St John the Beloved Academy
School Overview
School Leader:
School Year:
School Type:
Year Founded:
Website:
Address:
Annual Tuition:
Tuition Description:
Percentage of student body on financial aid provided by the parish, school, diocese or other private sources:
Tuition Discounts Provided:
Overall Mission and Culture:
How do you know you if you are accomplishing your mission?
Net Promoter Score:
Students
Total student enrollment at the start of the 2025-2026 academic year:
Total Student Capacity:
Percentage of full time (five days a week) students for 2025-2026 academic year:
Number of students taking advantage of school choice for 2025-2026 academic year:
School choice programs utilized:
Grades served:
Do you serve boys, girls or both?
Do your students wear uniforms?
Percentage of student body that is Catholic:
Do you know how many of your students, and their families, attend Mass each Sunday?
Percentage of student body considered FRL:
Faculty
Number of full-time and part-time teachers at the start of the 2025-2026 academic year:
What are the most important qualities you look for when hiring teachers?
Percentage of faculty holding a bachelor's or master's degree from a school of education:
Percentage of faculty holding a graduate degree in a field other than education:
Which colleges and universities have two or more of your teachers graduated from, if any?
First year teacher training provided:
How frequently does your school leadership team meet? How are those meetings structured?
How often are teachers observed (in the classroom) by master teachers and receive coaching?
How frequently does your faculty engage in seminars together to discuss beautiful texts, poetry, or art?
Organizations used for teacher formation and training:
Description of how many teachers and which programs are utilized:
Number of religious sisters or brothers on the faculty:
If any, the orders they are from:
Do you require your teachers to make a Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity to the Catholic Church?
What percentage of your faculty attend Mass every Sunday?
Curriculum & Instruction
Standardized tests utilized to track student progress:
Does the school offer AP classes?
Does the school divide students into honors and non-honors curriculum tracks in any subject?
Please describe:
Book fairs, if any, the school hosts:
Does your school have a poetry recitation and memorization canon?
In which grades do you require Latin?
Are computers (desktops, laptops or tablets) commonly used in classrooms?
Please describe:
Three labels that best describe your approach to education:
Please describe your school's overall curriculum:
Please describe the role of art, music, and drama in your curriculum:
Math curriculum used:
Do you have a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Atrium program?
How much time does the school schedule set aside each day for play, recreation, and leisure?
Do your students regularly engage in seminar discussions?
School Culture & Spiritual Life
Clubs offered:
Do your students go on spiritual retreats?
What sorts of service projects do your students participate in?
How many times per week are all students required to attend Daily Mass?
How often is Confession offered at school?
Do your students receive Sacramental instruction at school?
What types of prayer do your students regularly practice while at school?
Does your school offer any faith-based after school programs, like Rosary or Adoration club?
How does your school cultivate the virtues of chastity and modesty?
Do you use a dedicated virtue formation program or incorporate virtue instruction in the school schedule?
Please describe:
Do you have sacred art in classrooms?
Do you offer parent formation opportunities?
What is your smartphone and smartwatch policy?
Jeffrey P Presberg
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Parochial
1954
6422 Linway Terrace, McLean, VA 22101, USA
0
1st Child K - 8 is $10,252; 2nd child and any additional are $8,705
0
Tuition is the same for all students, regardless of religion or relationship with the parish; all families receive similar multiple children discounts--the 2nd and any additional students per family receive the same discounted price (roughly $1500 off regular price). the school is generous in financial aid for families in need.
SJBA, rooted in the parish of St John the Beloved, is a Catholic Humanist Liberal Arts School. A Catholic Humanist school is especially sensitive to tune curriculum and culture to the rich Catholic anthropological understanding of the human person: who is communal and relational in nature; who yearns for meaning, wisdom, and the ability to love truthfully; who requires the freedom to discern and choose what is good and to undertake the adventure of growing in virtue, in being; and who paradoxically will only find oneself in losing oneself in intimate communion with the divine.
Efforts are made to enhance and strategically cultivate a reliance on relationships, trust, and conversation--from personal approaches to discipline and growth, to regular events that cultivate experiences of beauty and conversation (live jazz nights!), and hiring and forming exceptional faculty disposed to a love of the liberal arts, spiritual life and growth, and authentic friendship.
