What is SoCAT?
The Sonoma County Achievement Team (SoCAT) is a group of highly experienced professional educators who are available to help schools and districts continuously improve instruction so that all students can reach grade-level proficiency.
What can SoCAT do for your school or district?
SoCAT has defined six key areas that are critical to continuous improvement. Schools and districts that contract with SoCAT can, over time, expect to have:
A clear vision implemented through strategic action
Academic programs tightly aligned with state standards
Routines and practices for evidence-based decision-making
Structures and systems for addressing individual student needs
Methods and organization for collaboration and distributed leadership
Informed and involved parents
What’s unique about SoCAT services?
Classroom Focus – SoCAT keeps services close to the classroom, where the biggest difference can be made for students. We provide comprehensive support to schools and districts by using the classroom as the focus for all improvement efforts. By helping schools and districts align their structures and systems to support instructional practices, SoCAT provides integrated and highly effective strategies for continuous improvement.
Collaboration – SoCAT works in partnership with contracting schools and districts to optimize instructional programs, support systems, and structures. Through this active collaboration, SoCAT expands school/district capacity and ensures “ownership” of improvement efforts.
Impact – Evidence collected and analyzed from multiple sources validate the impact of the improvement efforts SoCAT helps implement. Efforts are focused on the instructional core – the place where teachers and students interact with academic content – and they have a deep impact on student achievement.
What are the key ideas that guide SoCAT’s work?
SoCAT’s services are based on research and reflect the following core beliefs:
- All students can reach grade-level proficiency
- Standards-based academic programs are essential to raising student achievement
- Using evidence to make instructional decisions results in improved performance
- The actions taken by adults in a school/district drive student learning
- Collaboration builds sustainability for continuous improvement
- Coherence – the idea that all parts must fit into a credible whole – is an effective framework for aligning programs and structures to school/district goals