School Profile 2022-2023

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Profile 2022-2023

Ms. Reida Baghdadi, Dean of University Counseling email: rbaghdadi@kingsacademy.edu.jo

www.kingsacademy.edu.jo

The knowledge and values that King’s instills in its students help shape confident, well-rounded individuals and inspire them throughout their life paths as change-makers of a shared future of peace and opportunity.

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– HM King Abdullah II

Mission King’s Academy develops and empowers young leaders from diverse backgrounds who will cherish one another and drive change towards a shared future of peace and opportunity.

Description In a setting that is rich in history and tradition, King’s Academy is committed to providing a comprehensive college-preparatory education through a challenging curriculum in the arts and sciences; an integrated co-curricular program of athletics, activities and community service; and a nurturing residential environment. Our students will learn to be independent, creative and responsible thinkers within an ethical community that encourages young men and women of diverse backgrounds and beliefs to excel, to cherish one another and to prepare for leadership.

History An independent, coeducational boarding and day school in Madaba, Jordan that opened its doors in 2007, King’s Academy provides outstanding young men and women from Jordan, the Middle East and the world a unique educational experience, blending an American style of education rooted in the liberal arts and sciences with Middle Eastern history, traditions, language and cultural values.

Accreditation and Memberships In the spring of 2011 and at the conclusion of its fourth year, King’s Academy was awarded full accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). The school is also licensed by the Jordanian Ministry of Education. In September 2010, King’s Academy became the first Arab school to gain full membership in the global Round Square organization, dedicated to internationalism, democracy, environment, adventure, leadership and service. King’s Academy is a member of the Mastery Transcript Consortium and a founding member of the Global Online Academy (GOA), a consortium of the world’s leading independent schools whose mission is to translate into online classrooms the intellectually rigorous programs and excellent teaching that are hallmarks of its member schools.

Equity and Educational Opportunity King’s Academy was founded to create what his Majesty King Abdullah II calls “a new tribe in the region...the tribe of the talented meritocracy.” As the only coeducational residential boarding school of its kind in the region, King’s Academy remains the most diverse school in the Middle East and is a pioneering leader in need-based financial aid. Some 43% of King’s students receive need-based aid with a total 2022-2023 financial aid budget of US $7.6 million. For the academic year 2022-2023, 563 students are enrolled at King’s Academy, of whom approximately 129 are seniors. They come from over 40 countries, including various desert towns and villages throughout Jordan. This level of diversity allows King’s to create a unique community that educates students in ways the formal curriculum alone cannot and to forge a school culture that promotes social equity.

August 2022

A Liberal Arts Education for the 21st Century: Curiosity, Creativity and Independence In keeping with our “Portrait of a Graduate,” we seek to graduate students who are able to •

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Embrace challenge, discomfort and struggle as a source of resilience, creativity and continued improvement Live curiously; express joy in their learning Independently direct their own learning and pursue their passions with determination and discipline Transfer their learning to new and urgent problems in the service of their communities and the world Create positive change through engagement, collaboration and citizenship Model, every day, the virtues of kindness, gratitude and care for others and lead through example

Service and Leadership King’s requires students to participate in an ambitious co-curricular program in the arts, athletics and community service that emphasizes service to others, teamwork, initiative, and community and civic engagement. King’s students feel a great sense of ownership in the culture of the school, serving in a variety of leadership positions: as residential proctors, junior counselors, environmental stewards and as elected representatives to the Disciplinary Committee, Academic Honor Committee and Student Leadership Council. They volunteer extensively in the local community and schools, work in refugee camps, Habitat for Humanity builds, water conservation efforts and fundraising initiatives to address urgent issues of poverty, social justice and human rights.

The Fine, Performing and Persuasive Arts In the hope of unlocking each child’s creative potential and individuality, King’s Academy offers a range of courses and co-curricular activities in the arts. In addition to classes in the traditional and modern arts of dance, ceramics, mosaics, painting, photography, drawing, acting, animation and design, King’s has a youth orchestra and a rich theatrical program. Over the last few years, the school has put on performances of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Noel Coward’s Private Lives, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, most of which premiered here in Jordan at King’s. King’s also offers a comprehensive and required program in public speaking.

Every year each student performs a public declamation in Arabic and English during an all-school competition. Students also participate in Model United Nations (MUN), mock trial and Jordanian Model Parliament.

Middle School In fall 2016, King’s Academy opened a middle school for grades 7 and 8. The addition of these grades allows King’s to deepen its mission, extend the educational runway for students, and design

King’s Academy Profile 2022-2023 www.kingsacademy.edu.jo

a more powerful and integrated curriculum. The Middle School program is both foundational and innovative, drawing on the College Board’s QUEST framework for teaching and learning.

