Info bout DAS » School Accomplishments

School Accomplishments

A. Students' Accomplishments in Different Areas on Both Sides
B. Student’s Accomplishments in Different Areas on Girls’ Side Only
C. Student’s Accomplishments in Different Areas on Boys’ Side Only
D. Recent accomplishments by Dhahran Ahliyya School as a whole

A. Students' Accomplishments in Different Areas on Both Sides
» Model United Nations (MUN)
Some secondary students from each school have participated in MUN conferences in Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, Berlin, and Singapore. Several girls have received awards such as the following:. Best Opening Speech, Best Team, and Best Delegation. Also, many of our students’ resolutions have been passed by their fellow participants.

B. Student’s Accomplishments in Different Areas on Girls’ Side Only
» SEED Program

This is a non-profit program sponsored by Schlumberger Company, the purpose of which is to support development of knowledge, communication technology and improvement of science education around the world. Our students conducted a number of scientific experiments throughout the year and in workshops held in Cairo in 2006 and 2007 as part of their participation in this program.
 

» International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)
This fair was founded in the year 2007 in order to prepare students for science research through encouraging them to conduct experiments and projects according to internationally accepted procedures. Through this club, we prepare our students for the Annual Scientific Fair held in Riyadh. In 2007 and again in 2008 our students were selected to join the National Saudi Team in representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Intel International Fair for Engineering and Science (ISEF) in the U.S.A.
 

» Drawing Contest Expressing the Developmental Objectives of the UN
Our students in the Intermediate and Secondary classes participated in this contest by offering drawings describing the UN Development projects. One of our students won the second place in this contest at the international level and another won the third place at the Kingdom level.
 

» Oration Contest in English (For private secondary girls' schools in Khobar area)
Each year, DAS participates with other private schools in the Al Khobar area in the oration contest which is organized by Al-Jamea Ahliyya Schools at KFUPM. Our students have come out in the top three each year, frequently taking the top place.
 

» Poetry Contest (for the Intermediate stage)
The English Department in our school organizes a contest for reading poetry for intermediate students. The purpose of this contest is to develop students' ability to read poetry in an expressive way.

C. Student’s Accomplishments in Different Areas on Boys’ Side Only
» Robotics
Our boys’ performance in various robotics activities in 2007 and 2008 was very distinguished. These activities include the following:
     › The First Saudi Lego League
Our team won the second place in this contest and thus became entitled to represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the international finals in Norway. Our team also won the first place in the contest for the best academic research.
     › International Championship
Representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in this International Championship for First Lego League-Open European Championship (FLL-OEC), our team won the twenty-third place which was considered surprising for a team in its first year of participation.
     › Second Kingdom-wide Championship for Robo-Cup
Our intermediate team won the first place in this championship (for students under 16) and thus qualified for the international championship in the USA. Also, the elementary team qualified for the final round of this championship.
     › International Championship for Students Under 16
Representing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in this international championship in the USA, our team became qualified for the final round. Also, our team’s coach was selected to be one of the referees for this championship and two members of the team were selected as aides for referees.
     › Conference on Nano Technology
Our students presented the winning research in the first Lego contest entitled “Desalination of Seawater by Nano Technology”. The audience was very impressed by our students’ knowledge and skills.
 

» National Contest for Computer Skills

 The result was that our students became qualified for participation in the first rounds but no project qualified for the final rounds.

D. Recent accomplishments by Dhahran Ahliyya School as a whole

“Every year, we will be better than we were in the year before!”
 

The motto of Dhahran Ahliyya Schools (DAS), stated above, demonstrates the school’s commitment to continuous learning and progress.  We at DAS believe that we have fulfilled that pledge in most years despite numerous challenges and setbacks.  The items listed below represent just a few of the projects undertaken in the last two to three years.

» New International Accreditation and curriculum

In the spring of 2009, DAS achieved accreditation through the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI).  This is in addition to having been accredited and approved throughout its previous thirty-two years by the Ministry of Education of Saudi Arabia. On the basis of this new accreditation, the Saudi government now gives permission to DAS to develop its own dual language curriculum within the requirements of  NCA CASI and to offer the American high school diploma in addition to the Saudi Muqararat secondary diploma.  The new international program will begin with all students in grades K-8 and with two sections each of boys and girls in the 9th grade.  The first class to graduate from DAS with the American Diploma from our International Program will finish in 2013.  Until then, all graduates will have the Muqararat diploma. Students in the International Program will take math and science and some other subjects in English but will also have many courses in Arabic.

