Research Atlanta International School private Schools in Atlanta, Georgia

“AIS has lofty goals, but the quality of its teachers is below average. Also, the MS program involves too much discipline and not enough true challenges for the students. The schedule of ever-changing daily classes (every 8 days, and then that again changes due to holidays, field trips, guest lectures, etc.) is very confusing for the students to keep up with and offers no real benefits. The curriculum for Math and Sciences need to be more rigorous (and maybe silly classes like 'PSHE' and 'DEAR' could be done away with, please?) and the teachers need to be nicer and more involved. A disappointing experience for us for MS for sure. The teachers we've had in European and American public schools were MUCH more impressive than at AIS! This school should focus on improving its staff first, NOT its buildings and athletic fields. (AIS Athletics are very weak anyway!)”

“Great school; the I.B program is simply excellent compared to the American curriculum which only provides students with the bare minimum and no view on the 'outside' world. It provides students with life-long skills and it simply makes you a better overall person. You learn to be hard-working due to the loads of work, and you learn to be a responsible and tolerant young adult. At this school, I have made friends from all around the globe, and the atmosphere at this school is like no other.”

“AIS is an interesting place. Can be an enchantment (as you will find in several reviews) or a disappointment (as it was for others). The main difference stems from what teachers your children had in primary and especially in middle school. If you were lucky to have a good teacher (as some of them were), great; if not, then you would have to deal with teachers which are really subpar and with a leadership body that is like a perfect stone, ie rigid, non-reflective and dull. Math and science are in great need of improvement, otherwise the SAT scores will continue to look as bad they are now. Hence, in order to be successful, the new principal will need to stick to his guns (hopefully the right ones and well calibrated), fire a few teachers and institute a house of rules, consistency and high standards throughout. Good luck!”

“Hi, I am a student at AIS and I have some thoughts for the new Headmaster. I have heard that the old-fashion principals were pacing the classes regularly, trying to monitor the quality of classroom teaching in the entire school. That sounds like a great, forgotten tool for all school heads and principals! One of the reviews about AIS brought up the idea of quality surveys and feedback another great way of finding the truths that generally get berried in various offices overtime. Giving feedback to the teachers and asking for regular feedback from parents and children need to be paired with dynamism, zero-tolerance for byzantine relationships and inadequate quality. If these changes won't happen soon, some children will be attending other schools in the meantime and the school reputation will be then more difficult to repair. There is great momentum in the next 6 months!”

“AIS has great potential due to its multicultural exposure, but middle school has many things to improve. For example, it has few excellent teachers, but the overall quality is not above average for public schools, especially in math and science. Also, consistency regarding regulations, tests and content of report cards is needed. Each teacher applies the rules that fit their style and personality, without a uniform approach across school. Giving feedback to AIS middle school office is useless since all they try to prove the student was wrong or misinterpreted the rule. This is a slipery slope, since teenagers should be encouraged, respected and taken seriously in order to develop self confidence and learn to evaluate themselves. The new principal has a lot of work to do! A feedback questionnaire from students on each teacher after each semester is done by other schools with good results. Why not AIS?”

“AIS is a great school. My son has been enjoying the IB program for several years. The transition from overseas was very smooth”

“AIS teachers give great testament to those who are first-rate educators of our youth in this community. We couldn t be more impressed with the teachers and their superb teaching skills, support and encouragement that they have given our daughter. She really enjoys and responds well to their teaching style. We are very proud of her achievements and we know that we have the teachers to thank in large for it. We are an American family with no foreign languages. Her language teachers have a system that has taken her from hating language days to loving them. They have given her the tools to feel confident in her language speaking, reading and writing. If you understand that your child, the teachers and you are partners in the education experience, your family will thrive. If you believe you can just drop off your child at school and the school must identify and solve all of problems we suggest you apply someplace else.”

“AIS is an excellent school which provides a well-rounded educational experience in a community which is diverse, accepting and nurturing. My children have attended AIS from 4K through graduation and I can honestly say that the School contributes to the creation of wonderful young people who are interested in the world around them, who are capable of critical thought and analysis and who care for their classmates and others. The students at AIS have many opportunities to experience firsthand the cultures and customs of others--they are well-traveled as a group and they become engaged citizens. The IB program at AIS is superb--it prepares the students well for university and it is taken by all 11th and 12th grade students. On the whole, the faculty is committed and extraordinarily hardworking. The diverse community supported by the Community Principles result in a special, uniquely diverse and close-knit community. AIS is a wonderful school.”

