International Community School

Story

International Community School is a small 6-12th grade public school in the Lake Washington School District of Washington State. It has about 60 students per grade. It is part of a series of schools founded by Dr. Bruce Saari. "International" in the school's name reflects an international focus in curriculum, and it is not an International School as defined here International Schools.ICS is a choice school, for which an application must be submitted, and is not part of the Lake Washington School District middle-to-high school feeder system. All complete applications are entered into a lottery to select those who will be admitted. In the event that there is space available in excess of the applications submitted by in-district students, applications by out-of-district students are allowed. In recent years, there have been over 800 applications for the 65 or more spots available yielding a chance of less than 10% to be admitted.The school offers an integrated six year Humanities/International Studies core curriculum, as well as Art for 5 years, instead of the regular no art/LA/SS. Each year also has rigorous Science and Math classes. Additionally, students study Spanish, for at least four years, with the intention of achieving fluency. All classes in 9-12 grade are Honors or AP classes. The curriculum is fixed and the same for all students until Junior year when there is one elective, and Senior year when there are 4 electives. Every year in May students go on a theme-based Focus Week where they enrich themselves through travel or local activities, leaving "the confines of the classroom to expand their knowledge".