Through its Coordinate Program with the neighboring National Cathedral School, St. Albans offers numerous coeducational classes and activities across academics, arts, and athletics. This partnership spans courses like AP Computer Science, diverse arts groups, and sports teams, including crew and track. By integrating these shared opportunities, St. Albans provides students with the focused benefits of a single-sex education while maintaining a vibrant, coeducational campus experience that complements their traditional all-boys curriculum.
What the Coordinate Program Actually Covers
The Coordinate Program isn’t a handful of shared electives; it spans four full categories of student life. In academics, coed options include every religion elective, every history elective, all senior English classes, public speaking, and language courses in Chinese, Latin, and Greek, alongside advanced STEM offerings like Honors Linear Algebra, Mathematics of Digital Data, AP Computer Science, AP Data Science, and AP Physics C. In activities, students can join the coed Government Club, Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Math Team, and Focus, plus shared service opportunities.
Arts and Athletics Round It Out
Coed arts options include middle school and upper school plays and musicals, chorale, orchestra, madrigal singers, dance, theater, jazz band, and a cappella, while coed athletics span aquatics, crew, cross-country, track and field, and voyageur, a kayaking and climbing program.
| Category | Examples of Coordinate Offerings |
| Academics | All Religion and History electives, Senior English, Public Speaking, Chinese/Latin/Greek, AP Computer Science, AP Data Science, AP Physics C |
| Activities | Government Club, Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Math Team, Focus, service opportunities |
| Arts | Plays and musicals, Chorale, Orchestra, Madrigal Singers, Dance, Theater, Jazz Band, A Cappella |
| Athletics | Aquatics, Crew, Cross-Country, Track and Field, Voyageur (kayaking and climbing) |
Coeducation That Expands as Students Get Older
St. Albans is explicit that coeducational opportunities through the Coordinate Program increase by grade level, meaning a 4th grader and a senior experience very different amounts of coed programming. Younger students have more limited coordinate options, while older students, especially in the upper school, can build a substantial part of their academic and extracurricular schedule around shared classes and activities with NCS.
Wondering How the Coordinate Program Fits Your Son?
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Why Keep Single-Sex Classrooms at All?
St. Albans frames the Coordinate Program as offering “the best of both worlds”: the benefits of a single-sex classroom environment for core instruction, paired with genuine coeducational experience layered on top. Rather than choosing between an all-boys model and a fully coeducational one, the school built a structure that preserves single-sex classes as the default while making coeducational options substantial rather than symbolic.
A Model That Depends on Proximity
None of this would work without NCS being a short walk away on the same cathedral grounds; the Coordinate Program depends entirely on the two schools sharing physical space, faculty, and facilities, not just a formal partnership agreement.
Maximizing Your Son’s St. Albans Experience With Cardinal Education
The Coordinate Program is a core structural component of a St. Albans education, not just a supplement; it provides students access to significantly broader academic, arts, and athletic opportunities than an all-boys school could offer in isolation.
Cardinal Education helps families navigate these complexities, ensuring your son’s academic and extracurricular choices align with his unique goals. We guide you through assessing the shifting balance of coordinate programming between lower and upper school to maximize your son’s success.
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