It’s been a remarkable year for the CIS community, filled with new initiatives and significant changes. Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on their meaning and celebrate the great strides we're taking forward!

Putting our purpose & vision into action   |   Ensuring relevance for schools engaged in the CIS International Accreditation process   |   Taking next-generation approaches to student competencies assessment & credentialing   |   Guiding students through transitions to higher education   |   New safeguarding guidance addresses emerging challenges   |   Completed! A two-year pedagogy research project   |   Tackling trends: AI & Education  

 

1. Putting our purpose & vision into action

Educational leaders are uniquely positioned to address the challenges of our evolving world, empowering student agency. Our advocacy work in 2024 focused on addressing the 'agency gap' through socially responsible leadership*.

 

'We should look at people not only as patients, recipients of services, or benefits, but also as agents able to shape their future.’
—Pedro Conceição, Director, Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Programme, speaking on Forward Thinking, a podcast by McKinsey Global Institute, September 2024

 

We asked our community, ‘What does socially responsible leadership mean to you?’ Over 350 responses highlighted five common themes: community, well-being, environment, ethical approaches, and impact.

We then consolidated recent research and collective knowledge—on global citizenship, intercultural learning, and inclusion via diversity, equity, and anti-racism (I-DEA)—to deliver highly practical tools for CIS school leaders and educators to use, fostering essential conversations inside and outside the classroom.

Recognizing there’s no one-size-fits-all model for what socially responsible leadership should look like, these resources help to identify needs, clarify direction, and define actions to make a sustainable difference in a school’s unique context.

Our members can access these resources in the CIS Community portal > Services > Socially responsible leadership. And there’s more to come in 2025!

 

2. Ensuring relevance for schools engaged in the CIS International Accreditation process

 

‘It’s been a year of innovation here at CIS as we reviewed a fundamental part of our work: CIS International Accreditation. We’ve taken a bold step and are proud of the developmental, differentiated approach that schools will experience when they pursue our new accreditation framework and process.’
—Olivia Roth, CIS Director of School Evaluation & Development Services

 

In November, we proudly announced the new CIS International Accreditation framework and process supporting strategic school improvement. What's new?

• Guided choice: Schools lead their development using CIS International Accreditation Cornerstones and Dimensions as the framework.
• Cornerstone expectations: Related to their ‘Purpose, Practices, & Planning’, schools demonstrate and evaluate their strategies and operational structures.
• Future-focused standards: 18 standards frame high-quality international practice to guide school development.
• Development initiatives focus the school’s self-study on future aspirations for ‘Guiding Principles, Learning & Well-being’.

At its core, our new process emphasizes the development of socially responsible leadership through international education, preparing students as global citizens who navigate and contribute to our world no matter where their paths take them.

 

‘10 years ago, CIS revolutionized safeguarding and child protection in schools, keeping thousands of children safe. Now, CIS is doing it again, transforming accreditation through the lens of Socially Responsible Leadership.’
—Dan Kerr, Saigon South International School, Vietnam

 

This work is supported through the commitment of hundreds of volunteer evaluators worldwide who lead peer reviews in accreditation. A big thank you to all of you for advancing this work. Learn more from Olivia Roth as she reflects on leading our accreditation review process. 

 

3. Taking next-generation approaches to student competencies assessment & credentialing

The discussion on how schools and universities can recognize and provide credentials for student competencies beyond the academic norm has been an ongoing area of debate and focus.

This year, we moved from discussion to action with two key developments.

First, through our cross-sector collaboration—the Summit of University & School Leaders—we released a report focusing on broadening definitions of success for students and sharing snapshots of emerging practice from CIS schools and universities. Our members can read and learn more in the CIS Community portal > Summit > Broadening assessment & skills.

Then, we launched the New Metrics International Schools Program.

Working in partnership with Melbourne Metrics at the University of Melbourne in Australia, our shared purpose is to strengthen the assessment, reporting, and credentialing of complex student competencies in international schools.

Participating schools will join a two-year international community of practice and receive guidance and support to enhance their assessment methods as we confer with university members and assessment authorities throughout the program.

CIS schools: Learn more in a webinar on 15 January & apply for the program by 31 January via the CIS Community portal.

 

4. Guiding students through transitions to higher education

Research findings and the momentum of post-pandemic in-person connections helped us significantly progress our work in supporting student transitions from secondary school to higher education.

This year, we connected 7,556 school students with CIS university admissions professionals during 21 CIS International University Fairs in 16 countries. Our 17th annual CIS Global Forum in Switzerland brought together schools and universities from 67 countries to share and learn about the latest trends in university admission and guidance.

 

‘The CIS Global Forum is hugely beneficial to my role as a school-based counsellor. It enables me to gain insights and perspectives as well as new tools to keep me at the top of my game.’
—Participant, 2024 CIS Global Forum

 

 

‘This was the best CIS Forum in which I've ever participated, and the bar had already been set very high from my past experiences! Every workshop and networking opportunity was outstanding.’
—Participant, 2024 CIS Global Forum

 

We took full advantage of recent research to target key challenges for guidance counsellors, future pathway advisors, and university admissions representatives, expanding our offerings to include and support the university student services community.

