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About MAFSA

What is MAFSA?

MAFSA, or Metropolitan Area Foreign Student Advisors, is a group of school professionals working in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and surrounding districts in Maryland and Virginia. Most members of MAFSA are counselors, ESOL teachers, supervisors or administrators charged with the proper grade placement and the evaluation of records for international or English Learner (EL) students in the elementary and secondary public schools in the United States.

The group began meeting informally in the 1980's to discuss best practices and to support the growing population of foreign-born students in the public schools, and has since expanded to over 70 members from most districts in Maryland and Virginia as well as several other surrounding states.

MAFSA meetings are held three times per year, and are hosted on a rotating basis by the members.

To contact MAFSA with questions about international student issues or to find out more, select the Contact Us link above.

What are the Comparison Charts?

The MAFSA Comparison Charts of Primary and Secondary Foreign School Systems and National Grading Scales © (The Charts) are the result of a cooperative effort by international student services representatives from the metropolitan District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia area public school systems. The Charts provide general guidelines for the evaluation of foreign transcripts (grading scales) and for the placement of students into the appropriate grade level in the United States. The Charts are copyrighted and available only to MAFSA members as they work to correctly place students into primary and secondary school and to evaluate transcripts from secondary schools outside the United States.