International Academic School
Abu Dhabi, UAE · est. 1994 · PrivateInternational Academic School is an American school in Abu Dhabi which, in the words of its chairman, has been running since 1994. The programme is American and rests on the standards of the state of Virginia: the school takes the Profile of a Virginia Graduate with its five C's - critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, collaboration and citizenship - while English and mathematics follow the common American standards and science follows NGSS. The stages run from kindergarten to grade 12 and end with the American high school diploma, and the school writes that the diploma is accepted by every university and college in the United States and is increasingly recognised elsewhere, with the SAT and advanced placement tests as the next step. Teaching is in English; French is taught from grade 4 to grade 8, and Arabic and Islamic studies follow the guidance of the Ministry of Education, with the school calling them its two most important subjects. Elementary school is a five-year phase from grade 1 to grade 5 and high school a four-year phase from grade 9 to grade 12, where English, mathematics, science with laboratory, history and social studies, health and PE, Arabic and fine arts with technology are compulsory and two electives are added each year. Reports go to parents three times a year. The day is a short one: kindergarten from 8:00 to 12:30, grades 1 to 12 from 8:00 to 14:00. Classes hold no more than 25 children in kindergarten and no more than 30 above it. Buses run to all locations, and the uniform is compulsory and bought from the school.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cognia · accreditationCIS · accreditationNEASC · accreditationCollege Board · authorised programmeWhat stands behind each entry
The widest-reaching American accreditation: some forty thousand schools in over a hundred countries. It accredits both individual schools and whole school systems. It also sells a paid membership with no inspection behind it, and that membership is often passed off as accreditation.
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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What this status would mean. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The school is not in the organisation's register: the status comes from the school's own words.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
What this status would mean. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The school is not in the organisation's register: the status comes from the school's own words.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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. Authorisation here runs a year at a time: the register lists the school for the 2025-2026 school year.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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.