The International Schools Review Forum

Has anyone heard of this school in China? Any thoughts? I know it is not a top tier school.

More like the bottom of tier 3. The city is pretty boring, and its not really close to anything. The compensation package from salary to housing is all pretty low. The kids are respectful enough, but they arent exactly the shiniest apples in the barrel. The school is full of admins who shouldnt be there, and most of the faculty isnt any better. If you want to live and work as a local teacher would this is about as close to the experience as youd get without going full native.

If your desperate to just get your 2 years of IB experience and not have to work too hard for it, then its an option of last resort. You can save some money because outside traveling there isnt anything else to really spend money on anyway.

Given your insight, I have to assume you used to work there.

No, never was a teacher there or worked there.

and that pretty much sums up the issue that has consumed the forum for the past two weeks.

I don't need to have my feet on the campus to be aware of a schools reputation, or to have been exposed to others experiences about a school. That said I have been on he campus, just haven't worked there.

[quote="mysharona"]and that pretty much sums up the issue that has consumed the forum for the past two weeks.[/quote]
Yep. People are looking for first hand accounts, not second hand hearsay.

[quote="markholmes"][quote="mysharona"]and that pretty much sums up the issue that has consumed the forum for the past two weeks.[/quote]
Yep. People are looking for first hand accounts, not second hand hearsay.[/quote]

Really? When most people ask for information about a school, you think they only want to hear from people that have officially worked at a school?

Possibly, but I would prefer to hear any information available, consider the source (first, second, third hand) and then weigh how much credence I give it.

Id prefer 1st hand information myself, but Ill also take collateral information as well. Someone in beijing doesnt have to have worked at every campus in the metroplex to be informed about the other schools. I also wouldnt ignore information from an informed source. Some of the best experiences and advice comes from those who dodged a bullet about a bad school. All that said being said, i want the context of whatever experience, information or expertise is being offered, I can make my own conclusions then.


Postal script:

I have been on the Jiangxi HS campus.

an

Fair enough, I just dont read anything in my original post that could be misconstrued as coming from a position of having actually worked there. I responded with very general impressions, that were from a very general experience.

We dont have 'levels of credibility' in our resources, like

Level 1: General Research matters that can be readily verified.

Level 2: First hand experience as a employee with direct knowledge of the issue.

Level 3: First hand experience that is limited or of an indirect experience.

Level 4: Second hand experience from a known relibale/trusted source.

Level 5: Second Hand or lessor experiences that are of unknown reliability.

My main issues are that first this is a free and anonymous source, and any such distinction in material or information between accounts posted on this site suggest an illusion of validity that just doesnt exist. The factors of creditability and anonymity are dichotomcly opposed to one another. The more you have of one, the less you have of the other.

Second, any such system is not self authenticating, just because a poster claims a certain level of creditability doesnt mean its either objective, or authentic.

Third, usually the most questionable experiences are also the most negative, because they mainly fall into experiences of the minority, and often in a very small minority. In this case for example, very few teachers are often let go and based on year, and knowing the school it wouldnt be very hard or difficult for an admin reading this forum to conclude who the likely teacher is. This means the teacher either in being accurate hopes that the post remains unseen by school admins, or the poster has to obscure the details of the experience to maintain the veil of anonymity. I wouldnt want anyone to sacrifice their career for the sake of getting the truth out.


I'll keep that suggestion in mind though for the future though.