Henry Street School was developed in partnership with Asia Society, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in 1956. It is America's preeminent institution dedicated to fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. Asia Society is a national non-profit, nonpartisan organization. The Society is governed by a board of trustees, chaired by Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and advised by an international council of distinguished leaders.

Asia Society has always had a broad educational mandate to reach children and educators. Its education programs have focused on research, curriculum materials, teacher professional development, museum-based education, international exchanges, and multimedia classroom resources. In recent years the Society has maintained an active series of professional development workshops and curriculum development projects in its headquarters. These have focused on standards-based learning in diverse areas such as: the role of Islam in the modern world, emerging social issues in the Asia Pacific region, the historical and economic roots of conflict in the Middle East and South Asia, the exciting cultural and geographic influences of the Silk Road and many other topics.

However, recognizing that its professional development and curriculum projects were reaching only a small percentage of schools, Asia Society created its most ambitious project: Asia and International Studies in the Schools initiatives. In the late 1990s, the Society established a Commission that included but reached beyond Asia Society's traditional networks of Asia scholars and interested teachers to draw upon leaders from government, business, K-12 and teacher education and the media, to examine how to make teaching about Asia and other world regions a significant part of American K-12 education.

In June 2001, Asia Society issued its major report Asia in the Schools: Preparing Young Americans for Today's Interconnected World. The report documented the gap between the growing importance of Asia, home to 60% of the world's population, to the economic prosperity and national security of the United States and most Americans' rudimentary knowledge of the world outside our borders. The report found that "vast numbers of U.S. citizens-particularly young Americans-remain dangerously uninformed about Asia and international matters." While the report's research focused on Asia, the report recognized that this dismal lack of knowledge held true for other parts of the world as well.

Following the publication of the report, under Vice President of Education Vivien Stewart's leadership, the Society set out to implement its recommendations by developing a long-term multi-dimensional initiative to promote education about Asia and other world regions, cultures and languages in every school district. This required the ability to work with all the key institutions that shape education and public policy and to actively involve leaders from the mainstream of K-12 and higher education reform.

To help implement the report's recommendations, the Society created the National Coalition on Asia and International Studies in the Schools to bring together all the major professional associations in education to affirm that knowledge of the world must be part of the definition of educational excellence, to raise awareness in the educating professions about the need for international knowledge, and to build networks of interested education leaders. With support from the Coalition, the Society also developed the States Institute on International Education in the Schools, with co-sponsorship from the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, the Education Commission of the States and other state policy groups. Asia Society is working with a group of twenty states to help leadership teams devise action plans to address issues of policy and practice. Our educational policy-oriented website, Internationaled.org is a resource for state education leaders and we have recently initiated a series of partnerships among states, local school districts (including New York City) and the Ministry of China to promote teaching and learning about the largest country in the world.

To help promote models of innovation at the school and district level, the Society established two new programs in 2003: the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education and the Gates Foundation-funded Network of International Studies Schools. The Prizes, first awarded in November 2003, have recognized some of the nation's top innovators in the creation of internationally themed school programs of rigor and creativity. This network, as well as others who are supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is operating as a design team to support the Henry Street School. The network includes colleagues from other large cities including Los Angeles, Charlotte, San Antonio, Boston, Chicago, and Hartford who are sharing curriculum, assessment, parent and community engagement, staffing, and positive youth development advice with the Henry Street School leadership team and Region 9's instructional support colleagues.

To learn more about Asia Society and its programs, please visit our family of websites.

International Studies Schools Network
Asia Society, supported by a generous grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has established the first national network of urban secondary schools devoted to international studies and world languages. The model schools will provide a rigorous, engaging education for low-income and minority students in order to prepare them for college, the changing workforce, and a lifetime of learning. To learn more about this initiative and its schools, click here.