River Charter School
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"Up" is the number of experts who agree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in the
field. "Down" is the number of experts who disagree that the nonprofit has had the most impact in field.
Headquarters Location: Napa, CA
Founded: 1996
Mission: Our purpose is to educate sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students to be responsible, respectful self-motivated learners who make positive contributions to their communities. We will accomplish this with the collaboration of teachers, parents and students who provide a nurturing learning environment that emphasizes academic competence, creative expression, and personal and social responsibility and models the values we want our students to learn.
Tags:
bay area, middle-secondary education, educational institution, homeschool, special education, gifted learners' support, athletics, research
Summary
Stories
Expert Reviews
Leadership
From the Nonprofit
Leadership
Linda Inlay.
Linda Inlay is the Director of The River School, a charter middle school, Napa Valley Unified School District, 1996 to present. She was previously a GATE Resource Teacher for 4th-6th grades, a 6th grade maths teacher at Suzanne Middle School in Walnut, California, and a 7th grade Language Arts teacher in Kranz Intermediate School, El Monte, California. She received her…
See full bio.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio:
n/a
Total Revenue:
$439,488
From the Nonprofit
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Contact Info
Address:
2447 Old Sonoma Rd
Napa, CA 94558, USA
Story:
Read about the testimonial of a mother and a daughter about their experience in River Charter School:
From the parent:
My daughter attended the River School for 2 years as a 7th & 8th grader. Since she has both ADD and Bi-Polar Disorder I can tell you that it has been a struggle since she started school. I have tried all along to teach her the skills she needs to survive and thrive in this world and, for now, in the school systems. The approach I took up until now was to stay close to her teachers and stay involved in her school while pushing her along the road. At the River School, parenting classes taught me to let go and let her take responsibility for her actions. I did that completely the first year and saw her struggle, fail and be held back a grade. She went through their process for regaining a grade level after being held back. This time she stepped up to the plate and showed that she could do the work. It was still a struggle, but it was hers.
An even bigger struggle for us has been to get my daughter to own her disabilities, that is, to become her own advocate. I have tried to teach her to request help at school when she needed it but she was always either too embarrassed or shy to reach out. The River School taught her that the resources were there and available for her but that she had to initiate it and seek out the help. No one was going to push her to the counselors and resource people.
She is now a freshman in a very large High School where it will be so easy for her to get lost in the masses. Here is her story of how the River School helped her.
From her daughter:
When I was in 8th grade I finally got down the fact that I had to go to the teachers if I wanted help, not my mom. Before this I had great difficulty approaching the teachers. I would rather hurt my grades than go up to the teacher for help. Through learning this I have been able to get myself out of a too difficult English class and into a Resource English class, which is slower than the regular College Prep English course. I also learned to keep a cool head when dealing with teachers otherwise I could get myself more trouble. The River School discipline system taught me to gain control when I would get emotional and out of control. I have used this skill this year by trying to not get too emotional when I found out I was failing my math class. It kept me from several detentions. I learned to be persistent when dealing with my Math class. The teachers were trying to put me into a lower level math class when I felt that I just needed a different teacher who would be more tolerable to my learning process. As a result of my meetings with the Resource Supervisor at the High School she helped me learn that by going back to basic algebra, I would learn the basic skills I may have missed along the way. She made me feel good about it too. I was also able to go and get the Band class added between semesters, an unusual act. River School has given me the confidence I needed to express my needs and wants. River School gave me my voice.
