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Academic formation rooted in faith, rigor, creativity, and real-world learning.

Alphonse Gallegos Academy offers an academically serious, student-centered program from Preschool through 8th grade — combining strong core instruction, faith formation, arts-rich learning, and meaningful field experiences designed to help every child grow with confidence and purpose.

Curriculum
Strong foundations from early childhood through middle school
Formation
Independent faith-based identity with moral and intellectual growth
Experience
Arts, field study, and support systems that deepen learning
Curriculum Overview

Learning that connects, challenges, and forms the whole child.

Our curriculum is designed to help students grow academically, morally, spiritually, and socially across every stage of their development. At AGA, learning is not confined to isolated subjects — students are asked to make connections, think critically, communicate clearly, and apply what they are learning in meaningful ways.

We emphasize strong instruction in literacy, mathematics, science, history and social science, religion, the arts, and technology, while also creating a school culture that values curiosity, discipline, service, and thoughtful citizenship.

Teachers work to create classrooms where foundational skills are taught well and where students are also challenged to ask questions, solve problems, and engage the world around them with confidence. Academic rigor and joyful learning are not opposites — at AGA, both belong together.

Our Philosophy
"Faith-based education should be reverent without being outdated, structured without being rigid, and excellent without losing warmth or joy."
Core Subjects
Literacy
Mathematics
Science
History & Social Science
Religion
The Arts
Technology
Whole Child Formation
Character Formation
Faith Development
Creativity
Collaboration
Service
Critical Thinking
Grade Levels

A thoughtful continuum from earliest years through 8th grade.

Each level is developmentally appropriate, academically purposeful, and rooted in a clear vision of how children grow over time. Select a grade band to see the curriculum frameworks and standards that guide instruction at each level.

Preschool
Ages 3–5 · Early childhood program

Our preschool program nurtures the whole child through play-based, relationship-centered learning. Children develop language, early literacy, social-emotional skills, and a growing sense of wonder — all within a faith-based environment, woven into daily life.

Curriculum Framework
  • California Preschool Curriculum Framework
  • Catechesis of the Good Shepherd — early spiritual formation
  • Play-based and inquiry-driven learning experiences
Transitional Kindergarten
Age-eligible students · Bridge year

Transitional Kindergarten bridges the gap between preschool and kindergarten, giving students an additional year to develop foundational skills, social readiness, and confidence before entering the primary grades.

Curriculum Framework
  • Transitional Kindergarten implementation aligned with California guidance and best practices
  • Early literacy and numeracy foundations
  • Social-emotional development and classroom community building
Kindergarten – 5th Grade
Primary and intermediate elementary

The elementary years build strong literacy and numeracy foundations while expanding students' understanding of the world around them. Faith formation, arts, and cross-curricular thinking are integrated throughout.

National Standards
  • Common Core Language Arts
  • Common Core Mathematics
  • Next Generation Science Standards
  • National Core Arts & Visual and Performing Arts
  • International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
State & Schoolwide Standards
  • California History and Social Science standards
  • Religious formation standards
  • Physical Education guidelines for elementary grades
  • AGA Schoolwide Learning Expectations
6th – 8th Grade
Middle school · Preparation for high school

Middle school at AGA is a time of intellectual deepening, leadership development, and growing independence. Students are challenged with more rigorous coursework while continuing to grow in faith, character, and readiness for high school and beyond.

National Standards
  • Common Core Language Arts — middle grades
  • Common Core Mathematics — middle grades
  • Next Generation Science Standards
  • National Core Arts & Visual and Performing Arts
  • ISTE Technology standards
State & Schoolwide Standards
  • California History and Social Science standards
  • Religious formation standards — middle grades
  • Physical Education guidelines for middle grades
  • AGA Schoolwide Learning Expectations
Academic Standards

Clear, consistent, and appropriately challenging at every grade.

Academic standards help ensure that instruction is clear, consistent, and appropriately challenging from one grade level to the next. At AGA, these standards guide curriculum planning, classroom instruction, assessment, and long-term student growth.

Language Arts & Mathematics
  • California Common Core Language Arts standards
  • California Common Core Mathematics standards
  • Writing across the curriculum at all grade levels
Science & Social Studies
  • Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) implementation
  • California History and Social Science standards
  • Inquiry, observation, and real-world application
Religion & Formation
  • Religious formation standards — K through 8th grade
  • Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for early childhood
  • Virtue and character development integrated schoolwide
Arts, PE & Technology
  • National Core Arts & Visual and Performing Arts standards
  • Physical Education guidelines — elementary and middle grades
  • ISTE Technology in Education standards
AGA Schoolwide Learning Expectations
Beyond external standards, AGA holds all students to schoolwide learning expectations that reflect our mission: thinking critically, communicating clearly, acting with integrity, growing in faith, and serving others. These expectations are woven into daily instruction at every grade level and serve as the backbone of our community culture.
Curriculum Maps

Intentional, connected, coherent learning across every subject.

Our educators recognize that the concepts taught in one subject can and should be reinforced across the curriculum. Skills introduced in language arts may be deepened in social studies, math, science, religion, or the arts. By helping students see the relationship between subjects, we encourage stronger retention, deeper understanding, and more mature thinking.

