Cost of an ISI Education
Unique Model of Education
- The unique model of education offered by ISI is of necessity an expensive one to offer – much more so than its monolingual, traditional counterparts among other independent schools.
- Throughout the pre-elementary and elementary school ISI in effect is operating two schools – a French school and a Spanish school and now a Mandarin Chinese one.
- Nevertheless, ISI remains committed to the immersion model as being the only approach that is guaranteed to develop real fluency in all learners.
Teacher Recruitment
ISI’s teacher recruitment costs are much higher than local monolingual schools. Approximately 40% of employees are native speakers of our foreign languages, and many of them are employed from overseas. Additional costs related to our employment policies include:
- Overseas recruitment trips
- International advertising of vacancies
- Payment of recruitment agencies
- Immigration attorney fees
- Visa fees
- Travel from home country
- Relocation and settling in allowances
- Ongoing visa costs (foreign employees generally have to leave the USA in order to obtain an extension visa beyond their initial J1 visa)
Additional costs
Additional costs related to the complexity of ISI’s educational programs include:
- Materials and resources are mainly sourced outside of the USA
- International Baccalaureate program fees, per capita student charges, IB training requirements and specialist materials
- Library collections need to be in all languages
- Overseas exchange visits