About AISL
DEPARTMENT OF STATE OFFICE OF OVERSEAS SCHOOLS
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF LAGOS
Behind 1004 Federal Estates, Victoria Island
Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: 234-1-261-7793/4610986/4610987
Fax: 234-1-261-7794
E-mail: information@aislagos.com
Web: www.aislagos.org
Superintendent: Mr. Thomas P. Shearer (tshearer@aislagos.com)
2008-2009
The American International School of Lagos (AISL) is a private, coeducational school, which offers an American educational program for students of all nationalities in grades pre-kindergarten through grade 11. The School was founded in 1964 and is supported by school-to-school partnership with Tacoma Public Schools in Tacoma, Washington and the Klein Independent School District, in Houston, Texas. The August to June school year divided into trimesters for elementary students and semesters for secondary students. AISL is an IBO World school.
Organization: The School is governed by a 9-member Board of Directors, 8 of whom are elected for 3 year terms by the American International School of Lagos Association, the sponsors of the School, with one seat reserved for an appointee of the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria. Membership in the Association is automatically conferred on the parents or guardians of children enrolled in the School.
Curriculum: The program is an upgraded curriculum of an American Educational Institution. The elementary (PreK-5) curriculum materials, instruction, and assessment program are developed using a U.S. curriculum development model based on national standards, and each subject area is reviewed every 5 years. Instruction is in English. The School does provide ELL services. Instructional technology skills are integrated into core instruction. Special Courses include IT, French, P.E., music (instrumental grade 5) Art, African Studies and Library. The elementary school administers the ITBS as an annual standardized assessment. The secondary curriculum (grades 6-11) has been developed using U.S. national standards and the International Baccalaureate rubrics. The school has been expanded to grade 11 in 2008 with grade 12 to be included in 2009 with the first graduating class scheduled for commencement in June 2010. The high school will teach the International Baccalaureate curriculum and student will be able to earn an IB diploma. The high school students are assessed annually using the standardized ITED. Grade 10 and 11 students are required to take the PSAT.
Faculty: In the 2008-2009 school year, there are 65 full-time, including a full curriculum coordinator and 2 counselors. The faculty includes 42 U.S. citizens, 7 host-country nationals, and 15 third-country nationals, 70% of the AISL faculty members hold a Masters Degree. One faculty member holds a PH.D. All faculty members are certificated with a minimum of two years of experience. Enrollment: At the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, enrollment is 753. Of the total, 234 were U.S. citizens, 91 host country nationals, and 428 third-country nationals, 19 students are dependents of the U.S. government direct-hire or contract employee, 199 of U.S. business and foundation employees, and 18 other private U.S. employees.
Facilities: The main school building is situated on an 8 acres’ campus, a 3-level structure with 40 teaching stations of about 800 square feet each and 7 smaller instructional areas. Specialist teaching areas include an Art studio, Drama classroom, Technology lab with Internet connectivity, and three science laboratories (for Elementary, Middle and high school). An additional annex was built to accommodate the secondary program. The building includes 9 additional classrooms with expansion planned for next year as well. There are two music instruction rooms with 2 adjacent private practice rooms. Each classroom has at least two networked computer workstations, and there are 6 portable computer carts containing a full classroom set of laptops with wireless networking capacity for different areas of the campus.