More Chinese students enroll in U.S. high schools
Colleges aren’t the only institutions making global gains in international recruitment; private American high schools–especially religious institutions struggling with low enrollment–are welcoming more international students, too.
Allen Li is a senior at St. Laurence High School in Burbank, Illinois. He’s living with about 20 other Chinese high school students, dorm style, at the Write Inn in Oak Park. Their parents have sent them here to earn an American high school diploma. And from there, hopefully acceptance to an American college. Doing so also allows these students to bypass the high stress of China’s gaokao, the national college entrance exam. And unlike the ACT or SAT, if a student does poorly on the gaokao, they have to wait another year before they can take the test again. “The Chinese education is more complicated. We have to study 12 courses a year and from 7am to 5pm. It’s very tough,” Li said.
A little over 73,000 international students came to the U.S. for high school in 2013, according to a report from the Institute of International Education. The largest share of those students came from China.
Source: Wbez
