Sunset Elementary was awarded the 2007 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education. Only one Elementary/Middle School from all public and private elementary and middle schools in the United States is awarded this prize each year.  Sunset Elementary was honored to be the recipient of this prestigious award.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education is a national competition first launched in 2003 in conjunction with Asia Society, which recognizes outstanding achievement by those in the education sector who promote cultural awareness, world history, and an international studies curriculum as essentials in the development of the next generation of young Americans.

Four prizes of $25,000 are awarded annually to an elementary/middle school, a high school, a district or state, and a media or technology program. All prize participants demonstrated impressive innovation in leveraging existing education resources, in exploring new approaches to teaching about the world in curriculum, exchanges, teacher preparation, and in integrating technology and informal learning methods.

The prizes have garnered considerable interest across the country, bringing national attention to the critical need for investment in the development of international knowledge and skills. Press coverage of the prizes has been extensive and from this has emerged a growing interest by the press in covering international education as a part of reforming America’s high schools. Stories have run in national and international outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, International Herald Tribune, ABC, several articles in Education Week, and international and other national press services. The prizes program has put a major emphasis on effective approaches to language learning through recognizing immersion programs at the elementary level and extended language study, including in critical languages, at the high school level. Nationally, federal funding has increased for programs on critical world languages.

National organizations such as the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and others, have focused annual conferences and meetings on the topic of international knowledge and skills, exploring it as part of an educational response to globalization.

The best practices gathered by Asia Society and the Goldman Sachs Foundation have been published in several reports: Schools for the Global Age and States Prepare for the Global Age, articles in major education journals, and Educating Leaders for a Global Society, a policy report by Stephanie Bell-Rose, president, Goldman Sachs Foundation and Vishakha N. Desai, president, Asia Society, for corporate philanthropies on steps businesses and foundations can take to address this urgent need. Asia Society released a guidebook, Going Global: Preparing Our Students for an Interconnected World, for middle and high schools based on the best practices in international education collected from across the country and the prizes program. Responding to the growing interest in schools, it provides teachers, administrators, and interested community leaders with the initial tools to add an international dimension in their schools. In early 2009, Expanding Horizons: Building Global Literacy in Afterschool Programs, a guidebook and DVD with strategies and resources to help afterschool programs integrate global literacy, was published. The guide is based on more than 100 interviews with leaders in afterschool and international education.