Renaissance Arts Academy Named a 2013 California Distinguished School

Renaissance Arts Academy, the Eagle Rock public charter school that focuses on the Renaissance-era “open classroom” model of education, emphasizing the lack of boundaries between disciplines, was recognized Thursday as one of 218 public middle and high schools that are this year’s California Distinguished Schools.

Five other Los Angeles Unified School District schools—all charter schools—received the honor. Click here to see the full list.

“These schools have gone the extra mile to provide high-quality instruction that puts their students on the right path toward career and college,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said. “Given the enormous challenges schools have faced in recent years, it is inspiring to see this kind of success in so many schools.”

PK Candaux, executive director and co-founder of Renaissance Arts Academy, widely called RenArts, said she was thrilled to hear the news.

“It’s not the Oscars, but it’s an exciting thing to have happened,” she told Eagle Rock Patch. “It brings a kind of recognition that says to the community we’re reaching certain academic goals, and it’s something for the entire community to be proud of.”

This is the second time RenArts has been named a California Distinguished School. The school won the award in 2009.

California Distinguished Schools are named on the basis of their Academic Performance Index (API), which ranks schools on how students score on California standards tests in English, science, math and social studies; as well as the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals established by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. The AYP measures graduation rates, participation on statewide tests, proficiency in language arts and math, and performance in the state’s accountability program.

RenArts had an API score of 906 (1,000 is the highest possible) and an AYP of 17, meaning that the school made adequate yearly progress in all of the 17 categories set for it.

California Distinguished Schools are nominated by the California Department of Education and the application process requires every nominee to describe two signature practices. Schools that are recognized must share their practices with other schools and agree to mentor schools that wish to emulate what the distinguished schools have done.

The two signature practices that RenArts described in its application are the school’s arts program and the humanities program, Candaux said.

The arts program at RenArts requires all students to participate in choir and to study music theory and dance. The students are then required to specialize in either music or dance.

In the school’s humanities program, English language arts and history are taught together as a block. “It’s a schoolwide curriculum in which everybody reads the same books but has a different depth and complexity,” Candaux said.

Related: Renaissance Arts Academy Breathes New Life Into Public Education