That framework emphasizes the skills of questioning, thinking critically and creatively, reading, writing and communicating. It seeks to ignite young people’s natural curiosity, wonder, creativity and excitement for learning.

Curriculum and Course Requirements

King’s Academy operates on a two-semester basis and there are 170 school days. The school uses a block scheduling system.

Our 75-minute class periods allow for sustained engagement with class materials and complex and dynamic class activities, all of which lead to deep and lasting learning. The block schedule simultaneously gives students more free time for clubs, co-curricular activities, independent study and community service, and it prepares them for the kind of schedule they will encounter in most universities.

The medium of instruction is English and all students take a remarkably ambitious course of study, including four years of both Arabic and English, and a minimum of six courses and a maximum of seven courses per year. In addition to required courses in the core disciplines, students choose from a wide array of electives. Students can choose from 28 AP courses, over 60 courses from the Global Online Academy (GOA), and multiple advanced courses, including post-AP courses, that are typical of the work students do in the first or even second year of college.

King’s also offers a number of high-level, inquiry-based interdisciplinary courses, including the College Board’s AP Capstone Seminar and Research courses.

The numbering of courses follows the system below. This system indicates the level of each of the courses offered at King’s.

The courses below are the graduation requirements of this year’s senior class. For entering 10th, 11th and 12th graders, graduation requirements are pro-rated according to the number of years enrolled at King’s Academy.

Adv: Advanced

• Four years of CRLA English (ENG 303/350, ENG 403/450, one seminar course, and one portfolio course)

100 – 400: Foundation courses (grades 7 – 10) 500: Upper level courses (grades 11 – 12) 600: College-preparatory courses (including some Advanced Placement courses) 700: College-level and Advanced Placement courses 800: Advanced Inquiry (post-AP) courses Acc: Accelerated GOA: Global Online Academy R: Courses that can be repeated every year to develop skills S: Seminar courses that develop critical reading, thinking, analysis and synthesis skills P: Portfolio courses that develop writing skills with an emphasis on process and voice

• Four years of CRLA Arabic • Four years of Mathematics and Computational Thinking • At least three years of Physical and Life Sciences • At least three years of History, Religion and Society (HRS 301, HRS 401, and one junior/senior elective) • At least one year-long course in Art, Design and Technology

A complete list of course offerings and course descriptions can be found here: https://www.kingsacademy.edu.jo/academics/departments-and -courses

Curriculum Plan Subject

4-Year Program

3-Year Program

2-Year Program

1-Year Program

Communication, Rhetoric and the Literary Arts — Arabic

Four

Three

Two

One

Communication, Rhetoric and the Literary Arts — English

Four

Three

Two

One

Math and Computational Thinking

Four years of math

Three years of math

Two years of math

One year of math

Physical and Life Sciences

Three

Three

Two

History, Religion and Society

Three

Two

One

World Languages

Optional (two or more recommended)

Optional (two or more recommended)

Optional (two recommended)

Optional (recommended)

Art, Design and Technology

One year-long course

One year-long course

One semester-long course

One semester-long course

One from either department

Note: As per the guidelines of the Jordanian Ministry of Education, Jordanian Muslim students are required to take what is equivalent to two years of Islamic Studies in the 9th and 10th grades, and one additional semester-long course either in the 11th or 12th grade. Jordanian students who hold a second passport may have different arrangements for Islamic Studies. For more information, they should check with the Department of Academic Affairs.

August 2022

King’s Academy Profile 2022-2023 2011-2012 www.kingsacademy.edu.jo

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Grading Policy

93% – 100% = A (4.0) 89% – 92% = A- (3.7) 86% – 88% = B+ (3.3) 83% – 85% = B (3.0) 79% – 82% = B- (2.7) 76% – 78% = C+ (2.3) 73% – 75% = C (2.0) 70% – 72% = C- (1.7) 67% – 69% = D+ (1.3) 60% – 66% = D (1.0) 59% and below = F (0.0)

Academic work at King’s is graded on a letter scale in which the minimum passing grade is a D. To the right are the percentage breakdowns for letter grades and Grade Point Averages (GPA).

Highest Honor Roll, High Honor Roll and Honor Roll distinctions are awarded to those students who achieve a minimum GPA of 3.9, 3.75 or 3.5 respectively.

King’s Academy does not rank its students, and as of 2019-2020 King’s Academy no longer weights grades.

