“BASIS Curriculum Schools are founded on the belief that every child deserves an opportunity to excel academically, and that every child can.”

— Olga Block & Dr. Michael Block, co-founders, BASIS Curriculum Schools

About BASIS Global

Our story began in 1998 when Dr. Michael and Olga Block, world-class economists and academicians, found that the traditional American education system had fallen far behind the best of those found in Europe and Asia. While they enjoyed the spirit and creativity in the American classrooms they saw, they also found that low expectations of American students led to a lack of curricular substance. So they created a brand new academic program for a brand new school in Tucson, Arizona, and the BASIS Curriculum and BASIS Curriculum Schools were born. They quickly discovered that students did not falter but instead thrived when challenged, rising to the levels of, and then surpassing, the best students in the world.

The Blocks developed a formula for success and have been refining it over the past two decades, proving that any student can achieve and sustain top educational outcomes when challenged with a high-achieving course of study taught by subject-matter experts and supported by a culture of excellence. What began as a single campus in Tucson has significantly grown. The BASIS Curriculum Schools network now serves more than 30,000 students in 50 schools, in the United States, China, and Europe.

The BASIS Curriculum Schools network has grown to include 33 public charter schools in three states and the District of Columbia in the United States; eight high-achieving independent schools in New York, California, and Virginia, in the U.S.; eight international schools, including five in China and two in Prague, Czech Republic; and one bilingual school in China. All BASIS Curriculum Schools are tied together by the belief that achievement comes from the world-class BASIS Curriculum, as taught by excellent teachers, and backed by hard work and accountability.

In 2014, the BASIS Curriculum Schools network began expanding the scope of its revolutionary educational operations – including recruiting teachers from overseas and hosting international students on exchange programs. Soon after, BASIS Global was born – developing and opening schools using the BASIS Curriculum at locations in China.

In the spring of 2015, BASIS Global announced that it would open BASIS International School Shenzhen that fall, serving students in PreK to grade 12; From the outset, interest was sky-high, and students and families from Asia, as well as American and European ex-pats, flocked to the new institution with the tried-and-true world-class program. It was merely the first step for BASIS Global, just as BASIS Tucson turned out to be a first step for the BASIS Curriculum Schools network late last century.

Soon after its opening, BASIS International School Shenzhen won popularity and praises among many parents. With the success of its first school in China, BASIS Global quickly grew to a network of six schools in a few years:

Established Fall 2017:
BASIS International School Guangzhou (PreK – grade 12, grade 5 – grade 12 for boarding and day students)

Established Fall 2018:
BASIS International School Hangzhou (PreK – grade 12)
BASIS International Park Lane Harbour (grade 5 – grade 12 for boarding and day students)

Established Fall 2019:
BASIS International School Nanjing (PreK – grade 12)

Established Fall 2020:
BASIS Bilingual School Shenzhen (PreK – grade 12)

BASIS International Schools are a part of the worldwide BASIS Curriculum Schools network. For our students, this means they learn in an environment that is a portal to the world. In our classrooms, students are able to collaborate with their peers across the United States and China to solve problems, create and share new ideas, and understand the world, how to change it, and their place in it.

The aim of every BASIS Curriculum School — to empower students to achieve at globally competitive levels with a transformative K-12 academic program — has not changed. Indeed, BASIS Curriculum Schools is still redefining education and leading the world in producing remarkable learning results and student outcomes. BASIS Global is proud to be a part of one of the world’s most successful education networks, with such an extraordinary vision for educating students.

The BASIS Curriculum

In every grade, teachers focus on the development of two fundamental skills: the organization of complex tasks, and the productive management of student time. Great teachers inspire a student’s determination to overcome problems, to master complex tasks and concepts, to establish the habits of disciplined critical inquiry, and to develop an interest for lifelong learning.

The BASIS Curriculum Is Unique in Several Respects:

  • Our courses are taught by teachers who are masters of their content areas, even in the primary grades. Many of our teachers have at least one advanced degree and/or significant professional experience in their field.
  • Our students work at least a grade level ahead of their peers in all subjects and take a collection of unique advanced courses, including economics, engineering, classics, and logic.
  • Our innovative integration of courses and content supports an accelerated pace. Primary students, for example, learn humanities, math, science, and fine arts, and study the interdisciplinary connections between their courses. This approach teaches students that the ability to combine information and methods among various content areas is a powerful tool necessary to understand and change the world.
  • Key concepts and skills are repeated from PreK through Advanced Placement® (AP) courses and beyond. As students advance through our program, the connections they make within their subjects promote critical-thinking skills and deep understanding. For example, students in grades 6 through 8 take biology, physics, and chemistry. This structure of reinforcement and advancement of content—a “mastery of the basics”—prepares students to excel in these AP courses early in their high school years.
  • Accelerated academic content is enhanced by focused instruction and support in organization, time management, and study skills so that students learn to take personal responsibility for their educational success.
  • Our support for English Language Learners (ELL) is designed to meet the varying needs and promote the academic success of our students.

This BASIS Curriculum offers the education students need to lead the global economy. It is rigorous and accelerated, and supported by knowledgeable and caring faculty. Above all, BASIS Curriculum students have the best possible educational foundation to be independent and resourceful problem solvers, in whatever their futures hold.