The COAR Model
Landing in Tacna.
The main part of campus at COAR Tacna.
Student accommodation.
Student classrooms at night - students are in class until 7pm.
Downtown Tacna.
With Todd and Shawnette.
The Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms program is thoughtfully designed to build both connection and context at every step. After receiving the news of our selection last August (I’m still in shock), we dove into a semester-long online course focused on global education. This year’s cohort includes 80 educators from across the U.S., and we were divided into four groups traveling to Peru, Uruguay, India, and Senegal. Before heading abroad, we all gathered in Washington, D.C. for an in-person symposium—an energizing opportunity to connect, collaborate, and bring along a school administrator from home.
Our international journey began in Lima, Peru, where we spent a week as a full group visiting a range of schools throughout the city. Each visit offered insight into Peru’s diverse educational landscape—from private to public, urban to rural. After this immersive introduction, we split into smaller teams and traveled to different regions of the country to work alongside Fulbright host teachers in local schools.
I was incredibly fortunate to be partnered with Todd from Kansas and Shawnette from Pennsylvania—two brilliant and passionate primary educators. Together, we were placed at a COAR school in Tacna, a desert city just ten miles from the Chilean border. COAR schools are a unique model in Peru: each of the country’s 26 regions has one of these public, highly competitive boarding schools, designed for high-achieving, low-income students. The students live on campus from Sunday night through Friday and follow the rigorous International Baccalaureate curriculum.
Working at a COAR school allowed us to see firsthand how Peru is investing in its next generation of leaders. The experience was been eye-opening and inspiring.
One question still lingers in the back of my mind: COAR schools have a 10% acceptance rate—so what happens to the other 90% of students who remain in public schools with limited resources? Some COAR teachers shared that the model has raised the bar for rigor across all classrooms. Others acknowledged a more complex reality: while COAR can be life-changing for the students who are accepted, it may also be widening the opportunity gap for those who are left behind.
I’m writing this post from Lima, where we’ve all returned after spending time in different parts of the country. One of my favorite parts of the International Field Experience has been reconnecting with the rest of the cohort and hearing about everyone’s unique experiences. It’s been fun and inspiring to learn what teaching and learning looked like in other regions of Peru.
