River Oaks Academy

• River Oaks Academy Charter School Introduction:River Oaks Academy Charter School is a non-classroom based program, focused on personalized learning for students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grades. We have about 260 students enrolled throughout the grade levels. We just opened a 2nd resource center in the West County, in Oxnard, to better serve students in that area. We currently serve 54 students at the Oxnard facility. Two years ago, we received a 6 year clear WASC accreditation and our new facility is also accredited. River Oaks Academy is founded on the belief that all children are born with the capacity for brilliance. Our mission is to help children find, nurture and sustain the passion that will lead to their individual forms of brilliance. To this end, we offer a non-traditional TK-12 independent study, personalized learning program of individually designed curriculum and direction. The structure of our school is quite different from what many have experienced in education. Our students are all taught in their own communities, primarily in their homes by their parents. Parents in our school are afforded the privilege and responsibility of facilitating their own child`s education. As a school, we provide the support, guidance, accountability, documentation, materials, resources and assessments. We provide a credentialed teacher, who develops not only a close relationship with the student and the parent, but also reviews the learning and creates the assignment for the upcoming learning periods. The relationship is cultivated over time and is one of utmost professionalism and respect. The teacher is the pivotal point of contact between the school and the student. The parent provides the day-to-day instruction. The teacher meets at least once every twenty school days with the student and the parent. The teacher also completes documentation and paperwork for each student for the school. Our students participate in a variety of workshops, both at our resource centers and in the community. The school provides for workshops, classes, tutoring, study halls and social events. Students also participate in all state-mandated assessments, which included the CAASPP and the Physical Fitness test for students in grades 5, 7, and 9. Our 3-8th grade students take our i-Ready assessment twice/year, so we can monitor progress both, in the fall and in the spring. The high school students, partake in the ACT Aspire administration in the fall and the spring; we also administer the PSAT and our school is an official testing center for the College Board. Due to that we offer  the SAT exams twice/year at our site as well.  Since our enrollment in the individual grade level is below 30, the new state's accountability system, the  "Dashboard" shows numerous "N/As" for our school. However, we are proud to emphasize that we saw a remarkable progress with our LCAP Goal # 3 (math improvements). We continued our extensive support in math by providing students (based on their last year's CAASPP results) with weekly math tutors; we offered a daily math lab, focus room (study hall) and a variety of other math support workshops. With that, our math level increased by over 26 points. We will continue to include this goal in our LCAP and provide these services to further improve our students' math skills. Our ELA indicator also shows that we "increased significantly"--27 points. We are currently 15.2 points above level 3. In ELA as well, we will continue to provide the academic support by offering individual tutoring, academic writing workshops, SAT prep workshops and more to continue and maintain the growth. Our graduation rate shows as "Status" and "Change" columns are marked with an N/A. This is again due to the low cohort numbers in each grade and to protect student privacy. However, we are happy to report that over the last several years, we have had a 100% 4-year cohort graduation rate. Our Chronic Absenteeism rate also shows an N/A. As an Independent Study program, absenteeism is not a prevalent issue. Our Goal #4 emphasizes access to a-g courses and CC courses as well as career pathways offerings. To continue to prepare our students for College and Career, we not only have continued to build our Career Pathway program, which gives our students extensive choices to venture and explore a variety of careers, but we also have changed our graduation requirements to include our College and Career Seminar, which is an a-g articulated course. Furthermore, we now offer WEE (Work Experience); 3 pathways that are not only a-g, but that we hope to articulate with the local colleges (Hospitality, Legal and Networking); business partners from a variety of industry sectors who are supporting our pathways and are offering internships and job shadowing to our students. Our high school guidance counselor works and meets with students at least twice/year to make sure that they not only are on track, but also are informed. We have 39 a-g courses, from which our students can choose and continue to add to that list every year. We also offer SAT prep courses in math and ELA. 

Profile last updated: 2017-04-11 10:57:56