New and notable school programs

By Christina Gray

Three different Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of San Francisco introduced new programs at the start of the academic year designed to help better serve the needs of local families and the mission of Catholic education itself.

Nativity High School is the first and only Catholic high school within the city of San Francisco offering a classical curriculum. It welcomed its first ninth grade class last fall in a building on the school and parish grounds of Star of the Sea Parish in the Richmond District. A few miles away in the Mission District, St. Peter School began a Dual Language Immersion Learning model, whereby students are taught half the day in English and the other half in Spanish. According to research, bilingual students outperform monolingual peers in many key academic areas. At the same time in Lower Pacific Heights, St. Brigid Academy, a Catholic school founded in 1888, transitioned to what is known as a microschool, specializing in students with learning differences such as dyslexia. Here’s what to know about each:

Nativity High School

Nativity high school joins Stella Maris Academy in San Francisco, The Chesterton Academy of St. James in Menlo Park, and Our Lady of the Pillar Academy in Half Moon Bay as schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco which are dedicated to the recovery of Catholic classical education. This fall, the first freshman class of Nativity High School commenced their studies on the third floor of a building housing Stella Maris Academy, the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s first classical Catholic pk-8 school. The private Catholic high school operating under the approval and auspices of the Archdiocese of San Francisco is the only Catholic school in San Francisco offering a classical curriculum, according to the head of school, Marisela O’Cochlain.

“It boiled down to us wanting to provide an alternate high school experience to students here in San Francisco,” said O’Cochlain. “Now, there is that opportunity for students who are currently in a classical curriculum in elementary school to continue that learning in a classical high school.” Students who have not been in a classical elementary curriculum also have that opportunity.

Nativity High School will add a new grade each academic year until it includes grades 9-12, she said.

Classical education has a long, rich history that started with Socrates and Plato more than 2,500 years ago, matured in the Middle Ages, and exists, in some form, in nearly every institution of higher learning in our country.

“At its core, a classical education sparks wonder,” said O’Cochlain. “Our most important job is to cultivate and nurture wonder in our students.”

The “Star of Wonder” that sparked the curiosity of the Wise Men in the Nativity story inspired the school, which incorporated it into its logo as a visual reminder of its central purpose.

The Nativity curriculum challenges students intellectually, develops their critical thinking skills, reveals their inner artistic talent and fosters growth in their relationship with God through the dual pursuits of faith and reason, according to nativityhs.org. Some characteristics of classical education include interdisciplinary study of history, literature and the arts, which fosters “a whole picture of the human story.” Science and theology are presented together to answer not only the “what, where, when and how,” but the “why.” Four years of foreign language education are required.

Current faculty includes six lay Catholic teachers with specialized experience in classical subjects, as well as a Dominican brother who teaches Latin and geometry. St. Dominic pastor Father Michael Hurley serves as student chaplain.

O’Cochlain is the 11th child in a family of 14 children of Mexican immigrants that made Catholic education a priority for their children. She worked for a decade for a classical school in Southern California before helping found Stella Maris Academy in 2021.

“We are committed to making a Catholic classical education accessible to all students,” she said. Financial aid and two merit-based scholarships are available to Nativity High School each year, including the $10,000 Magi Award, and the Nativity Award, a four-year full tuition scholarship.

Visit nativityhs.org.

St. Peter School

The majority of St. Peter School students speak Spanish at home, English in school. It’s an asset, according to principal Sandra Jimenez, and one of the reasons the Mission District school began the process of becoming a Dual Language Immersion school (DLI) at the start of the 2024/25 academic year.

The K-8 school is the first and only school within the Archdiocese of San Francisco to offer Dual Language Immersion in Spanish and English. It doesn’t mean simply sending Spanish-speaking students to English language classes, and English-speaking students to Spanish language classes; it means that instruction of all subjects is done in both languages.

“We decided to look at it as a gift, a blessing of our community,” she said, referring to St. Peter School’s large student body of English language learners. Many of the students who speak Spanish at home can also converse well in English. “But in writing and reading, they need more practice with that in order to develop academically.”