(Read more testimonials at: http://www.riverschool.org/about/testimonials.html)
Expert Reviews of River Charter School
Evidence of Impact Summary:
River School is changing the lives of young people in Napa through innovative curriculum that is teaching responsibility, self respect, and personal empowerment. These students then feed into the local high schools and emerge as leaders in the classroom and in campus organizations. They are bright and compassionate and have strong self confidence and interpersonal skills. These students are engaged in school and seek ways to be involved and to be part of their education and the communities they live in. Every year many of these students impact the Napa community because they work on community and/or school projects using the skills they develop at River Middle School. In the age of overstressed and over tested children, their students are well-rounded and secure and find deeper meaning in their education.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
River Charter School receives high marks both for top leadership and staff members in the classroom. The programs vision and curriculum design are cited as distinguishing features, as well.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Areas for improvement were varied depending on the expert surveyed. Enhanced fundraising, better communication of the school's values, and expanding programming were mentioned.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Impact |
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River Charter School provides opportunities for teachers and students to engage in character education development. As a result, teachers have a high-level of collaboration with each other as well as with students and parents. | ||
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The philosophy-related practices that drive the River School produce outstanding results for students. I visited the River school for several days and have met with their students. In addition, a River School teacher replaced me at the university when I took a leave to start an Early College High School. I adapted several common River School practices at my school. These practices were equally effective. | ||
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River Charter School's methodology for teaching and learning is student-centered and focuses on character development and building well rounded, good global citizens. | ||
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Parent Teacher Education Training Site is an example of River Charter School's impact. | ||
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River School is changing the lives of young people in Napa through innovative curriculum that is teaching responsibility, self respect and personal empowerment. These students then feed into the local high schools and emerge as leaders in the classroom and in campus organizations. They are bright and compassionate and have strong self confidence and interpersonal skills. These students are engaged in school and seek ways to be involved and to be part of their education and the communities they live in. Every year many of these students impact the Napa community because they work on community and/or school projects using the skills they develop at River Middle School. In the age of overstressed and over tested children, their students are well-rounded and secure and find deeper meaning in their education. | ||
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The River School philosophy is based on teaching an implicit curriculum as well the explicit one. Their system is based on the Ho'ala philosophy and, as such, seeks to develop the concepts of respect, responsibility, resourcefulness and reliability. Whenever I receive any of the former River School students as students of my own, I am always stunned how much more aware they are, both globally and locally. I can only imagine what kind of adults those children will become and what kind of an overall impact they will have in whatever worlds they choose to live. | ||
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River School is providing academic education in a deep way: they are addressing the whole child, from inside out. They are bringing students and families lives, and addressing academic and theoretical issues from a values-oriented perspective. They are clearly making a huge impact on the students, their families, and the overall community. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Collaboration |
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The teacher collaboration is a great strength for this school. This kind of collaboration is supported by strong leadership and administration. | ||
Leadership |
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The River School has excellent leadership. The principal has created a school that puts powerful theory into practice. There is vision, commitment, and skill at all levels in the organization. | ||
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River School's Principal, Linda Inlay, is a visionary leader in her field. She focuses energy on building diverse, talented, reflective teaching staff and supporting a broadly defined school community --including parents, community partners and the students themselves as stakeholders and investors in the educational outcomes. | ||
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The leadership of River School works as a team, and seek ways to involve everyone in decisions. The teachers and administration work as a team, not a hierarchical structure. They also focus on the whole child, on promoting social and emotional wellness and strength in young people at a time when their confidence is shaky and their self esteem is developing. It is a critical time to teach these young students how to be responsible and powerful in the world. | ||
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River Charter School has strong leadership. It enjoys the support of their school district, parents, and a community that believes in their work. | ||
Program Design |
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Read the web page and compare the philosophy, program, mission and vision of this school to any of the others on the list. Then go visit the school. You will find that the philosophy is in action. It is a school that changes kids lives. Changing schools is not about replicating models. It doesn't work that way. Linda and the teachers at the River School understand this. They understand that changing schools is about changing the way people think and feel about their work. They have the skills and passion. They need support. | ||
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River Charter School is excellent. It shows that art can play a strong role in an instructional program that is also successful on traditional academic success metrics. They have a sustainable financial model. | ||
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The most obvious strength is in what they are teaching and how they are doing it. The entire school is based on a collaborative model as opposed to a competitive one. The students know in their hearts that the teachers care deeply for them as individuals and the feeling is returned from students to teachers. They are teaching an extremely strong form of peer mediation, called Giga, which is teaching the young how to interact and solve emotional problems by developing active listening and feedback skills. In addition, River School also makes mandatory a set of parental training workshops where parents are taught how to allow their children of middle-school age to make mistakes, take responsibility for them, and learn from their experiences. These are life-long skills that are taught to both parents and students and will be passed on through the generations. | ||
National Recognition |
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River Charter School was a National Schools of Character Finalist in 2005. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Enhance Impact |
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River School students score only a little higher than non-River School students on tests which measure different areas of character development. To distinguish themselves further as a unique and effective school, it may be beneficial for them to be more explicit with their students about the core values they are teaching. | ||
Better fundraising |
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The River school needs to fundraise more effectively because of the current budget situation in California. More funding could also help the River School influence other schools. The web site could be updated as well. | ||
Experience Sharing |
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They need to find meaningful ways to explain, share, and disseminate best practices for their educational model; it is currently difficult to explain and share with others, and this would strengthen and deepen their impact greatly. | ||
Follow best-practices |
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They could also look at nearby Napa Valley Language Academy--a very successful and sustainable "conversion" of a traditional public school to charter status--with a successful dual-language program. | ||
Expand programming |
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They could expand their grade levels through 12th grade - or at least through 9th grade and/or incorporate grades 1 - 5. | ||
Leadership
Linda Inlay
Director
Director
From the Nonprofit
The nonprofit has not added any comments yet. If you are a representative of this nonprofit and would like to leave a comment, please email us at
feedback@myphilanthropedia.org
with your request.