Should Sonoma Charter School’s charter be renewed?

State charter group recommends non-renewal of ‘underperforming’ Sonoma campus|

What is a charter school?

Charter schools are public schools operating under a “charter,” essentially a contract entered into between the school and its authorizing agency. In addition to allowing the school to open, the charter allows the school significant operational autonomy with regard to educational objectives and matters of curriculum, personnel and budget. In exchange for this autonomy, the charter school is subject to periodic performance review and may be closed for failing to meet agreed-upon outcomes. (Source: charterschoolcenter.ed.gov)

The California Charter School Association is advocacy organization that has set a goal of a million California students attending charter public schools by 2022, and for charter public schools to outperform non-charter public schools on every measure.

The Sonoma Charter School was named last week among a handful of “chronically underperforming” public charter schools in the state by the California Charter School Association, an educational advocacy and accountability organization.

In a statement issued Dec. 5, CCSA officials said that, “As the number of charter schools continues to grow in California, it’s more important than ever to hold them accountable to their promise of academic achievement.”

Adds CCSA president Jed Wallace: “When charter schools do not meet that standard, they should close.”

Sonoma Charter School Director Marc Elin, however, said the CCSA’s conclusions are “misguided and wrong.” And Sonoma Valley Unified School District spokesperson Loyal Carlon said the charter school is “doing good work” and that the findings of the CCSA are just one association’s opinion.

Sonoma Charter School was founded in 1993 and it is the ninth oldest public charter in a state that now boasts more than 1,275. Its charter is renewed by its authorizer, SVUSD, every five years. Its current charter expires in spring 2018.

Carlon, who is assisting SVUSD Superintendent Chuck Young in leading the school district this year, was surprised by the action taken by CCSA.

“We... take this action as just this association’s opinion, as they have no real power or oversight responsibilities,” he said.

Elin, who was named head of Sonoma Charter School following the 2016-17 school year, said that he thinks CCSA’s action is premature and based on incomplete information.

As to the latter, Elizabeth Robitaille, chief accountability officer of CCSA, partly agrees. In fact, she said that since last March, the CCSA has made numerous requests for information from Sonoma Charter without a response.

“We work hard to understand the unique mission and situation of each school,” Robitaille said. “We gave them lots of options of ways they could demonstrate the success of their students but they missed multiple deadlines to do so and we can’t find growth in student success at Sonoma Charter by any measure.”

Last spring, CCSA representatives conducted a site visit to the 215-student school at 17202 Sonoma Highway and met with previous director Kevin Kassebaum and SCS board members to discuss multiple measures of success beyond test scores. But Kassebaum left the school soon after and in the weeks and months that followed, CCSA officials say there were not provided with any of the follow-up data requested.

“Our goal is to assess a school’s impact on student learning in as many unique and nuanced ways as possible,” said Robitaille.

In particular, Robitaille said that CCSA is careful to take into account changes in student demographics in their evaluation.

“When you look at Sonoma Charter’s data, their students chronically underperform those enrolled in similar schools and have shown a drop in proficiency over the past several years,” she added.

Elin, however, said CSSA’s assessment lacks merit.

“We have a solid plan that we are submitting to the district in a few weeks and are confident that they will renew our charter for another five years,” said Elin. He pointed to the school’s implementation of new math and English Language Arts programs; integration of technology into K-8 content areas; and its new social emotional learning programs as just a few of the new initiatives at the school.

He believes that Sonoma Charter compares well with other schools in the district, citing higher English language arts test scores than Altimira Middle School and higher math scores than Dunbar and Flowery elementary schools.

CCSA official say they use a multi-year view of a school’s performance using multiple measures of student success to identify chronically underperforming charter public schools and call for the non-renewal of their charter.

Sonoma Charter is one of five California schools on this year’s list. The four other schools that did not meet the association’s minimum renewal criteria for the 2017-18 school year are Epiphany Prep Charter in San Diego, Three Rivers Charter in Mendocino, Kepler Neighborhood School in Fresno and Union Hill Elementary in Nevada County.

According to CCSA officials, about half to two-thirds of the schools that the organization recommends not be renewed, end up not being renewed by their authorizers.

Recommending a school’s closure is a difficult decision, say CCSA officials.

In the press statement from CCSA, Wallace states that “just as we call on authorizers to approve strong charter schools, we must ask them not to renew schools that are not performing at minimal benchmarks. We urge the authorizers of these schools to continue to put students first and today that means closing schools that aren’t performing well despite what may be the best intentions and the hardest efforts.”

Carlon described the charter renewal process that lies ahead for Sonoma Charter.

“The district adheres to the California Department of Education’s charter renewal process which provides opportunities for district staff and the board of trustees to meet and discuss the charter school’s successes and areas of growth,” explained Carlon. “Based on information from those discussions and a review of its revised charter, I am confident that the board will make a well-informed decision in the coming months on renewal. Should the CCSA wish to speak during the board meeting where the renewal will be discussion, it is certainly welcome.”

Contact Lorna at ourschools@sonomanews.com.

What is a charter school?

Charter schools are public schools operating under a “charter,” essentially a contract entered into between the school and its authorizing agency. In addition to allowing the school to open, the charter allows the school significant operational autonomy with regard to educational objectives and matters of curriculum, personnel and budget. In exchange for this autonomy, the charter school is subject to periodic performance review and may be closed for failing to meet agreed-upon outcomes. (Source: charterschoolcenter.ed.gov)

The California Charter School Association is advocacy organization that has set a goal of a million California students attending charter public schools by 2022, and for charter public schools to outperform non-charter public schools on every measure.

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