The Boston College Roche Center for Catholic Education supports the TWIN-CS (Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools) and its 24 schools in 13 states, to which St. Peter’s belongs. It did a DLI feasibility study for St. Peter School that included surveys of school families and other research. “It concluded that DLI would be a very good thing here,” said Jimenez.

But why exactly is it a good thing? According to DLI research data available on the St. Peter School website, students enrolled in a DLI program academically outperform students in a monolingual program. English learners achieve higher levels of academic success than their peers in monolingual English schools. What’s more, English-proficient students achieve higher levels of second-language proficiency and – a surprise to some — higher mastery of their own native language.

Sociocultural competence is a not-insignificant bonus to high academic achievement and bilingual benefits in students. Multiculturalism is a valuable skill in an increasingly global world. Studying the culture and traditions of a language’s native speakers, students develop a broader perspective and respect for and empathy with people from different backgrounds than their own, according to the same research.

Though different models exist, the one St. Peter School is introducing is a 50/50 model, according to Jimenez. Students spend half the day in subjects taught in English; the remainder of the day the subjects are taught in Spanish.

“Our school culture was already very welcoming to Spanish and English, so it has been very natural,” she said. Morning assemblies in English are repeated in Spanish for parents. And in church, Spanish is always a part of the liturgy. “Now, it’s just been formalized in our instruction.”

St. Peter’s started, for practical reasons, with the kindergarten class, which already had a bilingual teacher. Math, religion and Spanish language arts are taught in Spanish; English language arts, science and social sciences are taught in English.

“Next year, when our current kindergartners move up to first grade, and the kindergarten teacher takes on a new kindergarten class, we will have a K-1 program,” she explained. Teachers will teach as a team, she said, and “as long as one of them is bilingual, we are fine.” It will grow “gradually” in that way, said Jimenez. It will take nine years before the whole K-8 school is in full dual language immersion model.

The Alliance for Catholic Education summed up the beauty of DLI from a Catholic perspective with this statement: “The ultimate goal is bilingualism, biliteracy and biculturalism, the sharing of faith traditions and solidarity in Gospel witness.”

St. Brigid Academy

“Neurodivergent” students with language-based learning differences such as dyslexia, as well as those who struggle with comprehension and attention, are today joyfully and intentionally served at St. Brigid Academy. The former parish school of St. Brigid Church, which closed in 1994, continues its long tradition of Catholic education, but under a modified name and with a targeted mission: to serve these special K-8 students.

St. Brigid Academy is the first Catholic “microschool” for students who simply learn differently than other students. A microschool has been described as a modern incarnation of the one-room schoolhouse. By definition it features a small teacher-student ratio. It’s not just a buzzword, but a designation by the National Catholic Educational Association.

“First and foremost, we are a school rooted in the Catholic faith that integrates Catholic values throughout all facets of learning,” said Megan Rabbitt, head of school. “What sets us apart? We can now support a diverse array of learners with intentionally smaller class sizes with a 7:1 teacher-student ratio.”

The smaller student population is distributed into multi-age classrooms where students learn collaboratively as a cohesive learning community and independently to achieve academic goals at their own pace.

English language arts teachers have certification that supports students diagnosed with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. Math educators are undergoing the same training.

Rabbitt emphasized that the school’s long tradition of Catholic education that began in 1888 remains. Despite the name change, the school continues to serve “neurotypical” students. The model, in fact, will be better able to help all students reach their full potential, whether that child has a neurodiversity or needs to be challenged beyond their age or grade level, she said.

“Our program is set up so that each student will learn at their own pace” while meeting California state standards under the supervision of highly trained teachers and staff members, she said.

In a 2019 survey, Catholic school leaders in the Archdiocese of San Francisco overwhelmingly indicated a desire to better serve students with diverse learning needs.

“Today we open the doors to a place where every child is valued, understood and given the resources to thrive,” said Chris Fisher, superintendent of Catholic schools. “You are part of a family who celebrates your uniqueness.”

Visit saintbrigidsf.org

Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.