International School Of Tucson

The International School of Tucson has established itself as the best and only of its kind in Tucson. It really is an amazing school with a vitality and vibrancy that I have not encountered at another school in Tucson. If you would like your child's school to be similar to the one you went to years ago, then this is not the school for you. IST educates for the reality of the global future of our children. Teachers are passionate, caring, attentive and motivated to teach to the individual level of, and challenge, each child. My child, now 7, is fully bilingual, reading and writing not only in English, and is excited about learning. The facilities do not include a lush green field, but when my child is excited about learning, is happy and excited to go to school every day, is involved in so many different after school activities from theater to music to art and soccer, I am one happy and appreciative parent! Thank you, IST!

While it's true that the facilities are not 5 star, the education and opportunities are. This has been the finest experience we've ever had in a school. The fact that our children are completely fluent in Spanish is a bonus! When traveling to Mexico people often comment that they have no accent that would suggest they are American. The commitment of the faculty, staff and parents to educational excellence and the individual development of each child is unmatched. The curriculum is very advanced and kids that have moved away have found themselves a couple years ahead of their peers according to many friends that have transferred out of town and reported back. We feel strongly that IST is the best educational value in Tucson by far. I've observed only the best of care by the school leadership and teachers when it comes to helping my children excel in areas where they are strong and provide extra attention and creative solutions in areas that didn't come as easily. We have 3 children in the school and they have become very confident, sensitive, other-oriented individuals that are appreciated for who they are as well as what they know! IST teaches educational and emotional maturity.

International School of Tucson is not a school for intelligent, boundary testing children who do not thrive under teacher centered instruction. IST has a "no refund" policy under any circumstance and the school actively selects for easy to control students. However IST accepts all "school" applications with paid enrollment fees. In our experience with this school we paid $1000 for seven weeks of "full-time" summer camp which was from 8:15am-3:45pm. No summer field trips, water play activities; just two hours of scorching hot,poorly shaded outside play/lunch area and five hours of indoor class activities. We actually only attend six days of the camp before being suspended without warning due to behavioral issues which only occurred at IST. Then again, teachers and administrations didn't follow strict boundaries and rewarded negative behavior with one-on-one attention is school office. The head of school with zero mental health experience had the nerve to strongly suggested our 4 yr old, boundaries testing child be psychologically evaluated because he wasn't remorseful and disobeyed inconsistent rules with teachers he barely knew. This is not the first time such recommendations were made to those who didn't fit the IST mold of desirable students. I found out it has happened at least twice before. Not believing the audacity of the Head of School suggestion but wanting to make sure we weren't missing anything we had our child psychologically evaluated which verified there was nothing abnormal about our child; just SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS SCHOOL. Here some facts about this school/program:

1-This school is not locally, state, nationally or internationally monitored. They self-monitor with parents that are in-line with IST way of conducting business. If parents critique school programs; they are out-casted and soon find there has been a mis-match.

2-The head of school and the head of second school interesting have almost identical career experiences on the school's "Our Faculty" page and both have a 9 year old. Can you say nepotism? IST boost about their memberships (mostly paid for teacher memberships) and one school accreditation candidacy.

3-IST is a business that offers language based instruction accompanied by elementary school classes. There is no publicly available test results to measure how effective their instruction really is.

4-Deeper investigation of this school found the owner of the school's property filed for Chapter 11, Bankruptcy Oct 10, 2010 Bankruptcy Petition # 4:10-bk-31802-EWH; something IST failed to disclose to current and future parents.

Don't be mislead by the reviews on other ratings websites. IST has more friends on Facebook than people who actually attend this school. The 2011 summer programs were sparsely enrolled. Only 5 of 15 spots were filled in the German Summer Camp 2011; 2 of 5 were full-time. Enrollment speaks volumes of the quality of a program. TAKE NOTE: IST parents and teachers monitor review sites like this one routinely. They add positive reviews to keep their school rating high and report negative reviews to be removed. See this school in person and decide for yourself. Reviews are always bias; even this one since it was my experience at this school. A school I would not recommend to my worst enemy.