The International Schools Review Forum

I hope this isn't too big of a question...
There doesn't seem to be a ton of information out there about schools in Eastern Europe. I've read some old posts on ISR, and it seems like a good place to end up, even if it is a smaller market and therefore more competitive.

Are there any particularly good or bad schools? Is the list of CEESA and/or DOS-assisted schools a good indicator of school quality? What would you say is the best school in each part of Eastern Europe?

For clarity's sake, let's use About.com's groupings of Eastern European nations.

So... What is your impression of the best school/s in:

The Baltics: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
Central Europe: Czech Rep., Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia
The Balkans & Southeast: Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia
"Eastern" Eastern Europe: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova

Anyone?

Thats a REALLY long list, each one of those could be a topic thread (and a lengthy one) all by itself.

The DOS, CEESE and COBIS list are good starting points, most of these regions only have one or two real international schools to begin with. In SA there are 17 schools in the whole of the EE, and most of them are DOS schools (top tier) or QSI schools (bottom tier).

My experience is that EE is a blend of Asias Economic/Political society and Europe's cultural traditions/history. Its a blend (not the best) basically of communism and socialism in environment that heavily values tradition.

Makes sense. I was hoping, since there are so few schools, that people could say the top one or two schools in each of those four regions. But it seems like you're saying DOS schools are good, QSI schools are less good, and there aren't enough schools for there to be another group. Right?

Anyone else want to weigh in?

I'm just trying to a feel for the region, I guess.

You can also look based at membership in an organization like Council of International Schools in parts of Eastern Europe you are interested in. While membership in the organization is no guarantee of quality, it's not a bad place to start.

http://portal.cois.org/WCM/CIS/Director ... hools.aspx

I think this is a fairly good resource to look at international schools in a number of regions, though I see some schools I would avoid working at.

@BookshelfAmy

You worded that very well, basically theres a top, a bottom and no middle.