Curriculum maps help teachers organize grade-level learning so that instruction is intentional, connected, and coherent across the year. They also help ensure that important concepts are revisited in ways that allow students to build mastery, make meaningful connections, and prepare for future academic work.

Students in Transitional Kindergarten through 8th grade engage in a wide range of activities aimed at mastering grade-level expectations while growing in independence, confidence, and readiness for the next stage of learning.

Cross-Curricular Integration
Language Arts
Science
Social Studies
Religion
Integrated Learning
Mathematics
The Arts
Technology
Physical Ed.

Curriculum maps ensure each subject reinforces and deepens learning in the others — creating coherent, connected understanding rather than isolated facts.

Arts Integration

The arts are not an extra. They are an essential part of an excellent education.

Students benefit when music, movement, visual arts, drama, and creative expression are woven into the life of the school and connected to classroom learning. Arts-rich instruction supports engagement, confidence, communication, collaboration, and deeper academic understanding.

What Is Arts Integration?
Arts integration uses the arts as a pathway for learning across subjects. Students may explore literature through performance, reinforce historical understanding through visual projects, strengthen pattern recognition through music, or deepen scientific thinking through observation and design.
Why It Matters for Students
Students are exposed to dance and movement, theater, music, and visual arts in ways that build both skill and understanding. Just as importantly, they learn to make connections between academic content, real life, and creative expression — becoming more engaged and confident learners.
Arts Across All Grades
From early childhood through 8th grade, the arts are part of the AGA experience. Teachers across disciplines are equipped to integrate creative expression into their instruction, giving every learner another way to access and demonstrate understanding.
Research Supporting Arts in Education
  • 01The arts help reach students who may not otherwise feel fully reached by traditional instruction.
  • 02The arts connect students to themselves, to one another, and to the world around them.
  • 03The arts strengthen engagement, confidence, creativity, and collaboration across all subject areas.
  • 04Arts-rich learning can deepen content understanding and improve self-regulation and classroom participation.
  • 05Sustained exposure to high-quality arts education is associated with strong gains in learning and school culture.
Road Scholars

Students grow when they encounter the world directly.

Books and classrooms provide essential academic learning, but students also grow when they encounter the world directly. Our Road Scholars approach values field study as an extension of the classroom, giving students opportunities to observe, explore, question, and connect their learning to real places and real experiences.

Field trips contribute to many disciplines at once. A single experience can deepen science, history, the arts, writing, discussion, and critical thinking. By stepping into museums, performances, nature centers, farms, and community spaces, students learn that knowledge is connected and alive.

Specific destinations evolve from year to year, but the purpose remains the same — to help students become attentive, informed, and engaged learners who can connect classroom knowledge to the wider world.

The Road Scholars Philosophy
"Knowledge is connected and alive — and students should experience it that way."
Field study is not a break from learning; it is learning at its most vivid. Every Road Scholars experience is planned with clear academic and formational goals, and students return to the classroom ready to write, discuss, and reflect on what they observed.
Primary Grades
Preschool, TK, Kindergarten & 1st–3rd grade
  • Children's museums and discovery spaces
  • Art museums and cultural institutions
  • Science farms and nature centers
  • Age-appropriate theater and live performance experiences
Intermediate & Middle Grades
4th–5th and 6th–8th grade
  • History museums and civic institutions
  • Science centers and observatories
  • Outdoor education and environmental sites
  • Performing arts, retreats, and academic enrichment trips
Learning Center

Every student deserves to be known, challenged, and helped when needed.

The Learning Center exists to assist students in becoming successful in achieving their academic goals. Support is designed to be responsive and practical — not a last resort, but a normal and valued part of a healthy school community.

Staff work closely with students, parents and guardians, teachers, and school leadership to help identify needs, support growth, and keep each child moving toward success. We recognize that students have different strengths, learning profiles, and areas of need — and support is designed to meet each child where they are.

The Learning Center serves as a resource for intervention, collaboration, and encouragement, helping students receive the structure and guidance necessary to reach their full academic potential. It may also serve as a point of coordination for student support meetings, teacher collaboration, and family communication regarding interventions, accommodations, and progress.

Our goal is not simply to respond to difficulty, but to help each child grow with dignity, confidence, and the support needed to thrive.

Student Support
Individualized intervention, accommodation coordination, and encouragement for students who need additional structure or guidance to succeed academically.
Teacher Collaboration
The Learning Center coordinates with classroom teachers to ensure consistent strategies, shared goals, and clear communication about each student's progress and needs.
Family Partnership
Families are essential partners. The Learning Center provides clear communication, transparent progress updates, and collaborative planning so families are always informed and involved.
Staffing & Services
Learning Center staffing details will be updated once school structure and personnel are finalized. Families with questions are encouraged to reach out to our admissions team.

Interested in learning more about AGA academics?

Explore admissions, review tuition, or reach out to start a conversation about how Alphonse Gallegos Academy serves students from Preschool through 8th grade.