1. An American educational approach values and encourages a High Degree of Student-Faculty Contact.

Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of class is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.

2. An American educational approach values and encourages Cooperation Among Students.

Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one's own ideas and responding to others' reactions improves thinking and deepens understanding.

3. An American educational approach values and encourages Active Learning.

Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and repeating back answers. Students must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. Students must make what they learn part of themselves.

4. An American educational approach values and encourages Prompt Feedback.

When a student understands what he or she knows, as well as, what he or she doesn’t know, it focuses the student's learning. Students need appropriate feedback on performance to benefit from instruction. In getting started, students need help in assessing existing knowledge and competence. In class, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various points during their educational path, and at the end, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves.

5. An American educational approach values and encourages Time on Task.

Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one's time well is critical for students and professionals alike. Students need help in learning effective time management. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other professional staff can establish the basis for high performance for all.

6. An American educational approach values and communicates High Expectations and Provides Multiple and Ongoing Assessments of Student Growth.

Expect more and you will get it. High expectations are important for everyone--for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high expectations for themselves and make extra efforts. Students receive multiple formal and informal assessments each year to allow for continual adjustments by the teacher to allow for successful student growth. Measurement is never based on a single high-stakes snapshot.

7. An American educational approach values, respects, and responds to Diverse Talents and values, embraces, and engages Diverse Ways of Learning.

There are many roads to learning. Students bring different talents and styles of learning to the classroom. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learning in new ways that do not come as easily.

8. An American educational approach values and encourages a Rigorous Academic Preparation in All Academic Disciplines prior to students entering the post-secondary experience.

Students study broadly and deeply and gain a rich background in a solid educational preparation. The temptation to have students make a definite choice on their course of study is resisted until students have a knowledge base from which to make the decision combined with the emotional maturity to do so. The selection of a course of study is not engaged until students are deciding on which university to attend. At this point, the rich preparation in an American educational approach allows students to have all options available to them and they have the maturity and course exposure to make an informed decision..

9. An American educational approach values and requires the security of a solid Standards-based Curriculum for students which assures a deep and specific knowledge base upon graduation while also providing opportunities for students to explore other areas of study for personal enrichment.

Students are provided a thorough knowledge base upon graduation, which is enhanced by the student being provided a rich array of elective study opportunities. This combination enables students to graduate with the additional benefit of a broad and enriching background that will best prepare them for university study and a love for life-long learning.
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10. An American educational approach values and requires an Extensive Extra-curricular Program where learning continues beyond the limits of classroom walls and has equitable program opportunities for both genders.

An inherent component of the American educational approach is a rich program of extra-curricular activities that are available to students on a voluntary basis. Learning on the basketball and volleyball courts, in the debate halls, in the band and choral rooms, in the yearbook and newspaper journalism labs, and on the playing fields of the school are seen as essential opportunities to which learners may avail themselves. This rich banquet of opportunities is available to all who are passing their classes.

An American Educational Approach is based on the following assumptions:

• A belief in the equality of all and an appreciation that education is the greatest of equalizers among free people
• A commitment to democratic discourse and respectful tolerance and appreciation for varying viewpoints
• Educational opportunities are gender-blind; both genders have equal opportunity according to the criteria set for all learners in the school
• A strong sense of shared mission among all participants in the educational process
• Concrete support from administrators, faculty, and Board Members for the mission
• Adequate funding appropriate to carry forth the mission
• Policies and procedures consistent with the mission
• Continual, planned, and cyclical examination of how well the mission is being achieved. This examination is based on conclusions derived from empirical data with a student learning focus.