Grade Distribution by Course Class of 2022 – Junior Year Department

GPA Distribution Class of 2023 – Junior Year

90 – 100 80 – 89 70 – 79 60 – 69

0 – 59

GPA Range

Number of Students

% of Students

3.5 – 4.0

79

54%

3.0 – 3.49

33

23%

2.5 – 2.99

20

14%

2.0 – 2.49

9

6%

Arts, Design and Technology

87%

9%

4%

0%

0%

CRLA - English

63%

33%

3%

0%

1%

CRLA - Arabic

48%

42%

9%

1%

0%

History, Religion and Society

62%

22%

14%

1%

1%

Mathematics and Computational Thinking

46%

33%

16%

4%

1%

Physical and Life Sciences

39%

37%

19%

4%

1%

1.5 – 1.99

3

2%

World Languages

60%

33%

7%

0%

0

under 1.49

2

1%

SAT Summary for the Class of 2023 (through May 2022)

AP Recognition Awards 2021 – 2022

In 2022, 134 King’s Academy students were recognized by the College Board:

Middle 50%

Mean

Students tested

Evidence-based Reading and Writing

500 – 620

556

91

AP Scholar Award

51

Math Section

520 – 620

596

91

AP Scholar with Honor Award

31

Math Test

26 – 33.5

30

91

AP Scholar with Distinction

47

Reading

25 – 31

28

91

AP International Diploma

1

Writing

24 – 32

28

91

AP Capstone Diploma

1

1030 – 1290

1152

91

AP Seminar and Research Certificate

3

Section

AP Scores

Total

AP Scores In May 2022, 290 candidates sat for 695 examinations. Scores of 5 were received by 26% of the candidates; scores of 4 were received by 22%; and scores of 3 were received by 22%.

August 2022

Summary of A-Level Arabic Results 2021 – 2022 Result

Number of Students

A*

25

A

11

B

5

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Three-Year University Matriculation List

UNITED STATES American University Amherst College Babson College Beloit College Bentley University Blinn College Boston University Brigham Young University Brown University Carleton College Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University Centre College Clarkson University College of William and Mary Colorado College Columbia University Connecticut College Cornell University DePaul University Drexel University Duke University Eastern Michigan University Eckerd College Elon University Emory University Florida State University Franklin and Marshall College George Mason University Georgetown University Georgia Institute of Technology Grinnell College Haverford College Hobart William Smith Colleges Hult International Business School Illinois Institute of Technology Iowa State University Johns Hopkins University Lehigh University Liberty University Loyola University Chicago Michigan State University Middlebury College New York University Northeastern University Northwestern University Occidental College Pratt Institute Purdue University Rhodes College Rollins College Santiago Canyon College Skidmore College Smith College Southeastern University St. John's College Stanford University Suffolk University The College of Wooster The George Washington University The New School The University of Oklahoma The University of Texas At Arlington

August 2022

CANADA Brock University Carleton University Concordia University McGill University Memorial University of Newfoundland Ryerson University The University of British Columbia The University of Winnipeg University of Alberta University of Calgary University of Saskatchewan University of Toronto University of Waterloo York University

The University of Texas At Austin The University of Texas At Tyler Tufts University University of Arkansas University of California-Irvine University of California-Los Angeles University of California-San Diego University of California-Santa Cruz University of Charleston University of Chicago University of Florida University of Houston University of Kansas University of Kentucky University of Massachusetts-Amherst University of Miami University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of North Carolina at Charlotte University of Notre Dame University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh University of Rochester University of South Florida University of Southern California University of Virginia Wake Forest University Wellesley College Wheaton College William & Mary Yale University Youngstown State University

MIDDLE EAST American University of Sharjah — UAE New York University Abu Dhabi — UAE Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland — Medical University of Bahrain The American University in Cairo — Egypt American University of Madaba — Jordan German-Jordanian University Jordan University of Science and Technology Princess Sumaya University for Technology — Jordan University of Jordan American University of Beirut — Lebanon Northwestern Qatar Texas A&M Qatar University of Qatar Weill Cornell Medical College Qatar

UNITED KINGDOM Architectural Association School of Architecture Bristol, University of the West of England Cardiff University City, University of London Coventry University Durham University King's College London London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London Loughborough University Queen Mary University of London Royal Veterinary College Swansea University The University of Edinburgh The University of Sheffield The University of Warwick University College London University of Bristol University of Buckingham University of Cambridge University of Central Lancashire University of Exeter University of Glasgow University of Kent University of Leeds University of Nottingham University of Reading University of Sussex University of Westminster, London University of York

OTHER The University of Sydney — Australia NYU Shanghai — China Charles University, Prague — Czech Republic College Universitaire de Sciences Po — France Jacobs University — Germany The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Eötvös Loránd University — Hungary Semmelweis University — Hungary University of Debrecen — Hungary University of Pécs — Hungary University of Szeged — Hungary Royal College of Surgeons — Ireland Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore — Italy Yokohama National University — Japan University of Malta Leiden University College The Hague — Netherlands Maastricht University — Netherlands University of Amsterdam — Netherlands Yale-NUS — Singapore IE University — Spain San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia — Spain Sabanci University — Turkey

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