Basis International School Shenzhen

WHAT WE DO

BASIS.ed™ managed schools offer students something no other school does: An education that prepares them according to the highest, most rigorous international standards. Our schools have been ranked consistently among the best schools in the United States — and the world.

A LITTLE ABOUT US

Most private schools base their promotional materials on a storied history of prestige. At BASIS International School Shenzhen, we do not have a long and illustrious past; instead we have a reputation for results. In fact, assessments of the BASIS.ed Curriculum have demonstrated that our students perform at a higher level than students in traditional American private schools and at a much higher level than all of the students in many countries. The BASIS.ed culture has prepared numerous students to take successfully the next step in their academic careers and beyond. We have been making history in education with our schools in the United States, and we are excited to begin our international history in Shenzhen.

OUR STORY

Our story began in 1998 when Dr. Michael and Olga Block, world-class economists and academicians, found that the traditional American education system had fallen far behind the best of those found in Europe and Asia. While they enjoyed the spirit and creativity in the American classrooms they saw, they also found that low expectations of American students led to a lack of curricular substance. So they created a brand new school in Tucson, Arizona, and BASIS was born. They quickly discovered that students did not falter but instead thrived when challenged, rising to the levels of, and then surpassing, the best students in the world.

They developed a formula for success and have been refining it over the last 17 years, proving that any student can become a great student when challenged with a proper course of study taught by subject-matter experts and supported by a culture of excellence. What began as a single campus in Tucson has significantly grown. BASIS.ed now provides the curriculum and teachers to five entities: BASIS Schools, Inc., BDC, A Public Charter School, BTX Schools Inc., BASIS Independent Schools, Inc., and BASIS Global, LLC.

BASIS Schools, Inc. holds the charter for BASIS public schools in Arizona, BDC, A Public Charter School, Inc. holds the charter for a BASIS public charter school in Washington D.C., and BTX Schools Inc. retains the charter for BASIS public charter schools in Texas. BASIS Independent Schools, Inc. currently operates two private schools, located in Silicon Valley and Brooklyn, with a third opening in northern Virginia in 2016. So far, BASIS.ed manages a system of 17 schools in the United States and one international school tied together by the belief that achievement comes from a world-class curriculum and excellent teachers backed by hard work and accountability.

Today, our students are among the best ranked and acclaimed in the world, as noted in Amanda Ripley’s book “The Smartest Kids in the World (and How They Got That Way)” as well in in countless rankings, from The Washington Post to U.S. News and World Report, among many others. Now the BASIS family extends outside of the United States, with our first school in beautiful Shenzhen, China.

In 2014, BASIS.ed began expanding the scope of our revolutionary educational operations – including recruiting teachers from overseas, and hosting international students on exchange programs. Soon after, BASIS Global was born – undertaking the entirety of BASIS.ed’s overseas operations, and developing and operating schools using the BASIS.ed academic program at locations outside of the U.S. In the spring of 2015, BASIS Global announced that it would open BASIS International School Shenzhen that fall; from the outset, interest was sky-high, and students and families from Asia, as well as American and European ex-pats, flocked to the new institution with the tried-and-true world-class program. It is merely a first step for BASIS Global, just as our Tucson school turned out to be a first step for BASIS late last century.

The mission of every BASIS school — to empower students to achieve at globally competitive levels with a transformative K-12 academic program — has not changed. Likewise, the mission of BASIS.ed is still to establish and support the best schools in the world. BASIS Global is proud to be a part of each of these successful visions of educating students.

OUR MISSION

The mission of the BASIS International School Shenzhen is to raise the standards of our students’ learning to the highest level in the world.

The BASIS International School Shenzhen culture originates one truth: that there is no substitute for hard work and persistence. Our faculty nurtures an atmosphere of learning that, while rigorous, is also supportive and enjoyable. Our students are comfortable in their own skin. Their days are spent collaborating in an intellectually invigorating culture.