Franchise Support

There has never been a better time to join the Saint Paul American School System(SPASS) program and invest into the American education industry. We have established SPASS to manage and support all of our Saint Paul schools in locations throughout Asia in this exiting and opportune time. The basis of our methods of aiding you in starting your school and developing your teachers comes from 17 years of experience in the international school business.
SPASS is staffed with experienced educators and business professionals in its Saint Paul schools around Asian countries, led by leaders in the industry, who not only understand your needs, but also have built best practices and advisement from their own previous work. We understand through our experience how to solve the complicated problems of starting and supporting a new school. Through our initial or ongoing support, we are available for advices and guidance while supplying you with the most relevant and experienced-tested best practices.
Curriculum Design
The Saint Paul American School kindergarten to high school program was developed under three principles: flexibility, clarity, and current best practices. The curriculum utilizes several high-quality resources and all lessons are student-centered. It also utilizes Common Core Standards, NGSS, and AERO Social Studies standards in kindergarten to high school and District of Columbia Common Core Early Learning Standards for preschool and prekindergarten. Non-core classes follow US national learning standards. The curriculum also utilizes current trends and best practices in the American classroom and language learning like literacy blocks, centers-based learning, scaffold-instruction, technology integration, project-based learning, collaborative learning, professional learning communities, and Understanding by Design.
The content is based off of the learning standards mentioned, the recommended textbook list, and input from current and past Saint Paul American school teachers and administrators. The curriculum serves as the backbone to ensure a quality standard for education at St. Paul American Schools. However, SPASS helps schools review the materials and make improvements and changes to truly make it their own and fit the needs of the school. Schools will be provided with a hard copy and electronic copy at the start of each new school year. It is updated and improved upon ongoing input from the schools and their teachers, and, of course, upon decisions from SPASS research team.
Initial Support
The different parts of the curriculum and its function is as follows:
Subject Overview (Elementary to High School)
This is a basic course description or overview. It contains the standards used, the summary of the standards, the summary of materials and textbooks used, a list of units, and a summary of activities, assessments, projects, and teaching philosophy. The purpose of the subject overview is to give a clear summary and introduction to the course to parents, teachers, and students.
Year Overview (Elementary)
The year overview gives a quick glance of the activities and topics for a given week over the course of a year in all subjects. It includes core classes throughout the year and the main topic for the given week. The purpose of the year overview is to help teachers with pacing and give a preview of the entire year. This is also shared with parents and students, so they know what is happening in the classroom.
Syllabus (Middle and High School)
A syllabus is a classroom contract between teachers, students, parents and administrators. It is an outline of what will be taught, it dictates grading weighting, and it prepares students for expected materials and behaviors.
Pacing Guides (Elementary to High School)
This gives school stakeholders an idea of the year ahead. It contains the name of the unit, the learning standards covered, the area in the textbook to be covered, a summary of learning goals, and the length of the unit. Any major changes to the pacing guide requires school stakeholders (teachers, parents, students, and administrators) to be notified.
Unit Plans (Elementary to High School)
Unit plans are used exclusively by teachers to help them plan and design better courses and classes. SPASS trains new schools and teachers in the effective use of unit plans.
Lesson Plans (Elementary to High School)
Lesson plans are for daily instruction and include one week of lessons. All lesson plans should include learning standards, daily and weekly learning targets, activities, and assessments. All lesson plans must be completed and submitted to a local curriculum coordinator. These are then reviewed by SPASS as necessary. This is to ensure that the teacher is prepared and is planning engaging and challenging content for their students.
Lesson plans for preschool to elementary are design to give the teacher as much support and flexibility as possible. These lesson plans give the teacher direction on what to do from the start of class to the end of class including a daily learning target, warm-up activity, main activity, textbook location, and a formative or summative assessment. In addition, the lesson plans provides links to additional activities that the teachers may do in class. These activities may be supplemental online or offline games, alternative lesson plans, videos, songs, worksheets, crafts, problem sets, textbooks, or professional development opportunities for the teacher. These can also be assigned to students for supplementary work at home or at school. By giving teachers a solid foundation for the lesson planning, they will be able to improve and refine the lesson to better support the students in the classroom.
Focus on Academics
The biggest strength of the SPASS academic management system is the focus on providing a quality of academic excellence at your school. We use several avenues that work together to provide this program including the use of such programs as PowerSchool and yearly teachers workshops. We also require a curriculum coordinator (frequently dean of academics, either full time or part-time with teaching hours) to be present at each school to check whether each subject is properly paced, whether each student's Quiz/Homework is evaluated and grade correctly, and whether the teacher is engaging the students in the classroom. We believe fundamental meaning and purpose of a school happens in a classroom so we work to make sure classes carry a good academic quality.
The only way to supervise what is happening in a classroom is to introduce a proper management system. There’s always the chance of hiring the wrong principal or teacher and without a proven established system in place, it may be hard to ensure the quality of the program. SPASS offers a proven, effective way to grow your school.
Another goal of SPASS is that every Saint Paul school gets accreditations as soon as possible. To this end, SPASS has received Corporate Accreditation from Middle State Association (MSA), one of the six regional accreditation agencies in USA. Saint Paul American Schools, which utilize SPASS’s curriculum and academic management system, can undergo a streamlined process of accreditation. One of the ways that SPASS supports your accreditation is by assisting you with the lengthy and sometimes daunting process of accreditation. Samples will be provided to help the schools to be more prepared for application and for reports required by the agencies.
Growth
Saint Paul schools are now applying the original STEM sample of Saint Paul Preparatory School in US and of the SPAS Shanghai(which was on the process of moving to Nanxun city near Shanghai but is currently closed through Covid Pandemics). We are running two systems: "STEM track" and "STEM diploma".
Ongoing Support
SPASS helps your school to make "DIFFERENCES" in achieving developments with its ongoing support:
  • Teacher Readiness Presentation
  • Professional Development
  • Class Observation and Feedback Visits
  • Teacher Workshops
  • School Reports
  • Accreditation Support
We look forward to share our experience from Saint Paul American School System with you and to help create a successful world-class school together. The SPASS team is committed to growth for your school and organization. This means we are in a constant state of continuous development and refinement. New principals are put through our SPASS administrator training program where we give them the ins and outs of being an effective administrator. Additionally, new teachers are required to submit teacher readiness videos that are to be reviewed locally and by SPASS. SPASS also provides schools with feedback visits where we focus on improving the quality of teaching. SPASS is also committed to teacher development through professional development and annual teacher workshops.
We help to create a culture of growth and improvement at your school. Even a good teacher with an American-style education and an American teaching certificate needs training, workshops, observations, and evaluation to become a good teacher at an international school in Asia or anywhere else in the world. Even teachers need to be educated on what parents expect. SPASS is also committed to growing with you. That is why we ask for quarterly reports to learn about new trends in international education. We also take the time to update our curriculum, policies and procedures every year to best fit the needs of a fast-changing world.