Welcome to Taipei American School where unparalleled opportunities for academic excellence, artistic expression, and athletic involvement await each child. Our challenging and diverse programs offer the best of American and international education with a global perspective. Students learn to understand themselves and the world around them as they prepare to accept global responsibilities in an increasingly interconnected world. It is our deeply held conviction that the rigorous academics, exceptional artistic opportunities, and comprehensive athletic offerings must go hand in hand with our equally strong commitment to developing confident, caring, moral young people of good character who can, and will, make a positive difference anywhere and everywhere in the world. Taipei American School students learn to adapt to change. They learn to imagine change. And they learn to implement change with compassion and creativity in a complex global environment.

Our school has aspired to these goals and served the Taiwan community since 1949. We are proud of our reputation for excellence within the international school community world-wide. Our website provides information about our various programs and offers a glimpse into this vibrant, joyful community of learners. At the heart of that community are the inspired teachers whose rigorous, dynamic classrooms reflect both intellectual rigor and pedagogical innovation. What cannot be easily captured electronically are the love and care that animate our classrooms, our practice studios, and our athletic fields. Glance at the student projects included in this site. Browse through our Alumni section and feel the pride and passion our graduates express so eloquently. Enter the parent arena and be confident in the important presence of parents who participate at unprecedented levels. Their involvement in school life enriches our community on a daily basis. And, finally, read the many postings from our Board of Trustees. Elected directly by the community in order to serve the community, the Taipei American School Board of Directors gives of its time and talents to assure continuous improvement of programs and services for all our children.

Learning goals are primarily articulated through subject-specific K-12 standards and benchmarks articulated at K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 grade intervals. Guiding us in the formulation of our written curriculum is the Understanding by Design (UbD) model, which we have adapted to meet our needs. In addition to the standards and benchmarks, then, our learning goals also include Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, and Content Knowledge and Skills. Moreover, we seek to utilize a broad range of assessment types in order to more fully represent the range and degree of student understanding.

About Taiwan:
The island of Taiwan, shaped roughly like a tobacco leaf, is 240 miles long from tip to tip and 85 miles wide at it's broadest point. It is located approximately 100 miles off the coast of southeastern China and between Japan and the Philippines on a line running northeast to southwest. Its area is just under 14,000 square miles or about the same as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined.

The climate is sub-tropical with average temperatures ranging from just under 71 F (22 C) in the north to nearly 76 F (24 C) in the south. The languages spoken are Chinese in the Mandarin, Amoy, Taiwanese, and Hakka dialects. English and Japanese are also widely spoken. Aborigines have inhabited Taiwan since prehistoric times. The Dutch and Spanish came to the island in the seventeenth century. Japanese occupied the island from 1895 to 1945. The present government was established January 1, 1912 after the fall of the Ching dynasty on the mainland.

Hills and mountains cover two-thirds of the island which has sixty-two mountains over 10,000 feet high. The highest, Yu-shan (13,114 feet), is the loftiest peak in Northeast Asia. The principal cities are Taipei, Kaoshiung, Tainan, Taichung, and Keelung. The population of Taiwan exceeds 21 million. Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, is located at the northern most tip of the island. It is a modern city, teeming with more than four million people. The city retains much of the cultural environment of ancient China, but it is also representative of the new and more western way of oriental life.