Our inaugural Bridging the Gap Workshop was underpinned by research and delivered in collaboration with CIS Supporting Member Safe Passage Across Networks (SPAN).

Plus! Workshop keynotes from Dr Justin Chen and Dr Shanton Chang highlighted two core areas of CIS research: the role of culture in young people's experiences of mental health and their digital transitions as they prepare for higher education.

Guidance counsellors and university leaders examined how we can learn from student perspectives and strengthen continuity of support, addressing common questions about post-secondary student transitions.

 

‘I really appreciated that student services professionals were included in this conversation, as their expertise is very valuable to this topic. Likewise, the Digital Transformations keynote was incredibly illuminating […] many of us take "digital native" for granted. This was by far the single biggest takeaway I took from both the workshop and Forum.’
—Participant, Bridging the Gap Workshop & 2024 CIS Global Forum

 

Read CIS Executive Director, Jane Larsson’s reflections on the digital transitions students undergo and the implications of their digital journey. Plus, we shared further insights on measuring the success of university student recruitment programmes and school counselling programmes, and the pressure from prevailing definitions of success. Members can read these reports and snapshot examples on fostering belonging, mentorship and peer connection, and cross-cultural transitions in the CIS portal.

 

5. New safeguarding guidance addresses emerging challenges

It’s been ten years since the international education world was rocked by the revelation of child abuse by a trusted community member in 2014, leading to the formation of the International Taskforce on Child Protection (ITFCP).

We remain committed to educating our community on all forms of abuse and harm, a deeply challenging topic for us all. Yet we must continue to educate ourselves on the prevalence of abuse and the motivations of abusers so we can more effectively prevent it and address it when it happens.

Our Executive Director, Jane Larsson, chairs the ITFCP, which released two essential updates in 2024: an expanded protocol for managing allegations of abuse and a new safer recruitment checklist.

Throughout the year, our team worked with experts in multiple safeguarding fields to provide insights and guidance on important topics: preventing and responding to online sexual extortion, identity-based harm, common questions about low-level concerns and enhancing student safety on off-site trips, asking can diversity, equity, and belonging initiatives create division in schools?

And, we added new AI-related content to our workshop: whole-school approaches to addressing & preventing self-harm and suicide.

If you are unsure where to begin, an essential member resource is the updated student agency pack to support schools in understanding the importance and benefits of incorporating student voices in their safeguarding work and, importantly, a step-by-step guide for how to do this effectively.

Plus! Following the 2023 launch, fifty CIS schools have been using the CIS Safeguarding Toolkit during 2024 with feedback like:

 

'The toolkit has helped our school develop next steps to enhance our safeguarding practices. We've used it in a multidisciplinary context, and it's given us many ideas on how to improve.'

'The structure provides an orientation and the possibility to evaluate how we are doing in each aspect to identify what we are doing well and what we should strengthen.'

'It has prompted me to think beyond the basic practices.'

'Very comprehensive; user-friendly.'

 

6. Completed! A two-year pedagogy research project

We’re very excited about this … not only is our pedagogy research complete, we’re weeks away from publishing free, publicly available resources based on the findings!

We set out in 2022 to explore how school leaders navigate factors influencing teaching, learning and pedagogical change with the goal of providing resources that help schools analyse and prioritise pedagogical decisions and lead pedagogical change in their communities.

It’s been a pleasure to lead this research project in collaboration with the Jacobs Foundation, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER UK), and the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.

We explored the concept of pedagogy in an international school context, learned how teaching and learning decisions are typically made and evaluated once implemented, and produced resources to help guide decision-making going forward.

We look forward to inviting you to view and use the resources early in 2025!

 

7. Tackling trends: AI & Education

Finally, we can't reflect on 2024 without discussing AI. Tackling AI in education and the associated ethical challenges can feel ambitious and daunting.

As tech corporations begin to be held accountable for the tools they put in the hands of young people, we must first understand how these tools impact students and what we can do as educators and parents to support them.

As we consider the digital lives of young people today, we must first unlearn so we can then relearn the ways young people interact with technology.

At CIS, our goal is to foster a culture of inquiry to help us all understand AI and its role in education.

Through a series of four webinar panel discussions in 2024 (with an average 91% satisfaction rate from participants), more than 1,000 people from 222 CIS institutions registered to explore challenges and opportunities related to AI and to hear what is happening in schools worldwide.

They explored AI through:

• emerging educational practices and regulations
• guidelines and ethical considerations for learning communities
• its potential for students making the transition to university, and 
• safeguarding

All our webinars are available for our community to watch on-demand: CIS Community portal > KnowledgeBase > Webinars.

 

Looking ahead

We look forward to continuing our conversations on these exciting and challenging topics in 2025 as we develop and deliver even more support and services to our members. Our unwavering focus is to provide our community with guidance and advice on effective practices to support the young people in their care.

 

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*We began talking about 'socially responsible leadership' in 2022 and updated our mission and vision in 2023 to reflect our commitment.