Visual arts

Edwin and Anita Lee Newcomer School (formerly the Chinese Education Center) is a school for Chinese-speaking, newly-arrived immigrant students. It is a transitional, one-year program designed to teach foundational English skills in reading, writing, and oral English language development. In addition, basic skills, protocols, and understanding in all CORE subject areas are explicitly taught to address the gap that typically results from students having been raised in a very different educational system.

Downtown High School offers project-based learning that emphasizes critical thinking skills across curricular areas and a strong connection with the School-to-Career Program. We focus on each learner's need for alternative strategies and are rooted in the commitment to student mastery of the core curriculum. With a project-based approach to learning, students have the opportunity to select a project that matches their own interests and learning styles.

Our mission is to provide students with high academic standards in an environment that validates their culture and their potential. As part of our commitment to social justice and equity, we commit to providing appropriate support and services to all of our students. We are a group of committed educators who work collaboratively in order to deliver a rigorous standards-based curriculum using instructional practices that promote higher levels of learning. We promote and teach the values of bilingualism, biliteracy, and multiculturalism—all 21st century skills.

Our vision for James Denman Middle School is that all members of our learning community will be literate, motivated, respectful, and independent thinkers. We commit to creating a safe, non-competitive environment in classrooms—getting to know individual students—their families, skills, and talents. Our experienced teachers demonstrate, encourage, and expect respect in the classroom. They challenge each student to work hard and learn from others.

Clarendon is committed to providing a quality educational program for every learner in our two programs, Second Community and the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program. We offer enrichment programs and have a high level of parent participation in our school community. We promote respect and responsibility throughout the school and reinforce it frequently. Our Care Team interacts with individual staff members weekly, as we attempt to address the many needs of our students.

John Yehall Chin parents love our small, welcoming school and the well-rounded education we provide their students. Being efficient and productive are the two attributes that we treasure the most here. We fully realize and accept without angst the importance of state mandated assessments. We believe in creating a learning environment that fosters caring and innovation so that our students are thirsting to transform our world. Our teachers possess a deep knowledge of their content areas and current research on human development to effectively teach all learners.

Driving through the heart of the Mission District, it is difficult to miss the rich and vibrant murals of César Chávez Elementary School. Incorporated in these multi-colored images are the core values that this school community strives for: excellence in academic achievement, respect for diversity, and strength in character and personal growth. At César Chávez, every member of our staff and community holds high expectations for all students' academic success—a ¡sí se puede! philosophy.

Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School promotes a nurturing, equitable school culture committed to high-level academic achievement for all students. Our student-centered learning communities engage students in rigorous, inquiry-based learning while also building personal relationships that support students in their pursuits. Burton graduates are creative and critical thinkers who use the foundations of the core curriculum and their commitment to social justice to make positive contributions to society.

We are BVHM, the Mission District's K-8 dual-language Spanish Immersion Community School, and as such we strive to develop strong bilingual and multicultural agents of change that can thrive academically, socially and artistically. Through academically rigorous instruction, technology, and the arts, our educators develop students’ collaborative and critical thinking skills, preparing them for a dynamic world.