Adda Clevenger San Francisco

The Adda Clevenger School is an independent elementary school providing an accelerated academic and arts curriculum to San Francisco Bay Area students. Situated in the heart of the historic Presidio of San Francisco, a national park site in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, it serves children from Transitional Kindergarten through 8th grade. 

 

Adda Clevenger’s academic framework follows the principles of Deweyan experientialism and, more broadly, cognitive and social constructivism (aka “project-and-inquiry-based classroom”). New understanding builds on existing knowledge and students’ authentic curiosity about their world through a process of discovery and construction of both their mental and social realities. 

Teachers at Adda Clevenger focus on understanding their students and helping students understand themselves, creating courses that are both dynamic and relevant for each student. This approach ensures that students find their learning meaningful and connected to their everyday lives. 

 

Adda Clevenger’s fully integrated arts program develops the whole student, provides daily movement and physical outlet, and presents students opportunities to apply themselves over extended time periods, developing skills that cannot be quickly and easily mastered. In the arts, persistence and endurance are as, if not more, important than talent over the long run. 

The Adda Clevenger School was founded in 1980 to meet the needs of students and families looking for an immersive, experience-based, academically rigorous and physically active school day. Adda Clevenger’s expansion to a second campus in the Presidio of San Francisco is a natural extension of their program, offering students additional opportunities for outdoor learning in a beautiful national park, surrounded by forests, the San Francisco Bay, and views of the Golden Gate Bridge!