If my child transfers to an American school after IST, will s/he be behind, ahead or on target?

The answer to this question is, "It depends." In general terms, during the first few years your child may be slightly behind in English language areas because half the day is given over to another language. However, by the end of Junior School, IST students typically score better than their cohort at American schools when comparing to states with high academic expectations, or to other independent and private schools. Relative to Arizona, IST students are considerably further ahead in most areas due to the state's lower academic standards.

It should be noted that, while IST students will be conceptually equal to or ahead of their peers, because of the language-immersion program they might lack some English vocabulary items. This is not significant as vocabulary presents the least challenge of any area in language acquisition. Similarly, it is important realise that comparisons of students’ knowledge are not really useful, and may even be unfair, as IST students study different topics from their counterparts.