International School Students
“The same but different.”
By and large international school students are a joy to teach, just like the academically ambitious, polite, hard-working kids at a well-run private college-prep school in your home country.
The emphasis is on well-run, because of course things can go badly wrong. But do your research and you should be able to avoid bad schools.
What lends spice to an international school student body is its multicultural diversity, even though the playground and hallway language will be English. It’s truly awe-inspiring to see students from 50+ countries mingle effortlessly in the classroom, lunchroom, sports field, social groups in and out of school.
A true international school will be full of TCK (Third Culture Kids.) This means a global education curriculum is redundant; some of these students have lived in five different countries before middle school and have extra pages in their passports.
Issues Unique to International Schools
Transitory Lifestyle
Many of these families only stay a few years (3-4 years for US Foreign Service Officers), which has implications. One of these factors is very positive; because these kids have moved so often, they tend to be very accepting of newcomers.
Student friend groups might include a motley collection of nationalities like Ethiopian, Canadian, Estonian, Belgian, Danish, Lebanese, and Austrian, in the case of my children, who were swarmed by students looking for fresh companions their first day.
But negatives include the lack of stability and issues with bonding and friendship. Some students may fall through the cracks academically and socially, since nobody knew them when. More fragile students may fold under the pressure of regular uprooting.
English-Language Fluency
Two admissions constraints also have a particularly crucial impact, so be sure to ask. How many students speak English well? How solid is instructional support and what are the school’s admissions testing and policies?
One AP teacher recounted how a GR11 student had to have his friend translate a request to go to the bathroom. How can such students possibly get good IB/AP scores and be admitted to a British or American university without English-language fluency?
1. Older students who are not fluent should not be admitted in the upper grades. It is far too difficult to master the language skills needed to succeed in a challenging curriculum and subsequent tests, like IB.
If too few students are fluent in English, teaching any kind of curriculum will be an uphill slog. Many schools do not accept older students without excellent English for this reason and also require a minimum admissions test score.
2. Many schools limit the percentage of ELL under the theory of critical mass, meaning if there aren’t enough native English speakers, who are these learners going to immerse themselves with?
If the proportions are wrong, the school ends up with groups of, say, Koreans speaking nothing but Korean and who can barely speak English when they graduate.
The Families
“The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.
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Who are these parents?
1. Embassy diplomatic personnel
2. NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) employees
3. Businessmen and women for global corporations
4. Teachers’ kids
5. Host country nationals, generally rich
Who Pays the Tuition?
Parents #1-4 do not typically pay their child’s tuition out of pocket; their government or corporation pays. In the case of AAS Moscow, for instance, fees are in the $28,000 range plus a $10,000 entry fee.
Lori Loughlin, actress, sentenced for bribery in a school admissions scandal. Money talks, but not always.
This feature means that when a #5 host national’s child enrolls, the parents most likely are rich. That does not automatically mean they are more prone to be pushy, entitled, and demanding, but the risk is, frankly, greater.
Lest you think parents from hell only occur overseas, remember this pair and their $500,000 bribe to admit their daughters to USC?
How Parents Decide
Families have many motivations for choosing an international school over the local national school. These range from the negative (teachers are on strike again) to the positive (broadening the child’s worldview and achieving English fluency.)
The growing middle class around the world sometimes stretches itself financially for an international school education. They value extracurricular activities and the nurturing of personality and independence in a multicultural environment because they may be wary of the rigid national schools.
So…parents have settled on sending the child to an international school. What factors influence their choice?
1. Tuition can be upwards of $40,000. Can I afford it? What if I have three children?
2. Will the curriculum fit the future I have in mind for my child?
3. Is this a true international school with certified foreign teachers?
4. If my child needs extra support, will it be available?
5. What about sports and extracurricular activities?
6. Location – if we live in a huge city, is the commute impossible?
7. What is the school’s reputation and college acceptance rate?
Here is one online example of how parents search and the criteria that matter; just input the child’s age and desired location, then start shopping. By the way, this database is a priceless resource for prospective teachers to dig up facts like ratio of local students to international (crucial to know.)
Difficult Parents
Difficult parents are distributed along the Bell Curve, never mind who pays the tuition. There are plenty of horror stories of embassy parents throwing their weight around and making a teacher’s life miserable. Your main defenses are:
1. Solid supportive administration
2. Selective student admission process
3. Curriculum in place with testing as the end result
4. Zero tolerance of cheating or bad behavior by Board and administration
5. Adherence to Western norms
Supportive Parents
On the bright side, parents all share one common feature, meaning high expectations for their children. They tend to be supportive and involved, and if their child is happy in your classroom and making progress, they will be your best supporters.
Highly talented and educated classroom volunteers will be available. The PTO will likely prove capable of raising plentiful money for classroom support, organizing special events, and providing manpower or more typically womanpower. Keep an open mind, and you could end up with a lifelong friend from the parent community.
Now that you have a good idea of the international school world and have decided you want to teach overseas, let’s lay out the hiring process.