Taipei Adventist American School
Taipei Adventist American School (TAAS) is a private foreign-registered elementary school with an American-based curriculum located on Yangming Shan (陽明山) in the Shihlin District of Taipei City, Taiwan.[1] It is administered under the Northern Asia-Pacific Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.[2]
| Taipei Adventist American School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 25°06′33″N 121°33′12″E |
| Information | |
| Type | Private Church-Affiliated |
| Established | 1955 |
| Principal | Elliot Fullmer, MA |
| Faculty | 28 |
| Grades | K – 8 |
| Enrollment | 120 |
| Campus | Suburban, 5 acres (20,000 m2) |
| Color(s) | Blue, white, and gold |
| Mascot | The Messengers |
| Tuition | NT$ 420,000 for K-G4 NT$ 468,000 for G5-G8 |
| Website | www.taas-taiwan.com |
History
Taipei Adventist American School had its beginnings in 1955 as a small elementary school for overseas missionaries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who mostly came from North America to pioneer the SDA mission work in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. At first, the school was located in the basement of the Taipei City Adventist Church across from Da’an Park on XinSheng S. Road. Over time this space grew too small to provide the right kind of outdoor space that American parents expected. Sometime in the 1960s the school was moved to the Taiwan Adventist Hospital compound on Bade Road across from where the Taipei arena currently stands. It remained there until 1986. At this time, the school, needing more room for the modest increase in the number of students that were desiring an American Education, again decided it was best to move to a larger location.
In 1984, the school board voted to build another new school building out of the city on Yangming Shan. The Adventist Church already owned a few large pieces of land on Yangming Shan where they had built a compound where many of the Taiwan Adventist Hospital Doctors and other missionary families lived. The western style compound had six homes and two large grassy areas for play and gardening. By 1986, a three-level building was constructed with two apartments downstairs and a fenced-in play area on the third floor, with classrooms, a library, offices and bathrooms on the second floor.
In 1991, the school was registered with the Taiwan government as a foreign school for international students. This allowed any student with a foreign passport to attend the school. As the population of the school grew from 15 children of missionaries to over 120 students, renovations took place to accommodate the growing size. Over successive remodels during the 1990s and 2000s, the school transformed to three levels of classrooms with grades one to four on the third floor, grades five to seven on the second floor, and eighth grade, administrative offices, work space, storage, and a technology lab on the first floor. In 2010 and 2016, the school converted one of the compound's houses into more classroom and work space by remodeling it for Chinese and ESL classrooms, learning support offices, music rooms, and a multipurpose kitchen work space.[3]
Campus
The current 5-acre (20,000 m2) campus consists of:
- A main building with eight classrooms with one grade per class room, one ELL pullout classroom, two administrative offices, two auxiliary staff offices, a computer lab, and a science lab.
- An English Language Learning (ELL) building with one ELL homeroom class, and one classroom for students to be pulled out from regular classes for extra English help, two Chinese language classrooms, one learning support staff office, and a large music room.
- A covered gym area for Physical Education.
- One large open grass field with adjacent play ground.
- A large grass soccer/sports field.
- Five western style faculty homes.
- An adjacent property with a large three story 100 year old traditional farmhouse that holds a multi-purpose meeting room, offices, a guest room, a board room and two faculty houses.
Academics
TAAS specializes in holistic individualized American-style instruction in a way not possible in a larger school setting. As part of the Adventist education system TAAS focuses on intellectual, spiritual, physical, and social education. TAAS believes that in a smaller family-type setting with a lower student/teacher ratio that not only is learning benefited, but social development is also enhanced. In fact students consistently score 12 months or 1 grade level ahead of their American peers.[4] Children that are part of the SDA education system become more independent and do better academically because the “teachers have higher expectations of students and encourage them to take hard classes. They are more likely to support the notion that ‘God doesn’t make junk’ and that students are often capable of achieving more than they realize."[5]
Because of the western-style education students are encouraged to take responsibilities for their own learning apart from the pressures of the teacher or other authorities. Students learn how to act independently and act cooperatively. Christian morals and values are another integral part of the education system. Integrity, honesty, respect for others, and responsibility are cultivated.
TAAS offers learning support services for children with mild to significant need.
Almost 100 percent of TAAS graduates continue their education at another American-based curriculum institution either in Taiwan or abroad. The vast majority choose to continue at The Primacy Collegiate Academy, Taipei American School, Taipei European School, or another school in the United States.
TAAS is accredited by the Adventist Accrediting Association.
Student body
The combined K-8 school enrollment is approximately 120. The student body is made up of 17 different nationalities with the majority being American, Canadian, Korean, Japanese, and Philippine, respectively. TAAS abides by the Republic of China Foreign Schools Law, which requires all international schools to only admit students who hold non-ROC passports.
See also
References
- "Taiwan Ministry of Education list of foreign schools". Taiwan Ministry of Education.
- "Adventist yearbook". Seventh-day Adventist Church Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research.
- "TAAS History". Taipei Adventist American School. Archived from the original on 2014-03-18.
- Kido, Elissa. "For real education reform, take a cue from the Adventists". The Christian Science Monitor.
- "Study of Education Outcomes Places Adventist Schools Significantly Ahead of Public Schools". Adventist Today. Archived from the original on 2014-03-21.
- Lin, Mei-Chun. "Life in Taiwan: Meeting the Educational Needs of Expat Families. TAS and TES are the biggest and best-known, but in fact Taiwan has a total of 19 international schools – and not all of them are in Taipei and not all teach in English". American Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 2009-11-02.