As enrollment at Bolinas-Stinson Union School District continues to plunge, a group of parents have pegged a large share of the blame on what they decry as educational shortfalls, particularly in math. The group maintains that at least 55 families have left the district since 2007, driven away by fears that their children may enter high school woefully unprepared to complete math courses.
School officials, however, have argued that the problem may not be as dire as they have framed it. Pointing to a lack of affordable housing options in Bolinas and Stinson Beach as causes of declining enrollment, they have offered parallel data to counter parents’ claims and say the district has elected to focus its curriculum on experiential, project-based learning rather than the usual standards-based approach.
Regardless of the cause, the district has lost a third of its students in less than five years. Fourteen percent fewer students are expected to enroll next year—from 100 students this year down to 86. Meanwhile, the divide remains wide between parents who view math as a serious shortfall and school officials who see it as less so.
Earlier this month, the parent group met with Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke to air their grievances. They have called on the district to hire a full-time math specialist, offer free afterschool and summer tutoring, provide textbooks based on the state’s Common Core curriculum and refashion math and language arts assessments to mirror state standards.
“So many people feel like this is just their problem and that they’ve been dismissed by the school community as just disgruntled parents,” said Tara Evans-Boyce, a parent from Stinson Beach who has led the group. “But, really, there are so many people coming out of the woodwork.”
Speaking for the group, Ms. Evans-Boyce noted that 30 students—nearly a third of the district’s population—received expensive private tutoring from services outside the school this year.
But while tutoring has helped these students pass muster with their high school placement math exams, their lower-income and English-learner peers who cannot afford private courses fall to the wayside—as evidenced by consistently lower state test scores from 2010 to 2013 for Latino and low-incomer students compared to more well-off, Anglo peers.
“What’s becoming more and more apparent is that this is an issue of race and class disparity,” said Ms. Evans-Boyce, who removed her third-grade son from the district in January and will not matriculate her preschool-aged daughter. “Ultimately, at the end of the day, if you can’t pay for private tutoring and you can’t pay to drive your child or move out of the district, then you’re not receiving the same education as our counterparts in Marin County.”
The group has recruited longtime San Rafael social activist Cesar Lagleva, who organized and edited a report in 2008 on racial and class disparities confronting Marin’s education system. Through working with the parent group to present their findings to county officials, Mr. Lagleva said he’s seeing the same educational disparities in Bolinas-Stinson that have long plagued Marin’s schools.
“It is a disheartening feeling,” Mr. Lagleva said. “What I see [at Bolinas-Stinson] is not unique in terms of outcomes. It appears on the surface that there continues to be an achievement gap among certain students, particularly among socially and economically disadvantaged students and students of color.”
The parent group argues that a foundering math program has enlarged that gap. Data acquired from Tamalpais Union High School District shows that from 2007 to 2010, only 15 percent of Bolinas-Stinson students entering freshman year enrolled in advanced-level math classes, compared to 52 percent of their peers. Similarly, 36 percent of Bolinas-Stinson students were enrolled in below-grade-level math courses, compared to eight percent of all Tam High freshmen. And whereas 84 percent of all Tam students eventually went on to take an advanced algebra course, only 31 percent of graduates from Bolinas-Stinson graduates did so.
But at a board of trustees meeting on Tuesday, Bolinas-Stinson Superintendent John Carroll provided a new set of data that appeared to paint a different picture. He presented a report that showed 34 out of 40 Bolinas-Stinson graduates from 2011 to 2015 who enrolled in local public high schools—predominantly Tam—were placed in grade-level or higher math classes in their freshman years, with five students placed in modified math classes as recommended by their individualized education plans.
Twenty-nine out of those 40 students, Mr. Carroll added, have either completed or are on track to complete courses required for acceptance into state universities. He noted that the district’s goal is to enroll all graduates in grade-level or higher math classes.
“That doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels and say everything’s fine,” Mr. Carroll said. “But it’s not as bad as some people might think.”
Trustees expressed optimism at the news. Trustee Steve Marcotte pointed out that only one student repeated Tam High’s algebra in 10th grade, according to the report. “That speaks pretty highly of how our eighth-grade teachers assess students,” he said. “Otherwise, we would see more kids failing in algebra. It seems that everyone is properly placed.”
To address continued concerns about math instruction, Mr. Carroll said the district plans to implement a standards-based report card that will reflect a student’s progress toward meeting state standards. Likewise, one teacher away from the district on special assignment this upcoming school year will participate in math training through the county’s Math and Science Consortium program.
Raquel Rose, the Office of Education’s assistant superintendent, said the county has sought to increase training for teachers in math and other subjects through a set of state grants that fund training programs. These programs aim at training teachers to build math curriculum around state standards.
“Through the implementation of rigorous development and support, we’re seeing changes in classrooms,” Ms. Rose said. “And what we’re recognizing is it’s not necessarily about the content. It’s about the way in which we teach our kids, and shifting what that looks like.”
To address that shift in teaching, several teachers this year have enrolled in a county-run training in project-based learning styles. The county’s emphasis on teaching beyond the inculcation of standards-based material is in step with Bolinas-Stinson officials like Mr. Carroll, who has stressed the need to incorporate math into real-world situations.
In a recent blog post, Mr. Carroll called for greater emphasis on immersive education experiences as opposed to the traditional method of knowledge acquisition and memorizing facts. He highlighted rote spelling memorization that could hamper a student’s creativity, and instead encouraged more creative spelling endeavors.
“This doesn’t mean that we’ll just forget about spelling; it simply means that we should not view it as a primary objective that we care as much about…as their ability to solve real problems or communicate clearly,” he wrote. “Our focus will be relevant application rather than correctness and compliance.”
Even so, the parent group feels the district should still adhere to state standards. Since the school receives the bulk of its revenue through their property taxes, they believe that what they pay for should adequately prepare their children for high school and college, as well as for more real-world scenarios.
“If you take state and federal money, you have to follow the standards set forth by the state,” Ms. Evans-Boyce said. “I don’t care what your community’s culture is. There are rules that must be followed, and accountability and oversight by the board that they’re not doing.”