American School of Dubai
Encyclopedia
The American School of Dubai (ASD), previously known as the Jumeirah American School, is located in the Al-Barsha community of Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

.

An independent, nonprofit school, ASD was founded in 1966 to serve the needs of North American families and other expatriate populations in Dubai. It was the first American curriculum school established in Dubai and is still the only nonprofit American school located in the emirate.

ASD follows an American curriculum and offers pre-K (K1) through grade 12 instruction. The school is accredited by the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit association dedicated to educational excellence and improvement through peer evaluation and accreditation...

. Admission to the school is based on the approval of ASD's Admissions Committee and a student successfully meeting the admission criteria, including assessments in varying forms depending on grade level.

Students attend classes five days a week, Sunday through Thursday. The school day for students in pre-K (K1) begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 1:45 p.m. Students grades K2-12 attend from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. All students are required to wear ASD regulation school uniforms.

KHDA Inspection Report

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority
Knowledge and Human Development Authority
The Knowledge and Human Development Authority is an educational quality assurance authority in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It undertakes early learning, school and higher learning institution management....

 (KHDA) is an educational quality assurance authority based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It undertakes early learning, school, and higher learning institution management and rates them as well.

A summary of the inspection ratings for American School of Dubai.
School Name 2010-2011 2009-2010 2008-2009 Curriculum
American School of Dubai
American School of Dubai
The American School of Dubai , previously known as the Jumeirah American School, is located in the Al-Barsha community of Dubai, United Arab Emirates....

 
Good Good Good US


A summary of all the schools in Dubai's ratings can be found at KHDA School Ratings.

International academic reputation

The American School of Dubai has a strong reputation for excellence in its academic programs and extracurricular activities. It was reviewed by the Good Schools Guide International as "One of the best thought-of and long established schools in Dubai".

The school is organized into three divisions: elementary school (K1-grade 5); middle school (grades 6-8); and high school (grades 9-12). The elementary school curriculum includes math, science, language arts, social studies, Arabic language, computer, art, library, music, and physical education. The middle school years are viewed as a transition from the elementary school to the high school. Students take the basic core classes and, in grades 7-8, can also choose from a variety of electives, including, but not limited to, independent reading, journalism, or adventure education.

At the high school level, students must complete at least 24 course credits in order to graduate. Students are required to enroll in a minimum of four core academic courses each year (math, science, social studies, English, and/or world languages). Advanced Placement (AP) courses are available to juniors and seniors over a variety of subjects. AP courses are first year college level courses. Students enrolled in the courses sit for external exams. The results of these exams could earn students credit at the university level.

Top schools that ASD students have entered include Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

 (UCLA), University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...

, Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...

, Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

, Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...

, Lehigh University
Lehigh University
Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. It was established in 1865 by Asa Packer as a four-year technical school, but has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines...

, California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, The University of Miami, University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

, Queens University, The United States Coast Guard Academy
United States Coast Guard Academy
Founded in 1876, the United States Coast Guard Academy is the military academy of the United States Coast Guard. Located in New London, Connecticut, it is the smallest of the five federal service academies...

, Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...

, McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, Babson College
Babson College
Babson College is a private business school located in Wellesley, Massachusetts near Boston.- History :Babson College was founded by Roger Babson on September 3, 1919, as the Babson Institute. It was renamed "Babson College" in 1969...

, The University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

.

Technology

Technology is integrated throughout the American School of Dubai curriculum through the use of computers located in full-size labs, portable laptop labs, mini-labs, all ASD classrooms, as well as the elementary and middle and high school libraries. Computer instruction is offered at every grade level. Labs are available for class work or independent projects.

Famous speakers and visitors

Famous guest speakers who have visited the school include U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 and George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

, astronaut Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...

, North Carolina Senator and 2004 Democratic Nominee for Vice-President John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...

, anthropologist Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...

, and the Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. The executive offices for the team are currently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona; the team is owned by Shamrock Holdings, which oversees the various investments of the Roy E. Disney family.Over...

.

Athletics and extracurricular activities

The American School Parents "Sports" Activities Program sponsors athletic and other activities for students in grades K1-3. At least twice a week, throughout most of the school year, sports activities such as flag football, rollerblading, soccer, and many other sports are available to the students. Additional activities include ballet and dance, scouting programs, chorus, drama, swimming, tennis, sailing, computer club, and an environmental club.

Social, service, and academic-related clubs and activities are organized for middle and high school students. Clubs include Kids For Wish Kids, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), Habitat For Humanity, Global Awareness Inner Awakening, a Student Government Association, Thespian Society, the International Student Association, and Mettle.

ASD supports strong vocal, instrumental, and drama programs. High school students perform two major productions each year. The Middle School stages one-act plays as well as variety shows.

The school also offers intramural programs as well as varsity and junior varsity sports, including volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball, track and field, badminton, performing arts, forensics, swimming, wrestling, cross-country, and tennis. ASD is a member of the Middle East South Asia Conference (MESAC) and ASD students in grades 7-12 travel to other countries in the region to participate in MESAC sports.

Students also travel regionally to take part in fine arts festivals, the Model United Nations, Habitat for Humanity, and forensics competitions. Students are able to tour most cities and historical sites when traveling to tournaments and festivals. These events also allow students to develop friendships with students in other international schools.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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