Kang Chiao International School

A large private bilingual school in Xindian aimed at Taiwanese families targeting overseas universities, with IB MYP and DP plus AP available across the Xiugang grade 7 to 12 campus.

Kang Chiao was founded in 2002 and the Xiugang Campus on Huacheng Road runs grades 7 to 12 with around 1,100 students. It holds WASC accreditation and IB authorisation for both MYP and the Diploma. Sister campuses include the K-6 Qingshan site and the larger Linkou campus opened in 2017. Sport, music and the AEAP-style enrichment offer are unusually broad for Taiwan, including canoe polo, NASA Space Camp and Model UN.

The student body is overwhelmingly Taiwanese, taught bilingually in English and Mandarin. Families pick KCIS for the academic intensity, the rigorous bilingual track and the IB and AP diploma options that open US, UK and Hong Kong universities. The competition for places is real and the workload is heavy. Forumosa threads describe wildly varying experiences depending on teacher and grade, which is the usual pattern at large bilingual schools where quality scales unevenly.

• Multi-campus Taiwanese-owned bilingual school operating Xindian, Linkou, Hsinchu and Xiugang sites, with IB MYP/DP and AP at Xiugang.
• Parents and former students describe a split between elementary and high school: kindergarten and primary in Taipei reported as engaging and child-friendly; secondary draws sharper criticism over administration and pace.
• Several students and a teacher's spouse describe Kang Chiao as not true English immersion despite international branding. One student said the majority of teachers leave because of the administration; the school is also called money-hungry over mandatory trip clothing and add-on fees.
• Location flagged as inconvenient. The Xiugang campus is described as 'far, not in Taipei at all', with 40-plus minute commutes from southern Taipei.
• Salaries draw teachers in, but staff turnover and administrative friction recur across years of comments. Quality varies markedly by campus and grade level.
• Older Apple Daily reporting alleged the kindergarten declined to hire 'black or dark-skinned' teachers; surfaced in 2018 social-media discussion and not directly addressed in later online threads.