Description
Since 2002, School-to-School International (STS) has been working in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to improve education conditions so that every child can succeed in school. Headquartered in Pacifica, California (San Francisco) with a satellite office in Washington, DC, STS collaborates with host country governments and local and international organizations to fulfill its mission and achieve results.
Program Principles
At School-to-School International (STS), three principles guide our work in transforming education and school health: participation, quality control, and sustainability. These principles are an integral part of our Whole Child Model.
Participation
We encourage community involvement by training parents and other community members to support their children’s education and participate in school management and improvement. Our training builds the capacities of principals, teachers and local education officials.
Quality Control
We evaluate our success by assessing the resources we provide such as training, materials and small grants and measuring their impact on students’ progress. These results don’t just include academic improvement, but also gains in children’s confidence and learning skills. If we don’t attain our desired results, we retool our approach.
Sustainability
We aim to enable our local partners to use the strategies we introduce to them to achieve success. We build the capacity of local communities to carry on the work we begin and our staff in Guinea to take on more instrumental roles in STS, including financial management and project development. To ensure sustainability, our policy is to operate in partner countries for at least 10 years.
Whole Child Model For over 10 years, STS has developed, refined, and delivered the Whole Child Model--a holistic, broad-based set of interventions that establish the conditions of success for children in school. Education, health, and engaged communities are key components of a productive learning environment. However, these areas are often addressed independently of one another. What differentiates STS from other organizations is its integrated approach. The Whole Child Model is designed to address each of these areas simultaneously so that children can enjoy quality education in a healthy environment and with supportive and engaged communities. Education: STS builds the conditions of success in schools through interactive learning, local language instruction, teacher and community training, early childhood education, and girls’ empowerment. Health: STS creates healthy learning environments through school health policies, provision of school medical supplies, clean water, latrines, nutrition, and health workshops for teachers and students. Engagement: STS promotes engagement in learning through community partnerships, effective school management training, parental involvement in education, and cross-cultural learning opportunities.
