This year, the International School of Louisiana turns ten years old.
Our journey began in 1999 with just a few rented rooms in a church and a new vision for public education in New Orleans. We wanted to give children of Southeast Louisiana the keys to unlocking the world, to offer them the gift of language: not just words, sentences or phrases but also understanding, appreciation and experience. We wanted to offer them a challenging curriculum in French or Spanish and a school environment that fosters social, emotional, artistic, physical development.
Our dream for visionary, tuition-free education has become a reality.
In 9 short years we expanded our school from two small kindergarten classes to more than 500 students in grades kindergarten through eighth. Our teachers and staff come from twenty countries, bringing their diverse cultures, language, and teaching methods to the classroom. For the last six years, our public school students have consistently exceeded both state and parish benchmarks on annual standardized tests.
In 2007 ISL was named a national “Charter School of the Year” by the Center for Education Reform, the only Louisiana charter school to receive this honor. In 2009 we added Mandarin Chinese to our middle school curriculum and graduated our first class of eighth graders. As our first graduating class head off into their futures, we know they are well equipped with knowledge of multiple languages and more importantly, respect for diversity in their community.
In our tenth year we hope to surpass the standards we have set and continue to lead the transformation of education in New Orleans.
