Pegasus’ Founding:
Pegasus California School (PCS) is an independent and non-for-profit international school. It was engendered from a mission to enhance transpacific educational and cultural exchange between California and China. Although there were over a thousand international schools in China, there was not a school that offered the truly authentic California curriculum. After years of effort, PCS was founded in 2016 in Qingdao, a coastal city of China with the blessing and support of the California Department of Education, to become the first and only high school in China that offers authentic Californian education. In addition, to provide a true California-style instruction to the students of China, PCS is committed to providing a holistic education that inspires students to pursue their passions. Since its inception, with the value of “Passion, Resilience, Inspiration, Determination, Empowerment” and “Be Inspired” as the motto, it has been striving to culturally and academically prepare youngsters for an increasingly globalized world and become one of the best schools of its kind in the years ahead. Right now, PCS has successfully served as a bridge between China students and renowned universities around the world.
Pegasus’ Faculty:
After Dr. David Long, the founding Head Principal and the former Secretary of Education for the State of California retired following many years of diligent work at PCS, PCS continues to place great emphasis on the quality of our faculty. Since its inception, only credentialed American teachers were employed at PCS over the first four years. This American teacher only policy was later changed during the COVID-19 pandemic when many of our American teachers could not return to China. Nevertheless, PCS continues to keep the quality of our faculty and we are proud to say that we diversify the nationalities of our faculty and they have an average teaching experience of over 15 years.
Pegasus’ Curriculum:
We realize to prepare our students to be ready for competitive colleges globally. We need to help our students in China overcome their barrier in English.Therefore, since the very beginning, PCS has imposed an “English-Only Policy” where only the English language that can be used and spoken – in or out of classrooms. And because PCS is a boarding school, this means that our students are immersed in an English-only environment.This policy has proven successful, and all of our graduates have minimal effort in assimilating to college life in their respective countries of study.
In mirroring an authentic California education, PCS adopts the same Common Core standards set by the California Department of Education. PCS also only offers the A-G courses paradigm along with over 18 different Advanced Placement (AP) courses. In executing California’s A-G curriculum, PCS uses the same textbooks and teaching apparatuses as those used in standard California public high schools.
Pegasus’ Academic Integrity:
Just like any typical high school in California, PCS takes academic integrity very seriously. PCS uses a 4.0 GPA grading scale where some Honors- and AP-level courses are weighed with an additional point. Students are expected to complete a minimum of 44 semester-long courses with a minimum GPA of 3.0 to graduate from PCS. It should be noted that teachers have full autonomy in giving a grade to students and no administrator has any influence over students’ grades. Should students fail to maintain a minimum GPA of 2.8, they would be given a warning and put on semester-long probation, and if their GPA does not improve in the following semester, they will be dismissed from PCS. It is unfortunate to report that PCS has discharged nearly twenty students in the past due to poor academic performance.
Pegasus’ Ranking:
" 2020 - 2021 First Selection of Best International School in China 2021 " was held in April 2021. Pegasus was successfully awarded the title of the top 50 best international school in China. Pegasus was the only international school in Qingdao, one of the two in Shandong Province and the top 12 international school in East China which won the award.
www.myfitcollege.com released the international High School Authority rankings based on China's strongest Secondary Schools in 2020". Pegasus was ranked #1 in Qingdao and #4 in Shandong Province(the top three were all public schools), and #61 nationwide, up 5 places than last year, reaching a new height. www.myfitcollege.com is an independent third-party evaluation organization of international education based on big data analysis. In order to meet the standard science and offer real data, it first cut the interest connection. Since making the list, it hasn’t carried on any commercial cooperation with any school, maintaining the neutrality and independence of the appraisal.
After three years of operation, we were pleased to learn that PCS was ranked as one of the top international schools in China by a third party ranking agency.In the "China International School Competitiveness Ranking 2019" released by Kinglead Group, Pegasus stood out among the 1,257 international schools nationwide. Ranked No. 28 nationwide in terms of sending students to American universities and No. 5 in terms of teacher quality nationwide. We also ranked No. 26 in terms of sending students to British universities and No. 7 in terms of teacher quality nationwide. On the national list of Top 30 for sending students to American universities, Pegasus was the only school in Shandong Province, and Ranked No. 1 in Shandong Province.
www.myfitcollege.com released the international High School Authority rankings based on China's strongest Secondary Schools in 2020". Pegasus was ranked #1 in Qingdao and #4 in Shandong Province(the top three were all public schools), and #61 nationwide, up 5 places than last year, reaching a new height. www.myfitcollege.com is an independent third-party evaluation organization of international education based on big data analysis. In order to meet the standard science and offer real data, it first cut the interest connection. Since making the list, it hasn’t carried on any commercial cooperation with any school, maintaining the neutrality and independence of the appraisal.
After three years of operation, we were pleased to learn that PCS was ranked as one of the top international schools in China by a third party ranking agency.In the "China International School Competitiveness Ranking 2019" released by Kinglead Group, Pegasus stood out among the 1,257 international schools nationwide. Ranked No. 28 nationwide in terms of sending students to American universities and No. 5 in terms of teacher quality nationwide. We also ranked No. 26 in terms of sending students to British universities and No. 7 in terms of teacher quality nationwide. On the national list of Top 30 for sending students to American universities, Pegasus was the only school in Shandong Province, and Ranked No. 1 in Shandong Province.
The “Top Secondary School Ranking 2019” was released by www.myfitcollege.com. In 2019, Myfitcollege collected and analyzed 1,078 international schools / international departments in China, conducted field interviews and investigations of 463 schools and comprehensively studied China's international education system. PCS ranked No.66 in China, No. 4 in Shandong Province, No. 2 in Qingdao, only second to Qingdao No. 2 High School!
Pegasus’ Graduates:
So far, the five classes of graduates received over 1500 offers from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, Singapore,Japan ,Germany, Hong Kong and other countries and regions. The prestigious American universities include Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St.Louis,University of Southern California, UCB,UCLA, Emory University, University of Michigan ,Ann Arbor,University of Virginia ,Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, and University of California systems and the universities in other countries include University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University College London, King's College London, Waseda University ,Nanyang Technological University ,etc. According to the statistics, 25% of the Class of 2023 were admitted to the top 10 universities in the whole world, 50% were admitted to the top 20 universities in the whole world ,81% were admitted to the top 50 universities in the whole world and 100 % was admitted to the top 100 universities in the world. Five classes of graduates have achieved 100% acceptance to the top 100 universities in the world, setting a placement record in China in the same period.