A PERSONAL NOTE FROM MS. HEAD
We've just completed the first quarter of the academic year, and previous years would have seen this back-to-school edition of Headlines already delivered to your email inboxes in late September. But almost nothing about this year's return to school has been traditional with one notable exception - the steadfast commitment of our faculty and staff to deliver truly distinct academics no matter the extenuating circumstances, even when that set of circumstances includes an ongoing pandemic.
When I consider the effort made to re-open ISI in August following its forced closure the March before, what our community has accomplished together is a true marvel. And while we've just confirmed our first case of coronavirus involving a student as I am drafting this message, it is clear that our COVID-Ready Campuses initiative, launched this summer as a part of our Return Itinerary for the Academic Year 2020-2021, is working to keep our community safe and healthy thanks to nearly a dozen new policies and new infrastructure.
Unrelenting as the pandemic's pressures have been, we couldn't let it perturb our progress on several fronts. Chief among them, the ONE ISI Capital Campaign to create a unified campus has reached another milestone. I hope everyone in our community will save the date on October 23 at 2:00 p.m. to join in a livestream event to mark the start of construction on the new Chen Family Lower School.
We've also been able to significantly advance on elements of our strategic operations plan for the new decade, which was published in January before the pandemic. A new priority in the plan, which is a living document subject to new considerations and inputs based on our school community's needs, is the creation of a Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce that is working to create our institution's first Equity Statement. The Equity Statement will inform our operations for so many years to come.
Academically, I'm proud to report that our Class of 2020 students continued our institution's trailblazing success in the International Baccalaureate. Over the summer, their reported IB Diploma Programme results again met the global average, despite most schools globally reserving the IB framework for only their top five percent or fewer of students while we at ISI offer it to all students. Further, our students' pass rate of 70% on the Bilingual Diploma is triple the world average. I'm certain you share my awe of our students' performance, particularly for them having done it amid a pandemic.
Beyond these vital developments, there is so much to look forward to as the academic year continues, with the ongoing development and growth of our students at the heart of it all.