International School Of Portland

We feel incredibly fortunate to have found ISP and enrolled our daughter in the Chinese track since kindergarten year—she is absolutely thriving! Every day, she's excited to go to school, deeply connected to her classmates and teachers, and learning so much across all subjects. Before joining ISP, she attended other preschools, including a well-regarded Montessori school in the Portland area. However, she never truly felt at home in her previous school. Despite our active efforts with the teachers and administrators, she didn't seem like herself at school compared to how she was at home, leaving us concerned during her preschool years.After extensive research, including attending many school open houses, tours, and speaking with other Portland parents, we decided to give ISP a try, and the difference was immediate. Within the first couple of weeks, we noticed a big change. The Chinese teachers at ISP are warm, attentive, loving, and fun, while also providing a rich and engaging learning experience. Our daughter absolutely adores her teachers and friends and is excited about every subject—not just Chinese and math, but also music, gym, art, and so on. While learning Chinese is a wonderful bonus, what matters most to us is that our child grows into a well-rounded person with a strong foundation in wellbeing, learning, and social connections. ISP stands out for its experienced, caring teachers, dedicated staff, and top-notch educational quality in all subjects.Logistics were another important factor in our decision. Commute time, in particular, was a concern for us after reading online reviews about ISP's car line. Thankfully, significant improvements have been made since the summer of 2024, following a construction project that streamlined the drop-off and pick-up process. These days, we can usually drop off our child in under 5 minutes and pick her up in under 10 by car. We also commute by bike a lot, and ISP's campus is very bike-friendly and accessible.Overall, we highly recommend ISP!

ISP has been a wonderful fit for my family - I'm grateful that it exists in the Portland area. My son has been in the Spanish track since Kindergarten and over the years, I've seen him (and his friends!) develop into a confident, empathetic, culturally fluent, and kind learner. Through the IB curriculum and 100% language immersion, It's clear that ISP has laid the foundations for his future intellectual and emotional growth, as well as global citizenship. It's also worth noting that the faculty is second to none, the administration is transparent, organized, and communicative, and the parent community is tightly knit. Enrolling my son at ISP has been one of the best decisions I've made as a parent. Period.

We wanted to impart a sense of appreciation to our daughter for learning about other cultures, traditions, perspectives, and places while also laying an early foundation for her to be better equipped to participate in an increasingly global economy. So, for us, picking a school where our child would become fluently bilingual at a young age and have the opportunity to interact with and learn from, people from other parts of the world was a key differentiator in choosing ISP. The teachers are all native speakers, so our daughter, who enrolled at age 3 and is now 7, has developed fluency with good pronunciation. There are 17 countries represented by staff, and 53% of students identify as minority or mixed race. There's also a capstone trip in 5th grade where students visit a country where their target language is spoken.ISP offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP), a guided inquiry-based teaching method that centers on student questions, which I believe has helped develop our daughter's creativity, independence, and critical thinking skills. We've noticed that at home our child is much more apt to be creating/making things than playing with toys which I suspect is, in part, related to the IB PYP pedagogy. Before enrolling we were a little concerned that other academic subjects may falter while focusing on the acquisition of a second language, but those fears were unwarranted - our daughter and her friends are highly proficient as evidenced by the school's proficiency test scores. I've also been amazed by the high quality of art education - our daughter is now able to identify multiple artists by their style including Van Gogh, Yayoi Kusama, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, Eric Karl, and Faith Ringgold, amongst others (I don't think I was exposed to any of these artists in a meaningful way before college!). But what we are most happy with is simply the culture of kindness at the school, which perhaps is fostered by the small average class sizes of 13 students. We recommend ISP without hesitation.

We really love this school for our kids. Great teachers and a great community of like-minded families seeking a global mindset for their kids. Art and music programs are awesome so it's more than a school for language immersion but with that said, our daughters are both fluent in their track languages. Kids really love the environment and get to mix with the kids from the two other language tracks which really creates an inclusive and diverse atmosphere.

Our kids are now 17 & 20 years old and we are deeply grateful for their education at ISP. Not only are my kids still fluent in Spanish (and English of course), they are strong critical thinkers and problem solvers. The inquiry based learning at ISP gave them the skills to navigate this world and prepared them very well for their academic and life challenges.

I can't say enough about ISPs. We have two children in the school and both are thriving. The teachers are talented and caring, the class sizes are perfect, and the administration and parents are involved and committed to continuing to improve each child's experience. My youngest has been there only a year and a half and is already able to understand and speak in her track language. My oldest is in third grade and is debating and writing a book in his track language. The educational and cultural foundation is worth every penny.

We are so impressed with our time at ISP. Our son is in 5th grade and our daughter finished last year. Both kids are fluent in Spanish and have learned to read and write in Spanish along with English. Class sizes and student support are amazing and the global inquirer thinkers they are developing is fantastic to watch. They are building curiosity in our kids about everything in the world and it's so great to experience. Highly Recommend!

