Adele Harrison Middle, Sonoma CA

Original Research by School Decision on Adele Harrison Middle

Adele Harrison Middle, a regular public school serving grades six through eight in Sonoma, is a school in transition. The district closed the school at the end of the 2024-25 school year and consolidated its enrollment into Altimira Middle School for 2025-26, making Harrison the third school closure in Sonoma Valley Unified's multi-year consolidation program driven by fiscal insolvency and sustained enrollment decline.

For families who attended Harrison during its final year, the school's academic profile shows mixed results across subjects and grades. English language arts proficiency was higher overall, with students in sixth and seventh grades hovering around the mid-range and eighth grade notably lower. Mathematics proficiency was substantially weaker across all three grades, with sixth graders in particular struggling significantly. Eighth-grade science proficiency was also low. When proficiency results are averaged across tested subjects and grades, Harrison's overall performance placed it below the midpoint among districts across Sonoma County. The school had one year of comparable data available; longer-term trends were not provided.

The student body reflected the local composition of Sonoma Valley: roughly half the enrollment identified as Hispanic, and the other half predominantly white. A substantial share of students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating economic diversity within the enrollment. Specific counts for students with individualized education plans or English learners were not available, so the school's capacity to support those populations cannot be assessed from the data provided.

Sonoma itself is a small wine-country town with a highly walkable historic plaza at its center and an economy built on tourism and agriculture. Housing costs in the area are well above both state and national benchmarks, and public records from the district indicate that high cost of living has contributed to the exodus of young families and the enrollment losses the district faced. The consolidation of Harrison into Altimira means families who lived in Harrison's attendance area must now send their children to a different campus, navigate new boundaries, and adjust to a reorganized middle school footprint within the district.

Prospective families should understand that the school no longer exists as an independent entity. Families with children who would have attended Harrison are now part of Altimira Middle School's population. Anyone considering Sonoma Valley Unified schools should be aware that the district continues to work through a consolidation process that includes the closure of one remaining elementary school at the end of 2025-26 and revised attendance boundaries. The district's website and recent board minutes contain details on intra-district transfer options and the timeline for these transitions.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 610%

School 10% · District 15% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 20 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 730%

School 30% · District 23% · ▲ 7 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 819%

School 19% · District 13% · ▲ 6 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 11 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 645%

School 45% · District 36% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 745%

School 45% · District 34% · ▲ 11 pts above district

even with state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 38% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Science

Grade 825%

School 25% · District 16% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 839%

School 39% · District 42% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

This schoolSonoma Valley Unified, 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 6Lower-income21%Higher-income58%37 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income20%Higher-income57%37 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income16%Higher-income51%35 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 6Lower-income3%Higher-income15%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income19%Higher-income35%16 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income5%Higher-income26%21 pp gap