Cardinal Spellman High School (Quito)

This article is about the Catholic school in Quito. For the high school in New York City, see Cardinal Spellman High School (New York City).

Cardinal Spellman High School Colegio Cardenal Spellman
Address
Vía a Lumbisí km 3, San Patricio sector, Cumbayá Quito , Pichincha Ecuador
Information
Type	Private, Catholic
Motto	Buenos cristianos y honrados ciudadanos ("Good Christians and upright citizens")
Religious affiliation(s)	Catholic Church
Denomination	Salesians of Don Bosco
Patron saint(s)	Don Bosco
Established	1 October 1957
Founder	Carlos María de la Torre; Cándido Rada
Oversight	Salesian Inspectorate "Sagrado Corazón de Jesús" (Ecuador)
Grades	Initial Education; Basic General Education; Unified General Baccalaureate
Medium of language	Spanish
Campus type	Suburban (Cumbayá)
Website	www.spellman.edu.ec

The Cardinal Spellman High School (Spanish: Colegio Cardenal Spellman; officially: Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman), is a private Catholic school in Quito, Ecuador, operated by the Salesians of Don Bosco. Salesian and institutional accounts place its origins on 1 October 1957 in Quito’s El Girón area; the school is named in honor of Francis Spellman, archbishop of New York.

Cardinal Francis Spellman (1946), the school's namesake.

History

The school traces its origins to initiatives in the late 1950s led by Carlos María de la Torre, then archbishop of Quito, together with Salesian prelate Cándido Rada, who promoted the establishment of a Catholic educational work in the El Girón area of the city. The institution was formally established on 1 October 1957, and took the name of New York’s cardinal-archbishop Francis Spellman in recognition of his patronage during the period of expansion of Salesian works in Quito.

In 1964, during a pastoral visit to Quito, Cardinal Spellman visited both eponymous schools in the city, underscoring the connection that gave the Salesian institution its name within the mid-century development of Catholic education in the capital.

Subsequently the campus developed in the eastern suburb of Cumbayá, where the school consolidated its facilities in the San Patricio area on Vía a Lumbisí km 3 and broadened its programmes across Initial Education, Basic General Education and the Unified General Baccalaureate in line with Ecuadorian education policy.

Educational profile

The school’s programmes reflect Salesian pastoral education, while academic literature describes how these are implemented at the Quito campus. In the early 2020s, qualitative research with school authorities, the guidance department and teachers identified barriers to the inclusion of students with disabilities and mapped institutional and regulatory responses within the school community.

Studies of classroom practice in basic education outline a school-wide approach to citizenship formation—combining homeroom activities, assemblies and project-based work—linked by teachers to the Salesian preventive system and reported as shaping student participation and responsibility.

English-language instruction has been a long-standing emphasis. Programme optimisation proposals in the mid-2000s and later classroom interventions—such as sustained silent reading for upper-secondary students—are documented as strategies to strengthen reading comprehension in L2.

Teacher-development assessments at the school identify priority areas in pedagogy and leadership for upper-secondary staff, informing in-service training agendas in the 2010s. Parallel action-research describes student-led media (a youth web radio magazine used to discuss social issues) and school mediation initiatives that trained authorities, teachers and students for conflict-resolution contexts within the community.

Engineering work undertaken on site describes modernisation of ICT infrastructure, including redesign of the local-area network and later evaluations of network security and social-engineering vulnerabilities with recommended mitigations.

Coverage

Independent compilations of Quito school results based on INEVAL data list the institution under “Unidad Educativa Particular Cardenal Spellman,” reporting a four-year overall performance average of 9.15 (2014–2018). For 2018, the table records a SER Bachiller mean of 8.82 and an average score of 865 on the higher-education admission exam, alongside subject-area four-year means in the upper-8 to mid-9 range.

Quito-based media have reported routine campus life and ceremonies at the Cumbayá site. Separate coverage and university listings distinguish the Salesian school from the similarly named Cardinal Spellman Girls’ School in Quito, administered by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA). The latter appears, for example, in the University San Francisco de Quito’s official list of partner schools for scholarship agreements, under “Unidad Educativa Cardenal Spellman Femenino.”

Identity

Following the charism of Don Bosco, the school’s guiding maxim is Buenos cristianos y honrados ciudadanos (“Good Christians and upright citizens”).

See also

• Salesians of Don Bosco
• Francis Spellman
• Education in Ecuador
• Quito

Further reading

• Quispe Cruz, Jessica Maribel (2021). Inclusión educativa de personas con discapacidad en la Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman (Thesis) (in español). Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (DSpace). Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• Bravo Hidalgo, Marianela J. (2017). Desafíos en la formación de ciudadanía en los estudiantes de educación básica en el colegio Cardenal Spellman (Quito, Cumbayá) (Thesis) (in español). Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (DSpace). Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• Núñez, Gladys F. (2004). El proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje del idioma inglés en la Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman: Propuesta de optimización y mejoramiento (Thesis) (in español). Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (DSpace). Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• Sabay Salazar, Francisco J. (2014). Necesidades de formación de los docentes de bachillerato de la Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman (Quito), 2012–2013 (Thesis) (in español). Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (DSpace). Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• Delgado Benavides, Brenda E. (2016). Revista radial juvenil web para la Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman (Thesis) (in español). Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (DSpace). Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• Camino Ruiz, Edison S. (2020). Análisis y evaluación de la seguridad en la red de la Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman (Thesis) (in español). Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (DSpace). Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• Vinelli Orozco, Carmen E. (2015). Reingeniería de la red de área local de la Unidad Educativa Salesiana Cardenal Spellman (Thesis) (in español). Escuela Politécnica Nacional (Repositorio digital). Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• "Mejores colegios de Quito – Resultados de aprendizaje (INEVAL), 4 años (2014–2018)" (PDF). ColegiosQuito.com (in español). 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
• "Edición septiembre–octubre de 1964" (PDF). Boletín Salesiano (Perú) (in español) (4): 14–15. September–October 1964.

External links

• Official website

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