The Chinese American International School

My children have been attending CAIS for several years now and we are very happy with the education they are receiving. The students are very well prepared to enter the high school of their choice. Teachers are truly top-notch and the curriculum is excellent. The biggest challenges for the school right now are finding good administrative staff and leadership. Next year there will be a new Head of School, Middle School Director and PreK/K Director. While there are challenges ahead, these are typical of schools growing from a "small school" to "big school" in a relatively short period of time. I am discouraged with the current lack of good communication, strong leadership, and professionalism but am optimistic with the new hires and time, all will resolve. The education is excellent (I try to ignore the rest!).
--Submitted by a parent

After sending three of my children to CAIS from K-8th, I have to say that I am completely satisfied! The kids all speak Chinese fluently with my grandparents, and all were perfectly able to understand people when they went on the Shanghai exchange trip. The Lower School curriculum is slightly better than average, but in Middle School, the quality just explodes! A host of brilliant teachers, especially the Math teacher. I was completely satisfied with their education, and all three are doing incredibly well in high school and beyond right now.
--Submitted by a parent

The teachers are fantastic, the students engaged and the parent body is supportive. The proactive counseling department is one of the best I have ever seen in any independent school.

I have two children at CAIS (1st and 3rd grades). We have had excellent teachers who have inspired them to learn in all the years that we have been there. We have been particularly impressed with the CAIS families that we have gotten to know over the years - we thought the community is more diverse socio-economically as well as in terms of nationalities than communities of most other private schools that we are familiar with. Although the mandarin instruction is clearly a main reason why we chose CAIS, we had looked carefully at all the other elements that we believe are important for our children and our family - interesting people, support within the community, strong values, and positive overall learning experience. Is the school perfect? Probably not. Has it met our high expectations? Definitely.
--Submitted by a parent

I have two children that attend CAIS and they both love the school, their teachers and friends. As a family, we have connected with the CAIS community and feel like we are apart of a diverse interesting group of families with a common goal. Here is an example of why we love CAIS: we are a non-Mandarin speaking family and this summer I took my son, who is entering 1st grade, to China for the first time. I was amazed to hear over and over how well he spoke Mandarin and to see how relaxed and engaged he was with children and adults who only speak Mandarin in the middle of mainland China. My husband and I have always hoped our children would speak other languages fluently and without effort and CAIS is helping us to realize that dream.
--Submitted by a parent

My daughter has been attending CAIS for the past 5 years (pre through 3rd) and I have very mixed feelings. Mandarin had been my daughter's primary language through toddlerhood. As soon as she started preschool, she'd forgotten all the Mandarin she'd learned within months because all the kids around her spoke English. Even after 5 years, she still has difficulty saying a complete sentence in Mandarin. I do agree with other parents that the variance in language background does hinder the development of children with background in Chinese. I would prefer that the children are place in diferent classes based on their curent language/academic abilities, rather than mixing the entire grade level randomly. On the positive note, my daughter loves CAIS and excels in all subjects. I do agree that CAIS plays an important role in inspiring her love for learning.
--Submitted by a parent

Elitest, exclusive, and lacking in differentiated instruction within the Mandarin curriculum.
--Submitted by a parent

I realize different families will have different views of the school, but I strongly disagree with the most negative reviews, particularly the one posted on Feb. 14, 2008. Of course there is a spectrum of academic levels, as there is at any school. I have two children at the school, and both are doing quite well. My older daughter went on a two week exchange program to Taiwan in 5th grade and did amazingly well. (She ended up speaking mostly Mandarin to her 'buddy', *both* while the buddy was here in SF, and while she was in Taipei.) Having studied languages myself in grade school, high school and college, I'm very impressed with CAIS. My older daughter is doing extremely well (several grades above level) in English, math and science as well. It's true that CAIS is not perfect, but then, no school is.
--Submitted by a parent

It is arguably a difficult task to understand what makes a great school and to select one for your children. CAIS came recommended to us and so far lived up fully to our expectations. Dedicated teachers that our children love and respect, top-notch facilities, a wealth of extracurricular activities for our children to chose from and an outstanding academic program. If we are to chose again, it will be CAIS.
--Submitted by a parent

Chinese is a complex lanugage. Many meanings, many combinations, many homophones. The Chinese education at CAIS doesn't cover Chinese indepth. Many kids can not hold a Chinese conversations and the class is slowed down by the slow learners. There are a few in every class. The teacher helps them the most. The good students are urged to help the others. Too expensive. Not exactly what I expected. We've been there for 5 years. In English, there are slow students who slow others down also. The kids who do well are the bright ones who are good at learning indepently at school and outside of school. This is a good school but not what I expected.
--Submitted by a parent