In response to Re: GAC-ACT (Jim Smith)

Jim Smith, you have stunned me with your three posts. Two from March 24th are so alike. I guess you had to get the point across, didn't you? Here below is my answer and I'll follow up further at weekend. I am busy too.:)

Nice post Smitty - One point though. I believe Chinese people are intelligent and savvy, this includes even the wealthy ones. No parent I've ever met wants their child to cheat their way through school.

Many parents I have met want their kids so badly abroad theyd do anything. Most of my kids came out of first or second year high school classrooms and so never finished/graduated there. However, their parents, their connections, and the GAC schools have helped them graduate these high schools somehow during the 9 months in our classrooms where some of them even do not come to for the full time. Then, whatever marks we give are usually adjusted by either the Shanghais head office or schools administrators and thats my experience too. No，I would not say anyone is cheating or teaching anyone to cheat. :)
I hope you'll say my post is nice too. :)

The GAC is not run by Chinese in Shanghai. That is incorrect-false information. Furthermore, There is built in accountability and the curriculum is excellent. Furthermore, students are encouraged to go to whatever English speaking country they choose not just the USA. Thats another out and out lie. Heres the kicker, as part of the curriculum all GAC students are required to take the ACT exam. You tell me, what better way to assess EFL students overall skills than through the ACT. The ACT and the SAT exams are the most important and credible undergraduate entry exam in the USA for sure and probably the entire English speaking world.

This， in fact, is the kicker. An international hamburger promoter that says that only American cows are suitable for the burger? Yes, the GAC is/or has been run by the Australian office and their administrator called Gayle Pullen and their company is called ACT Education Solution Limited, but they are owned by the ACT thats stationed in the USA and that runs the ACT American college entry exams, not the GAC. The GAC has been designed for all Universities, not only the American ones that ACT serveswell, the private ones mostly as the public ones are mostly for SAT in the USA. By the way, the ACT is about what you learn and SAT, where you have to reason more likely, is about what your aptitude is, so I wouldnt mix them up really. The ACT surely is more welcome on mainland as you can learn it provided that you know the language and have learnt in high schools the subjects tested, which many Chinese students do not and will not learn in a year at GAC schools anyway.

Lastly, I dont doubt there is some grade inflation going on. There may be more unscrupulous behavior like some of the other posters have mentioned. You must understand GAC schools are individually owned just like IBO World Schools. Its up to the owners and administrators to create a clean and fruitful learning environment. I have been to a half dozen GAC schools. One had 67 students enrolled, all the teachers were professional and the principal was from the west and was as good as they come. The other five had anywhere from 75 to 200 students enrolled and they are model schools in my opinion. Please keep in mind, the GAC has been less than 8 years.

Interestingly, the posters you have seemingly criticized have shared what has happened to them and what they have seen in the schools that theyve named on the boards, although, in your March 24 and March 25 GAC-ACT outburst, you have omitted your exact locations where youve experienced what you claim you have experienced. Forgive my observation or if I am wrong, but it is hard to overlook your advertising mission on. Do you really believe it should only be up to the owners (and their administrators), that are the subscribers to the program, to create a clean and fruitful learning environment at GAC schools? To contradict your half a dozen GAC schools experiences, I know a Kunming one thats struggled with just about 5 poor students and thats got beeped by the head office with yet another GAC school in the same city (never mind the subscribers contract), I know of a couple poor Guangzhous GAC schools where their academic sub standards are endless, I know of a GAC Haikou thats gone down a few months after it opened, I know of GAC Nanning where there are just about half a dozen students struggling in their classroom and I also know of a GAC Chongqing with 9 current students out of which only 4 are at above elementary level of English. The facts, that these centers have cut corners and that the students realized that TOEFL or IELTS can get them abroad without the GAC foundation program, are putting them out of business or into a further desperation to accept virtually anyone with money in. The fact, the foreign GAC facilitators do not want to teach only the proficiency courses, has put the GAC schools and students in a position to improvise with other schools, teachers and even other options leaving these GAC enrolled students on their own. Oh, please keep in mind that the GAC, that Ben Denton has cloned from some Beijing Uni press, Australian TAFE and IELTS into these not so cohesive academic materials, is not so GAC but ACT now.

Now you have the good and the bad. I love the GAC thats why Im opening a new ATC next month. I believe it is an excellent, highly accountable, program to help those students who desire something different by going abroad for their tertiary education. For you qualified teachers out there; please dont be afraid to apply to GAC school. Do your dd before hiring on just like you would if you applied for any other new job. Sincerely Jim

So, which one are you opening; the GAC or the ACT? Well, I hope youll have all the fine students and foreign teachers knocking at your doors soon。

Cheers and beers to the American college entry exams that are just so great for the whole world :lol