» Muqararat Secondary Curriculum

DAS was invited to participate in piloting the Ministry of Education’s new advanced secondary curriculum, Muqararat, and began with the first secondary (10th grade) in the 2005-2006 academic year. One grade level was added in each year so the students who began in the new program finished their final year and graduated in June, 2008. When this class applied to universities, the students were the first to use the cumulative grades of these three years and did not have to depend on the results of just one set of examinations since the national exams (tawjihiya) were no longer given.

 

For this new program, all the courses had to be completely rewritten.  For the first time, students came to have a few choices in courses and new subjects were offered.  Students who graduate with the Muqararat Diploma will have more subjects in Arabic but will still have a strong program in English.

» New Content Standards

While DAS has always adapted the required curriculum to teach its Targeted Characteristics for its students, the current change of status – from national program school to international program school – gives it far more flexibility.  In 2008-2009, the faculty collaborated under the guidance of highly respected international consultants, to begin developing our new curricula for English math, physical education and art on the basis of the  Deleware standards.  In addition, they are looking at adapting similar standards for Arabic.  For social studies, teachers are making use of the AERO standards for courses in both English and Arabic. There are many challenges to actually meeting those standards but DAS is investing time and money in the training, teacher support, and instructional materials that can be expected to gradually bring about implementation of these high expectations.

» Backwards Planning and Understanding by Design

All DAS teachers participated in training in 2008 and 2009 on backwards planning according to the approach presented by Jay McTighe in his landmark book, Understanding by Design.  Armed with new, clear, challenging curriculum standards, they worked in committees to plan individually and in groups, basing weeks of work on essential questions and enduring understandings. As they use their new units in the 2009-2010 school year and gradually mount them on the Rubicon Atlas website, they will continue to develop and improve them.

» Curriculum Maps and Rubicon Atlas

After attending training outside Saudi Arabia on curriculum mapping, DAS supervisors and directors began training teachers of all subjects and stages on how to use this method to clarify their curriculum and make it more available for analysis and improvement. In order to computerize this process, DAS leaders worked for more than a year with Rubicon Atlas Company to develop an Arabic version of their English language mapping software. Two other schools in the Gulf (Bayan Kuwait and Bayan Bahrain) have also begun training their Arabic teachers on its use so the three schools will gradually begin sharing their curriculum maps in both languages, to the benefit of all.

» Big 6 Research and Informational Problem Solving

One of the most important developments in the school in the past few years has been our emphasis on the use of research, both as a subject and as a means of teaching and learning other subjects. The two books The Big 6: Teaching Information and Technology Skills, one for the elementary levels and the other for the secondary levels, translated and published by our own educational publishing house (Dar Al Kitab Al Terbawi), have provided guidance to our teachers on how to teach the process and uses of research and informational problem solving.

 

As a result of this project, the students in third secondary (12th grade) have been studying research processes for the last few years and are now ready for a more extensive project through which to hone and demonstrate their skills. Another new aspect of our program, therefore, was the introduction in 2007 of a required graduation project. Whereas the difficulties in the first experiences with such an ambitious project were many, both students and teachers continue to be very excited about this new requirement.  They are all learning a great deal and the process can be expected to improve markedly in each of the coming years.

» Library

Adequate library resources are essential for a school that wants to encourage reading, inquiry and research.  The DAS school library has been growing gradually in both English and Arabic until now it includes approximately 90,000 volumes including approximately 10,000 in the English language Teachers’ Collection. The school also purchased the Unicorn internet-based library management system at about the same time that it was selected for Aramco’s public libraries. The task of inputting all our collection has proceeded gradually and the system is now in operation for use of our students at all levels, for teachers and staff, and for the many visitors who come to our library from the Ministry’s Offices of Education as well as colleges and universities in the area. We have also enrolled in the SIRS English language internet-based library and database designed for schools to encourage research and inquiry at all age levels.

