QSI International School of Bishkek

One of the oldest American accreditations, working since 1887 in more than a hundred countries and linked to the Office of Overseas Schools of the US State Department. It judges the school as an institution across twelve areas, including finances, governance, premises and student support.

What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.

An American organisation that allows a school to put the letters AP on a pupil's transcript. The permission is granted course by course and tied to a particular teacher, it has to be renewed every year, and College Board reads the course syllabus before granting it.

What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run advanced AP courses - not the school as a whole, but one by one: by subject and by teacher. Governance, safeguarding and the primary years are not part of that check. Which subjects are actually approved is visible in the ledger. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.

Advanced Placement: American advanced courses for the senior years. The exam for a course is set and marked by the College Board, not by the school. A good result is counted by American universities as a first-year course already passed, which saves a student time and money.

What this means for this school. A school does not get to call a course AP automatically: the College Board reads the course syllabus and approves it separately for every subject and every teacher, and the permission has to be renewed each year. Every approved school in the world is listed in the open AP Course Ledger, and this school's entry there stands as a line in the accreditation block above. How many courses a school is approved for, and in which subjects, the ledger does not show in its general listing. AP has no leaving certificate of its own: it sits on top of the school's main programme rather than being a separate system.

The American school programme, with the High School Diploma at the end. It usually comes together with AP courses, which the College Board stands behind, and with an American accreditation - MSA, NEASC or Cognia.

What this means for this school. The diploma is written out by the school itself: the American programme has no common leaving exam, and the content of the senior years is set by the school. Outside checking therefore rests on two things here - the accreditation of the school, and the AP exams if the school runs them.

Quality Schools International is a not-for-profit organisation of international schools, created in 1991 by its founders Duane Root and James Gilson to work with expatriate families in new countries; the organisation's first school was Tirana International School in Albania. It counts its history from 1971, when Sanaa International School opened in Sanaa in Yemen and began with four pupils. Governance runs through a board of directors of its own and a central office in Malta, where a president and a vice-president work along with departments for personnel, finance, school operations, curriculum and technology; six regional supervisors oversee the schools assigned to them. The numbers on the site differ and we give them all: the home page speaks both of 35 schools with more than 6,500 pupils of 125 nationalities and of 37 schools in 30 countries on five continents, while the history page speaks of 35 schools in 29 countries; the list of schools has 36 on-site schools plus a virtual one. Teaching is in English, the stages run from pre-school to upper secondary school, the model of mastering the material is by outcome, and the upper secondary school has AP programmes and the IB diploma.

What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.