The Alliance Cultural Foundation (ACF) is dedicated to driving change in the rural areas of Taiwan and changing the lives of students from financially underprivileged backgrounds, through education as a ground for nurturing talents and engineering social revolution. In doing so, ACF takes a leaf from one of the largest and most successful public charter school networks in the United States – the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). Since 2015, ACF and Junyi Academy has supported the teachers and principals of rural schools to attend the annual KIPP School Summit (KSS), seeking inspiration for innovation in operating schools and effecting education. This July, led by the Chairman of Junyi Academy, Fang Shin-Jou, 14 educators participated in the KSS 2016.
With Taiwan’s rural schools declining in student numbers and the urban migration of capable teachers and students leading to a merging of the schools; and with the change of policy on public charter schools which will support education reformers to transform abolished schools into experimental schools, ACF feels that the government may consider America’s approach of public charter schools to rejuvenate the education scene in Taiwan.
With the rural-urban difference widening in Taiwan as with the income gaps, opportunities for financially underprivileged students to improve their social positions are on the wane. Through synergizing the efforts of students, parents and teachers, KIPP has achieved social mobility through education, changing the futures of students from financially underprivileged backgrounds. With shared belief that education is the catalyst to change the lives of children, KIPP demonstrates a great example for Taiwan’s education revolutionaries to follow and gain inspiration from.
The friendship between ACF and KIPP began in 2011. Through the introduction of the founding Board Members of ACF, James and Lydia Chao, the Chairman of ACF, Stanley Yen, visited the KIPP School in Boston and met with one of the founders, Mike Feinberg. Subsequently in 2014, under the support of the Chao family and Mr. Feinberg, ACF Chairman Yen attended KSS 2014 and saw how the KIPP model succeeded in solving deep-rooted problems of the public school system, thereby developing a new system, reinventing the education model for students from financially underprivileged backgrounds. The KIPP’s excellence in education and belief in using education to counter poverty and assisting financially underprivileged children to attend college, are in tandem with that of the ACF.
In 2015, ACF and Junyi Academy co-sponsored seven education reformers to the KSS. Chen Ching-Chun, the Principal of Yunlin County’s Hua Nan Elementary School, who attend the 2016 summit said that the KIPP schools have developed strong bonds with the students’ families. Contrastingly, the long-term tension between parents and schools in Taiwan has effects on the original essence of education. He stated when a school has to be profit-oriented, regaining such a culture is not possible. Hence, public charter schools are a plausible option.
ACF believes that the local environment of a place can be changed and improved with the presence of diversified education options, thereby rejuvenating a particular rural environment through community building. While the government is not absolved of the responsibility to ensure that social mobility is made possible through education, society ought to reflect and take action when public schools are no longer able to facilitate social mobility.
Sharing KIPPs values in changing the futures of the financially underprivileged through education, and witnessing their successes in making a difference in the child’s life, and the child’s character; it is the change ACF and Junyi Academy wishes to bring into the rural of Taiwan for its youths to shine and have the opportunity and ability to change their destinies.
ACF would like to thank founding Board Members James and Lydia Chao for their inspiration and support as well as the support of KIPP Co-Founder Mike Feinberg for opening this possibility for the teachers, principals, and education reformers of Taiwan; and for the commitment Junyi Academy Chairman Fang Shin-Jou has made to advocate the change in Taiwan’s public charter school policy.
About KIPP
The two founders of KIPP, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin are driven by their passion to improve the education system for children from financially underprivileged backgrounds. In 1994, they had started KIPP in a high school classroom in Boston. In 2000, the foundation was set up and the elementary and senior high school was established in 2004.
KIPP schools share a core set of operating principles known as the Five Pillars, namely High Expectations, Choice and Commitment (from parents, students and teachers), More Time (through longer school hours), Power to Lead and the Focus on Results.
Now there are 200 KIPP schools in twenty states in the US, including 80 elementary schools, 94 high schools and 26 senior high schools. 93% of the graduates from KIPP schools go on to college.
More information:
KIPP School Summit 2016: Website
The two founders of KIPP, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin are driven by their passion to improve the education system for children from financially underprivileged backgrounds. In 1994, they had started KIPP in a high school classroom in Boston. In 2000, the foundation was set up and the elementary and senior high school was established in 2004.
KIPP schools share a core set of operating principles known as the Five Pillars, namely High Expectations, Choice and Commitment (from parents, students and teachers), More Time (through longer school hours), Power to Lead and the Focus on Results.
Now there are 200 KIPP schools in twenty states in the US, including 80 elementary schools, 94 high schools and 26 senior high schools. 93% of the graduates from KIPP schools go on to college.
More information:
KIPP School Summit 2016: Website
