Pius X High School, Downey, California

Pius X High School (Pius X) was a co-educational, private, four year (grade levels 9-12) high school located at 7851 Gardendale Street, in the city of Downey, California. The school was founded in 1954, and named for Pope Pius X. From 1968 to 1975, Pius X entered into a revolutionary concept of modern teaching, the "Model School Project." Pius employed an educational model called "non-gradedness," which places a student in a class where his or her present achievement is the deciding factor. His success or difficulty throughout the year will enable his or her teachers to place him or her in a phase according to the student's learning capacity. Emphasis is put on progress and learning by the individual, and not a group of thirty or forty...