International School for Science and Culture

The International School for Science and Culture is a tuition-free TK-8 charter school located in Costa Mesa and open to all California families. ISSAC's mission is to cultivate global citizens empowered to build a peaceful society. To accomplish this mission, ISSAC's has a three pronged curriculum consisting of 1. STREAM - ISSAC offers a strong STEM program with the addition of Reading/Writing and the Arts. 2. World Language Education - All ISSAC students learn Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. 3. Social-Emotional Learning - Students learn to consciously design their lives. Through this curriculum, ISSAC supports young people to grow with a high degree of academic, linguistic-cultur... read more The International School for Science and Culture is a tuition-free TK-8 charter school located in Costa Mesa and open to all California families. ISSAC's mission is to cultivate global citizens empowered to build a peaceful society. To accomplish this mission, ISSAC's has a three pronged curriculum consisting of 1. STREAM - ISSAC offers a strong STEM program with the addition of Reading/Writing and the Arts. 2. World Language Education - All ISSAC students learn Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. 3. Social-Emotional Learning - Students learn to consciously design their lives. Through this curriculum, ISSAC supports young people to grow with a high degree of academic, linguistic-cultural, and social-emotional competence. While one may think global citizenship primarily consists of knowing foreign languages and traveling around the world, or possibly high-level academics, at ISSAC we place at the center of global citizenship the wisdom, courage and compassion, the empathetic imagination, to understand the suffering of those in distant places. In addition to the three-pronged academic approach, ISSAC is a project-based school with six school-wide project arcs throughout the year. Through these project, on topics from human rights, and environment, to the human body, community and contribution, we encourage our students to - solve problems through critical & creative thinking, - innovate ideas, products and services for modern needs, and - to participate functionally and contributively in a diverse, global society ISSAC provides all area families, regardless of income, a new option, unique among public schools, for their child(ren)'s education, a school to provide STREAM skills, language learning, and character development for the global citizen. ISSAC is a Title I school; 68% of ISSAC students qualify for the Free and Reduced Meals Program. The need for ISSAC in our community is clear. 1. Our world is increasingly connected across diverse ethnicities, ideas, and cultures. Skill in world language communication -- Mandarin Chinese and Spanish in addition to English -- has been identified by our community as a core competence in this regard. 2. There is a need for varied educational environments that support our diverse students to achieve the academic progress of which they are capable. Given the disparity in performance in STREAM areas among American-educated children and those educated in other systems, and given that local competitiveness is in itself no longer a sufficient target for achievement, ISSAC provides effective methods and active focus on STREAM subjects, starting from our youngest learners. 3. At ISSAC, we will support our students to consciously choose to design various aspects of their character and commitment, and support them to integrate these choices into their behavior by practicing appropriate habits and actions. Thus, our students will be able to set goals and develop themselves through creating new standard practices in various domains of action, e.g. work, social, trust relationships, physical, academics, family, etc. There is a need for our students to be equipped with tools and skills that enable them to design rather than drift in this important work of self-development and, further, to begin to see their role in the development of a peaceful society. Because our young people need to have an education that prepares them along these lines, we have been working as a team of caring, committed, and well-informed parents, educators, and community members, supported by researchers and scholars who lead educational development, to lay the foundation of this Grade TK-8 school, ISSAC, with a rigorous, standards-aligned and yet joyful agenda. ISSAC provides educational programming with individualized, differentiated instruction, in smaller class sizes, ensuring personal attention to each student. We are committed to offering all families this innovative, tuition-free choice for their children to learn, achieve and be supported as future leaders in society. ISSAC's founder, Dr. Padmini Srinivasan, comes to this work with a passion for the mission of training the next generation of leaders, and a personal conviction that this mission will be accomplished. She has advanced degrees in Computer Science (M.S., Ph.D.) and Business (M.B.A.) and a decade of experience each as an Information Architect and as a Computer Science Professor. Her combination of technical and management degrees, and academic education and industry experience, enables Dr. Hands to operate with a high degree of depth and confidence in preparing our students to be effective in professional environments. She has a great desire to get our young people receptive to and ready for advanced education, particularly in technical fields. In addition, she has a passion for language, the arts, and global cultures, and has served in a number of community-building leadership roles to embrace interfaith and cultural diversity. ISSAC is supported by a deeply committed and involved Board of Directors which provides governance and policy oversight, while actively supporting the school through fundraising and operational guidance.