What does it mean for ISTP to offer "a challenging academic curriculum"

It means that the academic performance of our students is competitive with other top private and public schools in the nation. Our school was founded in 1979 on the principle of high academic achievement, and we are accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), and the Minstère de l’Education Nationale.

The Chinese/English Program is focused on academic achievement, as it naturally reflects the performance-oriented Chinese culture. ISTP’s Chinese/English Program was started in 1996, and is the most established Chinese immersion program in Silicon Valley. We have a proven track record in providing an excellent, academically challenging dual language Chinese-English education.

Our French curriculum is modeled directly after the French Ministry’s national curriculum, allowing students coming from abroad to seamlessly enter from and return to the French school system. France’s academic culture is in fact based on high achievement. With the University system driven by the "Grandes Ecoles," where only the most elite students are admitted, France’s educational philosophy is inherently academically challenging.

Learning simultaneously through two different languages is in itself an academic advantage. The cognitive benefit of learning through two different systems starting from an early age shows lasting intellectual advantages for our students. Despite the fact that the amount of time spent learning in English is limited in the early years, our students continue to show outstanding results in English, including test scores that surpass most public and private schools. This outstanding result is due not only to the excellent English instruction, but also to the complementary nature of learning in two languages.