Three months into the school year our family couldn't be more pleased with ISP. Our 3.5-year-old is thriving in their pre-k, Spanish track. He has two attentive and warm teachers who've taken a genuine interest in getting to know his personality, preferences, and our family. We've found the school administration to be highly professional and efficient. Communications from faculty and staff are consistent and thorough. We enrolled for the cultural exposure and IB curriculum and we've been met with those positives plus exceptional faculty and a community of engaged parents and students.

ISP is amazing! The faculty, staff, leadership team and community are committed to helping our children become global citizens. The mixture of language immersion with the IB education is extremely impressive. Love the inclusion of English education, music, art and physical education. There is no place like ISP. It is magical.

Our child is in the Japanese track at the International School and it's phenomenal. The classes are small and the teachers give the students amazingly focused goals, support, and challenges. It's especially helpful in our case because no one speaks Japanese at home, but the amazing teacher meant that our child quickly got up to the level of peers who spoke some Japanese at home. Even beyond the language immersion aspect, my child has learned so much about math, science, and all the whole array of elementary school subjects and constantly surprises us by speaking (in English ;) ) at such a high level of articulateness and understanding. The other students and families are a really special community and we love seeing them outside school too. ISP has a great campus with lots of fun different places for kids to play, and the kids especially love tramping about (appropriately covered and warm!) during recess in the rain like true Oregon children. Over the years of school my child has shared so much with the rest of our family about Japanese and Japan, and all the things they've learned about our world! (Our friends in the Chinese and Spanish tracks have only had similarly high praise.)

ISP is amazing! The faculty, staff, leadership team, and community are committed to helping our children become global citizens. The mixture of language immersion with IB education is extremely impressive. There is no place like ISP.

We've navigated and supported our children for the past 10 years at the International School of Portland (ISP). Coming from varying backgrounds with a value in language immersion and cultural importance we knew that ISP, previously TIS (The International School) was the right place for our children. Both of our children---one now alumni (pre-K through 5th grade) and the other still attending---have had the privilege of being immersed across cultures, languages, and enriching backgrounds different than their own. We believe this is the core value of attending ISP to this day; a framework that strengthens cross-cultural collaboration, communication, and diversity of thought as key to social and emotional development for early learning through the 5th grade. The education, leadership, and unique culture of ISP continue to expand, challenge, and engage with families, staff, and community in ways we continue to look forward to each school year. We encourage anyone to reach out to ISP to consider the unique downtown space and its ability to establish core fluency in language (Spanish, Japanese, or Chinese tracks) yet very importantly the early development that directly provides a strong foundation for communication throughout the lifespan---across a multitude of physical, virtual and language spaces as a child grows!

I'm a parent of a 5th grader and 1st grader in Spanish tracks. My kids love the school and can't wait to get to it every day or after long breaks. Since joining, their Spanish has increased significantly and they are able to not only speak the language but read and write it proficiently too. ISP does a great job including English as part of the curriculum and it's the spoken language of PE, Arts, Music, and other subjects. Above all, I've become a true believer in the international baccalaureate program and the inquiry-based approach to learning at the school. The kind and friendly staff make it a safe and inclusive space for everyone from the Principal to everyone engaged in the school's activities. I'm grateful we had the chance to join and would recommend this school to everyone.

The teachers and the programs at TIS are incredible. The way students develop intellectually, emotionally, and socially is amazing to see. I feel like a TIS education has really provided lifelong benefits for my kids. I am already seeing this in them. TIS has been a great experience.

When looking for an elementary school, we toured many schools and spoke to as many teachers as we could. My partner and I were blown away by the kids and teachers at 'Tis. Our child showed no interest in learning a language so we were concerned about our child's transition but we could not have been more pleasantly surprised with how it went. Thank you 'Tis teachers and staff we are looking forward to the next 5 years!

My daughter has attended TIS for three years, Low-K through 1st grade in Spanish. We definitely plan to keep her there through 5th grade. The teachers and staff are all very nurturing, which is the main criterion we wanted from an early learning school. The curriculum is outstanding both the language-based and the English, and the kids also get excellent art, music and PE instruction as well. We`ve been very happy with TIS; my only complaint is that parking and driving in and out of the location can be quite challenging.

TIS is unique in the Portland area for having 3 immersion languages and IBPYP. In fact, it is one of a handful of immersion private schools in the US to offer PYP. The teachers in the languages are all native speakers, so our child has been exposed to several different cultures and dialects and her Spanish is so authentic that native speakers are surprised to learn she lives with two non-speakers. The academics are excellent, with teachers emphasizing STEM through projects and interactive education. Their commitment to diversity and inclusion is important, although limited by Portland demographics, and the Learner Profiles and teachers emphasize cultural diversity through the units of inquiry, field trips, guest speakers and homework assignments. As an institution TIS impresses me most with its commitment to visibility and communication with parents. When a new situation or problem arises, the administration does not ignore it or pretend to have all the answers; they acknowledge the issue, gather community input, and formulate a plan that can accommodate the faculty, families and community while remaining true to the schools' values.