“We have children in the 4-K AND 5-K Spanish track and could not be more pleased with AIS. It has by far exceeded our expectations on every level.”

“We have had a very positive experience at AIS. With two students in primary school, we find that the curriculum is challenging because of the foreign language, yet there is sufficient support for the children as needed. The school is somewhat transient because of international expat families. AIS may not be equipped to support children with severe learning challenges, but is certainly equipped to proactively manage the more basic challenges such as dyslexia. AIS provides a unique and encouraging learning environment that prepares students to be independent, responsible, creative, and solution-oriented thinkers.”

“My children are in their 3rd year at AIS. We joined the school because of the diversity of the community, with the language component a plus as well. We are thrilled with the International Baccalaurreate curriculum, which encourages critical thinking and problem solving. The community is small, close knit and involved. And the diversity of experience is truly astonishing, something we never thought could exist in Atlanta. If you want your children to be exposed to the broader world, AIS is the place to be.”

“AIS is one of the best kept secrets in Atlanta. The primary school immersion program is unique in the US and in the World. From pre-k through 5th grade the children study all subjects in both their native and target languages. As a pure US family, we have been (& many Germans have been) amazed at our childrens' German conversational fluency, reading fluency, and lack of foreign accent. In Middle School they will pick up a 3rd language - most students graduating from AIS are trilingual. The cross cultural experiences/interactions are a gift for students and parents alike. We have been very happy with the teachers and are looking forward to next year when Kevin Glass, a shining star in the International School arena, will become our new headmaster. Under Kevin's leadership, this already great school will only get better.”

“AIS has a fantastic parent community with families from Atlanta and all over the world. It has a broad global footprint with over fifty countries represented. The children learn about the world beyond the borders of Atlanta. The IB International Baccalaureate gives the students a great foundation from which to go on to college and the real world. The school s program begins at the 4K level and the students have the opportunity to learn French, German and Spanish in a dual language program in the Primary School. Chinese and Latin are added as language options in the Secondary School.”

“Our two children have been part of the AIS community for the past 5 years. This school has offered our children an amazing educational opportunity, with strong academic programs that also teach our kids about becoming life learners and contributors to the world around them. There is other place like it in Atlanta.”

“I am frankly not that impressed with AIS. My son went there after attending a public school and was actually ahead in Math and Sciences. Also the administration in Middle School is very tedious and 'infraction'-oriented (they give one for anything) and a lot of the teachers are burned out and not inspiring for the kids. I know of several teachers who routinely read their emails during classtime, instead of teaching the kids.”

“I have two children in the primary school at AIS. My husband and I are thrilled with the program & attention that our children receive. Although our children are completely different in personality & interests, both are thriving. Parental involvement is encouraged and I've had the oportunity to observe classroom and administraative activty and found bothtoo be thoughtful and student centered. True, this environment is not probably what most of us grew up with -- education has changed in many ways -- and for that I say, hooray! My kids are fantastically happy there; in fact, in our house, they pout if I say they CAN'T go to school! My only experience with middle & upper school is observation, but I can tell you that the older kids are polite, go out of their way to be respectful & are fantastically articulate/'pulled together'. Bravo AIS! The best kept secret in Atlanta!”

“My daughter was at AIS for five years in the lower school and I couldn't have been more disappointed in her experience. Their is an overall lack of communication and organization. The curriculum is one size fits all and the students (and parents) are excessively competitive. The teachers are sub-par and and do not seem to care at all for the children. High turnover rate in both students and teachers. My daughter started AIS as a happy, confident and well-adjusted child. She was not the same kid when she left. On paper, this school sounds ideal but we couldn't have been more disappointed and we wish we would have made a different decision. She is now thriving and began to regain the confidence she lost from five years at AIS.”

“Our child attended AIS for four years. The language aspect was good, but the other aspects of the education were lacking in many ways. In four years, we only had a couple of 'top notch' teachers. But the most serious negative about the school was two-fold: there were some children who were allowed to attend there with emotional and behavioral problems, and the administration and staff were not knowledgeable, skilled or willing to deal appropriately with these children. There were many, many unnecessary interruptions and disturbances caused by these students. In addition, when situations occurred at school, just normal situations that happen in any school with regular children, the administration and teachers at AIS did not handle things properly, appropriately or fairly and many times actually making things much worse. After four years of dissatisfaction, we finally sent our child to a different private school and are very happy.”

