Pius X High School was a co-educational, private, four year high school located at 7851 Gardendale Street, in the city of Downey, California. The school was founded in 1953, and named for Pope Pius X.HistoryFrom 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 students. The student is recognized as being unique and is able to decide for himself or herself which subjects he or she wants to learn, where, from whom, and why. The student was able to enlarge his or her spectrum of learning with greater ease and efficiency, benefiting more from education.In March 1995 the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced a school realignment transforming Pius X, a co-ed school, into a co-institutional high school with all-girl St. Matthias High School. St. Matthias, founded in 1960, was located on Stafford Avenue and Belgrade Street in Huntington Park. The Pius X program was phased out over a three-year period.In 2011, the St. Matthias Advisory Board and the Archdiocese asked Loyola Marymount University's ("LMU") Center for Catholic Education to conduct a detailed study on options for St. Matthias. The Center for Catholic Education study looked at how the school is achieving their Catholic education mission on this campus, with this school, at this time. Together with the Archdiocese, it was decided the best choice is to become a co-ed school once again. The school hopes to admit 25 freshman boys along with 75 freshman girls in the 2013-14 school year and change the school name to St. Pius X - St. Matthias Academy. The official change took place on July 1, 2013.