Special attention is given to cultivating the full and dynamic aspects of a person's will, heart, soul, and reason--from pedagogical practices that include tactile learning, hands-on projects and crafts, experiences in nature, poetic and dramatic performances, and conversation to exercises and experiences of silence and contemplative opportunity to academic schedules and a calendar year that give sufficient time, opportunity, and rhythm for conversation, experiences of silence and wonder, play and exuberance, and rooted communal festivities. This range of pedagogical approach and educational experiences form a full reason, including common sense, a tuned imagination, intuition, logic, calculation, analytical reasoning and discursive capacities in language and rhetoric. (And when thinking of reasoning, the harmony of faith and reason, and educational goals, the school seeks to be informed by the recognition that intuitive contemplation is the highest act of the intellect and where ultimate fulfillment and divine communion are to be found and experienced...and wonder is the seed experience of contemplation in the young and perhaps the test of wisdom in an adult).
To concretize some of the above, the school's foundational science is natural history, Singapore Math is the math program--its approach emphasizes starting from the concrete and pictorial and then to the abstract, and the school has a strong and growing emphasis on literature and the arts. The school employs a "modified block" scheduling system that has some classes meeting on fewer days but for longer periods of time than is typical (for the above reasons). The School also employs a house system and regular festivals that include poetry recital competitions, communal worship and reflection, games and competitions, and an evening bbq that invites all school families.
The living motto of the school is: faith, knowledge, joy. Like Truth, Beauty, and Goodness (and the Holy Trinity) we these three points of emphasis as relationally woven, purified and strengthened by the fire of holy love, and found in the living face and person of Jesus Christ.
There are numerous ways and means of "knowing" our mission is being accomplished, including regular and comprehensive assessments. Concretely and yet more broadly, these include consistently high test scores on national tests--for example four out of the five grades tested, consistently score in the 90th+ percentile in the three areas tested: math, reading, and language skills. Admissions has doubled in the past six years as our school has grown more cohesive and collaborative with the mission. Fundraising has increased fourfold.
The School goes through a regular self-review and accreditation process every four years. We have also used the CLT Test for many years.
Of course, and as fitting for a liberal arts school, many of the best ways of "knowing" are found in conversations--from reading thoughtful essays by upper level students, to a variety of conversations with parents, stakeholders, and students young and old.
Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade
Both
Yes
No
0
Personal reference, Liberal Arts training, dispositions for teaching, friendship, love of children, and spiritual growth, practical skill-- including communication and management
0
0
University of Dallas, Catholic University, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, Christendom College
Short Summer Workshop for new teachers, Mentoring for new teachers, Regular Workshops and Trainings, Extensive informal training
Each Semester
Each Semester
Cana Academy, Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, Other
Primarily school leadership and lead faculty provide formation and training for the regularly scheduled workshops. In addition all of our math teachers receive regular training from an outside expert in Singapore Math and our lower school homeroom faculty receive training in Orton-Gillingham. We support additional formation and often offer and subsidize additional training and formation opportunities from Cana Academy, Memoria Press, ICLE, and expert faculty members from local schools.
0
No
CLT, Iowa, MAP
No
No
Math is more by level than grade, as math is taught at the same time and if students meet the qualifications they can move to the appropriate math level.
Other
Yes
No
Computes are used for standardized tests in grades 3 - 8. Computer usage is limited, while upper grade students are expected to use computers to write papers at home. We train and are increasing limited training in keyboarding and practical computer skills.
Classical, Cultivation of Virtue, Liberal Arts
We offer a liberal arts curriculum informed by Catholic Humanism. (See the extensive note on our Mission)
Note: we are planning to begin a Catechesis of the Shepherd Atrium program in the near future.
Art, music, and drama are vital ingredients to our curriculum, and we are continuing to grow and integrate these ingredients throughout our curriculum. For example, while all of our students are taught to sing, the majority of our students also make use of the opportunities we provide to learn an instrument. We study paintings and art, canvas copies of great art are found throughout our classrooms and hallways, and all of our students make art. We are expanding our creative writing program (and integrating it with the study of classical vocabulary) and our drama program, integrating little performances and plays in our literature program, which already features poetry recitals and story telling. Our students read great literature and an extensive range of folk tales, and also regularly listen to stories. Art, stories, and employing a narrative technique to teaching is employed throughout the curriculum.
Singapore Math
No
More than 1 hour
Yes
A variety, from academic skills, to sports, strategic games (including chess), and craft--we are adding leather craft.
Yes
A variety but most often done privately and with parents. Many students help and volunteer with school initiatives such as our Christmas Tree Sale.
1
Weekly
Yes
Adoration, Examination of Conscious, Group prayer time in class, Private prayer time
Yes
Example, Religion and Literature Classes, Homeroom Teacher group conversations and individual mentoring
Yes
Yes
Virtue formation is integrated throughout the curriculum, and has a special place of integration with Literature
Yes
They are not allowed to be accessed or used during the school day, and may only be accessed after school if necessary to coordinate a ride or briefly engage parents.
VA - Arlington