Anyone know what is going on with Kaohsiung American School (KAS)?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
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Go for it!

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can you refresh my memory?

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Isn’t this about endorsements? The talk I hear is about how the schools officially has endorsed some students to US universities, where some of those students has been far below expectations. Many good students but a few that have caused the reputation of these schools endorsements in question. Just what I heard from a parent that have kids in Taipei TAS, so can’t verify if correct or not

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KAS call it DEIJ.

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What exactly do “White Anti-Bias Educators” do on a daily basis? Is this a class students take? Is it a side duty or full time position ?

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I doubt DEI has anything to do with an increase or decrease of enrollment in any of these schools. I would surmise that it’s economic factors, reputability factors and also whether foreigners are moving to Taiwan , I hazard a guess very few foreign families are moving to Taiwan these days , mostly we got our big bad neighbour to blame for that. I know that in TAS they depend on local people but still that doesn’t help.

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It’s mainly students from wealthy Taiwanese families who make up the enrollment. Often with quite traditional values. Often Christian.

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Checked it out, pretty mild and generic compared to TAS.

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Doh I’m an idiot.
I spent much of last week talking about Taiwan population decline.:zany_face:

Having fewer kids is probably a trend for rich people too.

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I wonder if the recent conscription changes have any impact in enrollment for these schools.

Many of these families have the option to go abroad, and they might do so for high school since before 15 a male can leave without having to do military service (assuming they aren’t coming back full time before 35).

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Where is this data or insight that “most” are rejecting it? I haven’t seen any. Mine is a TAS family for 9 years and counting and I was a member of the JEDI and TASCC committees for 4 years. I do not see everything, but I am surprised to hear that.

It is true that the school is on its 3rd Head of School since Dr Hennessy left. But Hennessy’s direct replacement left abruptly (a year earlier than a scheduled handover) and I think the interim Head of School, who filled in while we waited for the current one to come onboard, was great. There do seem to be a lot of new faces in the administration, and in some ways this may reflect the current Head of School building his team for the longterm

This is now called DEIB - B for Belonging

The webpage doesn’t seem to be updated yet (it still says DEIJ) Equity & Belonging - Taipei American School (Yikes, that’s me at the bottom of that page next to the NYPL sign!)

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What’s your theory on why enrollment is down and why they have to do more marketing and community outreach recently?

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I have no theory because I am not aware that it is down. I have had no need to inquire about it - so it certainly could be down. My awareness is limited to my kid’s grade level - families leave, new families come - and that’s only because I notice who leave and who join the parent LINE group chat (which does not include every parent in our grade anyway, so I don’t know if someone who joined is a new family unless they introduce themselves that way).

As I already mentioned, I have heard about some families pulling out their sons at the end of G8 and G9, and that’s obviously because of military conscription. The families that I personally know who have left in recent years did so because they were being cycled back to their home countries or because their youngest kid graduated. And I know that there was an influx of AIT families in the last 3 years - partly because I heard about this myself at a community meeting at AIT a few years ago and partly because many of my son’s closest friends these past few years seem to be new kids at school from AIT families,

I am in the PTA this school year and the monthly PTA board meeting starts with an update by the Head of School, who raises things that have been happening at the school. I think I have only missed 2 meetings so far – and I have not heard of enrollment as an issue. This doesn’t mean that enrollment isn’t down, just that it hasn’t been a topic at the PTA so far, which is why I asked what data you have about this.

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