How to know if the school teaching well?

[math-teacher]

Just wondering how do teacher knows if the school is going to teach their children well enough to be average? Just wondering how much does the quality of teaching impacts those teachers with children for the next job selection.

[fine dude]

- 'A' level / AP / IB results
- College admissions
- Word of mouth
- Highly competitive with long waiting lists
- Seasoned and humane administrators who know their stuff
- Top-tier compensation

Having said that, there is always a couple of bad apples among faculty who just got lucky with hiring. I currently work with some who will never be hired by our current administrators.

[mamava]

The quality of teachers with respect to my kids is one of the most important factors. Of course, I want to teach with good quality teachers, but let's face it--if I had to, I could teach in a crummy school, but not if it impacted my kids. It's one of the reasons we left our school in the ME. Two years of watching teachers have visa denied and not being able to show up until October or December was not something we could put our kids through. It wasn't worth the money we were making.

We're on the brink of empty nest life and, while we'll continue to work at top-tier schools, we are also more open to places and opportunities that might not have been a good "fit" for our kids.

[Heliotrope]

Check out the potential school here: https://www.talesmag.com/real-school-reports (if it's listed)
Be aware it's only anecdotal evidence, but sometimes quite helpful, especially if a school has many reviews, and they all tell the same story.

Better yet, join expat Facebook-groups of the city where the school you're considering is located, and ask what parents think of the school. You'll find parents are very eager to share their opinions, good or bad.

[Thames Pirate]

The list above is great for traditional academic standards. But to me it's the bare minimum; schools can do the academic AND more--creative, social-emotional, innovative, action-driven, etc. can also be a part of that. Top-tier package is not necessarily an indicator, though it can be. But yes, academic results, college admissions, and word of mouth are the most accessible and often quantifiable indicators.

[PsyGuy]

Short Answer: Performance benchmarks such as exams.

Long Answer: How well in both breadth and depth of likability an IT has. Students arent stupid in IE, they know the ITs that know there material, have a classroom dynamic and care about their learning and success. Have those three things and your a likable IT and your child is likely receiving an "average" education.

[Heliotrope]

Thames Pirate wrote:
> The list above is great for traditional academic standards. But to me it's
> the bare minimum; schools can do the academic AND more--creative,
> social-emotional, innovative, action-driven, etc. can also be a part of
> that. Top-tier package is not necessarily an indicator, though it can be.
> But yes, academic results, college admissions, and word of mouth are the
> most accessible and often quantifiable indicators.

I agree with it being the bare minimum.
And even these exam scores aren't always a good way of gauging the quality of a school. I've seen schools that skew their exam results, for example by having poorly performing students not taking the IB exams, not admitting students with learning disabilities, having entrance exams, etc.

[PsyGuy]

I concur with @Heliotrope, not all ISs have open options at SLL, its not uncommon that ISs will have a general open pathway to an SLL certificate and then will have selective pathways such as IB that allows them protect their exam results.

[Heliotrope]

Yeah, in my experience it was usually 90% that takes the IB-exams, and the 10% lowest-performing students being told they can't. But they usually have rich parents anyway, so they'll land on their feet (financially at least).

But to be honest, at my last few schools this wasn't the case.
Lower tier schools are more likely to do so in my experience.

[PsyGuy]

There are BSs that dont permit low performing students to take A levels.