I*School

I-School, serving the greater Lake Tahoe area and beyond, is an accredited, grade K-12 school providing individualized curriculum and personalized education for students who benefit from a non-traditional approach to learning.

We achieve this through flexibility, accountability, and innovation, adapted to your student's needs and interests. No two students follow the same path to college or career success.

Flexibility

We are in the midst of the most remarkable education revolution since the invention of the printing press. That event transformed access to knowledge and information throughout the world just as the Internet is doing today. The current industrial model of schooling, where students are educated in batches according to date of birth and not ability, is being replaced by a “mass customization” of learning that matches the ocean of incoming data to an individual’s needs and abilities. 

What is mass customization? Leveraging science and technology to suit your student's needs. Today, you can custom-order a new laptop uniquely suited to your needs among thousands of different parts – in your pajamas -- and it is on your doorstep in two days. That same technology can be used to assess a person’s innate abilities and customize a learning program unique to that child, designed to develop strengths and shore up weaknesses.       

We are also flexible in scheduling, starting with being open year-round because we believe learning never stops. Students arrive at 9:45 well rested and ready to go, because research shows that students need that extra sleep to process what they learned the day before. 

Student schedules are individualized. Some work best from home and come in once a week to meet with teachers at our Carson City location. Some are in every day for 5-6 hours and finish homework before leaving. Some get all their work done by Thursday so they can work at a job or ski on Friday.  We are open year-round and closed for federal holidays.

Students flexibly juggle vacations, athletic competitions, surgeries, overseas study, camps, and college tours – all without falling behind, Skyping with us from Japan to New Zealand, Brazil and Spain.

Accountability

Nearly half of today’s US high school graduates going to college need remedial English, math or both. In Washoe County, just one student in seven was "college or career ready" according to ACT testing reported in the Reno Gazette Journal.  In an age where nearly the entire sum of world knowledge is in our cell phones, remedial anything is unacceptable. And those are just the kids going to college, and for two subjects: English and math.

We determine where your student is today academically – whether profoundly gifted, learning disabled, or somewhere in between – and chart out a course to that student’s academic and career success.  We choose from hundreds of well-researched core courses, and even design our own – including videography, architecture, neuroscience, computer skills, entrepreneurship, and many more according to student interest.

In addition to core courses in English, math, science, and social studies, students learn civics, digital literacy, study skills, and a wide variety of electives.

We meet with you regularly to review progress towards goals and adjust as needed, so you can follow the ongoing quantitative and qualitative progress as your student excels in a learning environment created just for them. You have our email and phone numbers for questions, and we respond every day of the year.

We are a competency-based program, which means that students do not progress until they have demonstrated basic mastery of each topic. This is in contrast to the traditional “seat-based” method of measuring education by attendance, whereby schools track the number of hours a student is in school and pays schools according to attendance, and not actual learning).

On the other hand, mastery does not always mean an A; it means mastered to the best of that student’s abilities. To work hard and get a solid C in a difficult subject is a worthy goal for many students. 

And even a pandemic does not slow us down.  Our students are mastering their work and graduating on time despite significant societal disruption.

Innovation

The wealth of learning tools available is exploding in both quantity and quality. We are constantly researching and reviewing the best products for learning math, vocabulary, writing, science, history – and sometimes replacing our favorites as we go if we find something even more effective. We attend education conferences, network with other mastery-based schools, and support our staff’s professional development. And we listen to our parents, whose suggestions lead us down new paths of discovery. We love a challenge, so bring us yours.

This is "School Your Way." So please, give generously and help the dream become a reality for our motivated and deserving students.  Your investment in our kids' education will be returned manyfold.