Cross Case Features: Context

Evans High School: Admin Support Context

Laura Burke, the principal of Evans High School, traveled to China on the Key Actors tour as did the acting superintendent of the district. Initially, the principal had some reservations about making the trip, but they didn’t last long. “Actually once I got there [I couldn’t] help but appreciate an opportunity of a lifetime....I discovered things that you don’t discover until you are there....You will be just overwhelmed by the culture. You can’t read it. You are living it. That will change your attitude and your heart and head about everything.” While in China, she visited prospective exchange schools and she signed an agreement to exchange students and teachers during the coming school year.

The principal and four NCTA teachers, plus one parent, have formed the Southeast China Exchange Committee and, with seed-funding secured by the NCTA partner site director in the state, plan to send approximately ten students and two teachers to China each year. A group of Chinese students from their partner school visits Evans each fall. The students and teachers participate in a special language class, designed just for them, at a local university each summer in preparation for their trip. During the first year of the exchange, ten students and two teachers participated in the three-week Chinese language course, and then nine students and two teachers from Evans spent three weeks at their partner school in China.