“Frankly, AIS has been a huge disappointment for us. AIS goals are wonderful on paper, while the reality is way-way lower. The other parents are right: this school does not listen, does not individualize, and school officials are behaving as if the rest of the world should be happy to be tolerated by them. The infraction-centered educational system without formative core (and without being a strict system!), the surprisingly low quality of the teachers and the very high turn-over of both parents and teachers make this school a perfect 'trap'. Even as an international family, we recognized very quickly that the international community is being trapped at AIS by the IB program and foreign languages. A good school needs a stable community of good-quality parents and teachers, but the latter is surprisingly poor and benefits largely from the exaggerated fluidity of the community. What a pitty!”

“This school has the potential to be fantastic. However the school falls very short of being described in such a word. The academics are pretty good but many teachers are very ill-informed and not very knowledgeable about their subject. Unfortunately, the administration particularly that of the middle is simply bad. They are not helpful in any way and won't listen to what you have to say. They don't take your problems into consideration and are quite frankly not very kind. They make every single thing into a huge deal and overreact. The school is meant to be extremely welcoming and has not succeeded with that intention.”

“The Atlanta International School is by far the best school in Atlanta. It is a full international baccalaureate school and many of its IB diploma program teachers are teaching other teachers to also teach the IB. Especially the mathematics is excellent and the scores students on IB exams are very high.”

“This is an extraordinary school for extraordinary families and students. Children learn to live with, appreciate, care and value others of diverse background as well as those similar to their own. In addition, student profiles of risk taking, empathy, great communication, enquiring minds, etc., are stressed in everyday activities. AIS provides the Atlanta community with a multicultural avenue where children learn a second and/or third language and are sensitized to being model global citizens. We are thrilled!”

“As an alumnus who attended AIS for 14 years (4-K through 12th grade), I probably know more about this school than most. While it certainly has its flaws (mainly in the current administration, which is incidentally ending after this year), the ideals and educational goals of AIS are definitely a step in the right direction. Concretely, your child will receive the BEST language education they could hope to find in Atlanta here, and education in the social sciences is equally well-qualified. I say this as a student currently enrolled at UPenn, and as an accepted applicant at Harvard and Brown. In languages and social sciences, AIS gives more than sufficient preparation for any university or program in the world. The academic weaknesses of AIS lie in math and, even more so, in the sciences However, a new fine arts and sciences building is under construction at this time”

“The academics are great, we could get more of a challenge. I also think that we could have more of a choice of what we like to do considering we have to do all four exploratory: theater, art, design technology, and music. Everyone at the school is nice I started going there in sixth grade and they make me want to do better.”

“My child has attended this school for a few years and does not feel welcome. This year the students are required to take a technology class in the place of one of their sports classes. This used to be a choice, however it does not help my child with the goals he wishes to achieve.”

“AIS is a unique school that provides both outstanding academic education and a cultural experience that broadens the students' perspective on important issues. The IB program is extremely rigorous and prepares students for the level and volume of work needed to succeed at top level universities world wide. This is one of the top schools in Atlanta.”

“I have been at AIS since 1st grade, and so I know the school. To be honest, I don't really like the way most things are planned and the extracurriculars are not very organized or extensive, as the art club lasted half a year. The teachers are nice, but some don't know what they are teaching.”

“This school has many extracurricular activities such as art club, chess club, music department, a robotics team, and a great sports program. The teachers are not the best but other than that the school's fine.”

“Simply one of the best schools that Atlanta has to offer! Students are put through rigorous and extracirricular activities. I myself have gone to this school and have attended Harvard Medical and throught their I.B. program have also attended Oxford University. The knowledge gained is unforgetable. Anyone applying for private schools should look at this one because it is one of the best!”

“I have two children at AIS and while it is difficult to get into, I feel our efforts to attend were well worth it. Academically, all students are put in one of three different language tracks from 4K on that affords them the opportunity to alternate every other day entirely in English and another target language of Spanish, French, or German. The tracks maintain 50%/50% ratio of native/non native speakers. The children in attendance are from over 60 countries, as is the staff. Not only are my children on their way to fluency in both languages but they have the luxury of looking forward to a rigorous secondary education under the prestigious I.B. program. The IB allows our graduates to attend universities anywhere in the world and with an average S.A.T. score of over 1300 I dare you to find a better education anywhere! Our graduates are wellrounded and well travelled!”