Spring Lake Charter, Santa Rosa CA

Original Research by School Decision on Spring Lake Charter

Spring Lake Charter is a public charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Santa Rosa, operated as part of Rincon Valley Union Elementary district. The school enrolls a small population of about midway for this grade span, with roughly two out of five students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is majority white, with a substantial Hispanic population and smaller shares of Asian, multiracial, Black, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students. The school sits in the Sonoma County housing market where median home values are elevated and rents have risen modestly over the past year.

State testing data for lower elementary grades (third through fifth) was not available, likely due to assessment suppression related to small cohort sizes at those levels, which is common in smaller schools. Results from seventh and eighth grade paint a mixed picture. In eighth-grade English language arts, about two-thirds of students met proficiency standards, a solid result. Performance in eighth-grade math was lower, with about half meeting standards. Seventh-grade results were more modest: about one-third in math and about one-half in English language arts reached proficiency. Eighth graders in science achieved proficiency at just above half. These results place the school above the midpoint among proficiency measures across all tested subjects and grades when compared to districts in Sonoma County.

The school's enrollment profile is unusual: the kindergarten and early elementary grades serve only a handful of students each, while seventh and eighth grades together account for the vast majority of the school's population. This concentration at the middle-school level shapes both the academic picture and the peer environment. The district recently adopted i-Ready Classroom Mathematics as its new K-8 curriculum, so instructional materials in math are undergoing a shift district-wide.

Santa Rosa offers neighborhoods ranging from walkable downtown with shops and galleries to car-dependent residential areas on the outskirts. The city is anchored by major employers in health care and government, including Kaiser Permanente and the County of Sonoma, along with technical companies like Keysight and Medtronic. Growth is being directed inward through infill rather than outward, with downtown projects underway and new zoning designed to allow smaller residential units near transit. The adjoining park system, connecting city parks to Spring Lake Regional Park and Annadel State Park, provides outdoor recreation directly accessible from neighborhoods.

The school's state assessment results do not cover a full trend or span of grades, making it difficult to assess whether performance is stable or moving. A parent may want to look further with the school about how seventh-grade results compare to prior years, how the new math curriculum is being implemented, and whether the sharp enrollment difference between elementary and middle grades reflects by-design structure or enrollment patterns that should inform their expectations.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 737%

School 37% · District 37%

▲ 7 pts above state median · ▲ 6 pts above county median

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 51%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 10 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

Grade 867%

School 67% · District 67%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

Science

Grade 854%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 28 pts above state median · ▲ 27 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 861%

School 61% · District 61%

▲ 12 pts above state median · ▲ 2 pts above county median

This schoolRincon Valley Union Elementary, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 7Lower-income45%Higher-income62%17 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income55%Higher-income74%19 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income20%Higher-income46%27 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income34%Higher-income61%27 pp gap