The International School

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The International School is an independent elementary school in Portland, Oregon, that provides language-immersion education in three tracks: Japanese, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. More than 300 students in pre-K through fifth grade follow an American curriculum in a foreign language, acquiring linguistic and cultural fluency by graduation. The International School has been designated as an International Spanish Academy, one of only 28 American schools to earn this designation from the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain.^[1]

1 Curriculum and mission statement
2 History
3 Future expansion
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Curriculum and mission statement

The International School offers language instruction by immersing children fully in Spanish, Chinese or Japanese language and culture. Students learn science, math, writing, reading and present projects exclusively in the target language. Teachers are native speakers of the language they teach, and their cultures form the basis of every aspect of the school day. Each year, the school's fifth-graders travel abroad, getting to know their peers in Spain, Japan and China.

The school's mission statement: Provide children with a comprehensive and challenging education in which fluency in more than one language is central to development, while encouraging children to be culturally aware, responsible and productive citizens of a diverse and increasingly interdependent world.

[edit] History

The school was founded in 1990 by Doug and Frey Stearns. It attracts an ethnically and sociologically diverse student body from across metro Portland. Each year the school provides financial aid to 25-30 percent of students, double the 13.7 percent national average for independent elementary schools.

The International School is the state's only school to offer three languages, exposing children to a variety of cultures. Oregon has other language immersion schools, but other than very small programs, no other school offers full-time language and cultural immersion in Chinese, Spanish or Japanese.

The International School is accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools and the Oregon Green Schools Association. In state standardized tests, 88 percent of third graders and 66 percent of fifth graders rated "exceeds" in both reading and math. No student rated "does not meet" in any subject.

The International School is independently governed by a board of trustees made up of parents and members of the community. An advisory board includes a former Oregon governor and prominent educators. The school is not supported by tax or church monies. Financing is through tuition, contributions and grants. The school is a 501(c)3 organization.

[edit] Future expansion

The International School is rapidly expanding due to the increasing demand for immersion language education. A capital campaign, which has attracted donations from 100 percent of the school's parents, began raising $1.5 million to convert an adjacent building into classrooms in 2006. The expansion has enabled the school to unite its two campuses -- the main campus in the rapidly developing North Macadam district next to downtown and a satellite building several blocks away. The James & Marion Miller Foundation and the Henry L. Hillman Jr. Foundation provided grants for the project. The new building was named after the schools founders, as Stearns Hall.

The emergence of China as an economic power in the 21st century lead to a change in the distribution of students through the three offered languages. In the 2007-2008 school year, approximately 50% of the International School’s students studied Spanish, 35% studied Mandarin and 15% studied Japanese.