Thailand hoping to copy University Schools charter school system

ENLARGE

A delegation of representatives from municipalities around Thailand including Jureerat Hariruk, left, Prasit Ophatthiphakorn, center, and Tirdkiat Sooksai shoot pictures and video in an art class during a tour of University Schools on Friday morning in Greeley. The group came to Greeley to learn how to set up its nation's own charter schools.

ERIC BELLAMY/ ebellamy@greeleytribune.com

Facts about thailand

» Public schools serve children ages 6 to 11.
» Secondary schools serve children 12 to 17.
» Students 14-17 who wish to attend colleges after public education, attend private coaching schools.
» Private international schools teach children ages 5 to 18.
» Class sizes in a public school average 50-60 students per teacher.
» The first government-run school for girls was founded in Bangkok in 1901.
» In 1960, compulsory education was free for seven years, and for the first time special provisions were made for disabled children, who previously were exempted from an education.
» In 1977, the educational system was changed again to extend compulsory education to six years of primary, three years of lower secondary and three years of upper secondary.

Ministry of Education Thailand Service, www.moe.go.th/English

Third-grader Tyler Whitmoyer likes that his school lets him learn with freedom.

Seventh-grader Taylor Hughes likes that her school makes everyone do community service.

And 12th-grader Christian Dick likes that there are a lot of opportunities for students at his school to get involved in extracurricular activities.

They may all be in different grades and have different objectives, but they have one thing in common: They all attend the same school.

That school, University Schools, 6525 18th St., got a chance to share its philosophies and goals with three dozen government officials from across Thailand on Friday. Mayors, city managers and council members from 10 different regions of Thailand traveled to Greeley to ask the school for help in developing their own charter system.

The delegates also spent time at Aims Community College learning about the community college concept.

For more than 100 years, The Ministry of Education in Thailand has controlled all aspects of educating its citizens. Recently, however, the government gave local governments control of public education.

Local cities can now devise their own school districts and schools. The delegation that traveled to Greeley wants their schools to resemble University, said Somphol Dounglomchunt, the University of Northern Colorado Alumni Ambassador to Thailand.

University director Sherry Gerner, the middle and high school principals, the elementary school master teacher and two board of governors members spoke to the delegation about the history of the school, the budget, the curriculum, the students and the pains of building a school from the ground up.

“It was a difficult and emotional time,” board member Ron Eberhard said of the day the 100-year-old laboratory school learned UNC was revoking its funding and converting it to a charter school. “It was radically different from what we were used to. Fortunately, we had a lot of support from the community. It was almost as if we were starting from scratch.”

Eberhard said parents had one year to form a board that met weekly to devise a budget, curriculum and hire staff. He said including people from different perspectives is one of the most important aspects of starting a new school.

“The ability to plan our own curriculum was very important to us,” Eberhard said. “Our teachers have that flexibility instead of following a curriculum everybody in a big group does. We are able to set higher standards for our students.”

The group explained graduation requirements that start as early as sixth grade, including community service, internships, job shadowing and senior projects.

“I thought all that stuff was a pain at first,” Christian told the delegation. “But I look back now, and I'm glad they made us do it.”

The delegation was most interested in class sizes and how University mixes children from kindergarten to 12th grade without safety concerns.

One delegate said Thai schools have daily problems with fighting, and classrooms have 50-60 students to each teacher.

Montree Yamkasikorn, the dean of faculty of education at Burapha University in Chonburi, Thailand, led the delegation and helped question everything from budgets and how teachers are hired to district oversight and how special education and gifted and talented students are handled.

“We do not have charter schools in Thailand,” Yamkasikorn said. “Charter schools are a new concept.”