory education to the international community located in Hanoi. They are functioning in a communist country with the full blessing and support of the government. This provides many opportunities for witness and service by a largely Christian staff of dedicated teachers who share their love of Jesus through their actions and deeds first, and in word upon request by students and their families.
CISH is poised to grow and prosper in its role as a new and desirable international school of choice for expatriate families who are temporarily located in Hanoi. This new school will expand rapidly and eventually occupy a new and permanent location based upon the models already functioning with success in Shanghai and Hong Kong. It was a pleasure to visit a great new school that is poised for a fantastic future.
It was also a pleasure to work closely with WASC using their accreditation protocol. I grew in my knowledge and understanding of WASC expectations. Like NLSA, WASC is a highly engaging model for schools that requires self reflection, evaluation and goal setting. It has many similarities with the NLSA process. I am currently working with a task force in the construction of a joint accreditation document that will serve Lutheran schools seeking dual accreditation. I have every reason to believe that our schools will be well served working with new process that ensures the Lutheran identity of our schools who are working with a WASC generated accreditation process.
This trip involved 64 hours of travel in airports and on airplanes traveling to and from Hanoi. I am deeply thankful to Bill Cochran for personally upgrading me to business class for the longest part of the flight. It made things bearable. The two legs of the flight in the economy section of Japan Airlines were the most difficult part of the trip. Four days of meeting people, observing, listening, learning, collaborating and writing made the challenge of travel well worth the effort. As with all accreditation visits, I took away far more than I left behind. I look for great things from CISH in the future. In a short time I believe that their school will become the school of choice for expatriate families living in Hanoi. That will result in profound opportunities. I also eagerly anticipate a closer working relationship with WASC.
I will have much more to share about the trip and its ramifications at the National Commission meeting in July.
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