» The Student Support Unit (Previously called The Early Intervention Program)

DAS founded its Student Support Unit in1983 and has been working hard since then to increase its effectiveness in helping children with special needs in math and in literacy – Arabic and English. Our strategy from the beginning was to prepare the teachers who were working directly in the program.  In 2006, however, DAS decided to change its approach by extending its training for all teachers–in the pre-school and primary levels– class teachers and EI teachers alike. Specialists were brought in from the US and Lebanon to give twenty-one days of intensive training to all seventy-two women working at these levels and to the ten men working with primary grades in the boys’ school.    Later, during the year, the specialists were brought again from outside to work with teachers in their classrooms, to guide case-study meetings, and to help analyze specific cases and their individualized educational plans. 

 

The specialists have returned periodically in subsequent years for more follow-up and further training of all those involved.  The heads of the program also took extensive training that certified them as Literacy Coaches in order to further hone their skills at helping teachers of literacy in both languages in all elementary clusters.

» Technology 

Preparations made over the past several years for advances in the use of technology, both for educational and administrative purposes, are now coming to fruition after the delivery early in 2007 of up-to-date computers and related peripheral equipment. More equipment is anticipated along with programs that better support administration as well as instruction.  The latest purchase, Moodle, implemented in the face of the H1N1 flu, will offer excellent avenues of communication with parents and continuity of learning despite epidemics and other disasters.

» English Programs

Progress in our English program was stymied for several years by a number of factors.  Breakthroughs are now imminent, however, with the  new International Program. In addition to an increase in the number of periods teaching English as a language, math and science and some other subjects will be given in English in alternate years to all students. Teachers have been employed who are able to give these subjects and new textbooks purchased to support the courses, from grade 3 and above.

 

The Big 6 research studies and now the graduation project (see above) have also resulted in more opportunities for students to use English.  Student writing is now      handed in to teachers electronically through use of the Turnitin software which is widely used in American universities.  This software checks all work against already published texts and shows clearly when the words or even the ideas have been plagiarized from other writers. Use of this program has stimulated students to attend to the requirement of doing their own thinking and writing in a way never before possible.  In 2009, we expect to be able to use Turnitin in Arabic as well.

After considerable research to find the best partner, DAS made an agreement with Stanford University’s Educational Programs for Gifted Youth (EPGY) for distance learning. 2009-10 will be the third year for participating in this program which has been welcomed with enthusiasm by students and parents alike. Our students are taking EPGY English courses in school as part of their normal English requirement. We provide the time and place and our own teacher to guide the process but the students take the Stanford course and interact directly with a teacher in the US.  We hope to gradually expand the opportunity to other stages and levels of English proficiency.

» Participation in Pan-Arab Research on School Reform

DAS is one of nine innovative private schools that are participating in a project of research sponsored by the Arab Thought Foundation and led by the American University of Beirut. Three schools in each of three Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon) have sent teams of teachers and leaders to attend  one-week sessions of training and planning for the project held in Jordan in the summer and winter of 2007 and of 2008.  Participants have been trained in the processes of action research and in its use to stimulate school-based educational reform.  Each of the schools is undertaking action research projects in their own schools to study school improvement initiatives already underway.  The results from the nine schools will then be combined in order to begin to develop practice-based grounded theory regarding the process of school improvement in the Arab setting.  The resulting learning will be used to develop materials for training principals and other school leaders in methods and strategies for leading change in Arab schools.  Pan-Arab conferences and training sessions will then be held to better prepare school leaders to bring about needed changes and also to involve them in the broadening of the research project across more settings in more Arab countries.         

» The Arabic Language Learning Association (TALLA)

DAS was instrumental in organizing the founding meeting of a new organization to support improvement in the teaching of Arabic language arts in schools around the Arab world. While the fledgling organization will need many months to become fully operative, the level of interest among professionals and also among potential funders for the organization is very encouraging. The first meeting on March 5,6, and 7, 2009, was attended by representatives from twelve different countries ( including six representatives from DAS) and produced practical, valuable plans for developing a voice and services that will serve Arabic language professionals all over the world.

» The Educational Book House

The Educational Book House has now translated and published fifty-nine of the most important books for training teachers of recent decades. These books have been chosen both on the basis of their quality and because of their value for providing in-service or pre-service training for teachers or school leaders in our setting.  These books have been key to the improvement of teaching and learning at DAS and can have a similar influence on other innovative schools in the Arab world.