A puzzling legacy - Marin IJ - June 11, 2006- By Don Speich and Jennifer Gollan

A puzzling legacy
By Don Speich and Jennifer Gollan

Marin IJ - June 11, 2006

Christine Celestine concentrates during her eighth-grade class at Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City. The Sausalito Marin City School District is trying to improve decades of poor scores. (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)

It is by far the wealthiest school district in Marin, spending more than $22,000 per student - three times the state average and among the highest in the nation.
Yet its students have the lowest test scores in the county. More than half never graduate high school.

Its teachers have among the smallest classes in Marin and are the county's highest paid, earning an average of $71,000 a year.

Yet critics often target the teachers as part of the problem.

Most students are from low-income families and live in federally subsidized housing.

Yet they are surrounded by residents with some of the highest incomes and priciest homes in California.

It is the Sausalito Marin City School District, a 283-student, predominantly minority school system where efforts to succeed can be measured in decades, but where now - energized by voters' support and a new mantra to achieve - administrators are spearheading an ambitious effort to turn a tide of failure.

"A lot of money has been wasted on unfocused programs," said George Stratigos, president of the school board. "The question is: How many generations of kids' lives have been wasted?"

Led by Stratigos, a Sausalito native and former city councilman whose own parents sent him to private school outside the district, the board is hiring new administrators they believe will help raise test scores, focusing curriculum on basic academic skills and setting its sights on test scores achieved by only a handful of Marin schools.

It is spending a $15.9 million voter-approved bond to rebuild Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City and renovate Bayside Elementary School in Sausalito, import a Tamalpais High School math teacher to supplement instruction and embark on a formal teacher training program focused on student discipline.

It is struggling to reinvent itself.

"We need to look at how to change a culture, and rebuild hope and confidence, and build a program that allows these students to be successful," said Bob Ferguson, superintendent of the Tamalpais Union High School District.

Despite years of hopeful rhetoric and promises of academic improvement, the district remains where it has been for decades: mired in its history, going nowhere.

The district - which includes predominantly white, affluent Sausalito and predominantly black, low-income Marin City - has struggled with issues of race and academic achievement since at least the 1960s, when it was targeted by both the Congress of Racial Equality for being segregated and the Black Panther Party for having no black studies classes or programs like those implemented at schools and colleges throughout the country in the late '60s.


Enrollment plunges

Enrollment at the district's three schools was reshuffled to accomplish racial balance, black studies courses and programs were instituted - and academic achievement, as measured by test scores, began to fall. Student enrollment, which was 1,227 in 1960, dropped to 710 in 1970 - a slide that continued over the next three decades to 283 - as white parents, and then black, moved or sent their children to private schools.

As the student body became increasingly minority from low-income families, the schools became eligible for hefty federal and state funds aimed at raising academic achievement.

In 1974, a Marin County grand jury report called the district's per-pupil expenditures "exorbitant," test scores low despite the lowest student-teacher ratio in the county and teacher salaries excessively high.

Nearly 10 years ago, national auditors - echoing many of the same findings as the 1974 grand jury - diagnosed the Sausalito Marin City schools as broken, despite ample funding.

Teachers were "frustrated, distressed and exhausted" and "instruction had taken a back seat," auditors said. They urged the district to raise expectations of students, saying, "People have to believe that failure is not an option."

The audits led to a recall campaign that resulted in recall leaders Shirley Thornton, and a few years later, Stratigos, being elected to the board. They said they were galvanized by the district's low test scores, as well as poor leadership and classroom discipline. They promised change.

Change has been elusive.

"I have been puzzled ever since 1969 on this," said Michael Kirst, a professor of education at Stanford University who visited the district 37 years ago. "The same problems that were there at that time are the same they have today."


Defining the problems

Lack of parental involvement, discipline challenges and enrollment turnover are among the obstacles to student learning, district officials say.
Some parents say teachers are worn out and the board out of touch; others say teachers' aides keep order in classrooms while teachers carry on uninspired lessons year after year.

Critics include parents such as Yolanda Morgan, who attended Marin City schools in the 1970s and has two children, one at Bayside and one at MLK.

She's convinced that neither they nor their classmates are learning much.

"Education is not right, it's terrible," said Morgan, a Marin City resident. She said few if any of the district's students are reading at grade level.

Morgan graduated from Tamalpais High School and credits her success to "a couple of teachers" there who helped her. She said her son, who is about to graduate from the eighth grade, is worried about going to Tam "because his reading level is not up to par."

Teaching assistants are the school disciplinarians, said La Donna Bonner of Marin City, who worked as an assistant in the district for four years until June last year. She is earning her teaching credential at Dominican University and works intermittently as a substitute teacher in the district.

"The teachers need help keeping the classrooms under control," said Bonner, a project coordinator for the Marin City School Readiness program that encourages Marin City and Sausalito parents to get involved in the early education of their children. "Behavior is an issue; kids get in there and act silly."

That's because many students are bored and many teachers

Photo here
D'George Hines of Marin City, who will be junior class president at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley this fall, says he struggled academically in his freshman year. He says he simply wasn't prepared. (IJ photo/Alan Dep)

"tired," she said. "A lot of them need to retire."

Poor achievement has plagued the schools despite ample funding, leading some to point the finger at teachers and students' challenging home environment, said Whitney Hoyt, a member of the Sausalito Marin City board and principal of nearby Mill Valley Middle School.

"The district has sufficient resources for the kids, so there are other issues that have created a population that is not achieving," Hoyt said. "It's a combination of teachers that aren't teaching the standards and distractions that kids in Mill Valley don't have to deal with."

Bonner's sister, LaTanya Wiggins, a district parent as well as an administrative assistant at the district's Willow Creek charter school, said she believes teachers "are burned out, out of options, out of suggestions."

Ruby Wilson, who is retiring this year as principal of Bayside and Martin Luther King schools after 34 years with the district, said it doesn't help that a quarter of the district's students enroll and leave the schools each year, a problem that has plagued the district for decades.

Also, parents rarely attend school meetings, with the exception of parent-teacher conferences, and some parents need to take a more active role in helping their children with homework, she said.

Wilson said that for many students who come from low-income families with little exposure to different cultures, going from home to school "is almost like you're shifting from one language to another."

The reason for that is as much cultural as economic, said Ricardo Moncrief, chairman of ISOJI, an advocacy group for low-income residents in Marin City.

"A lot of parents are under heavy-duty stress, they are working two jobs, they are having to live as dependents of social service providers because of the lack of community jobs," he said.

Yet the school board, he said, sometimes "comes across as very arrogant."

"They lack an empathy of what it means to grow up poor. They don't know what it is to have grown up on the street and deal with a world that is kicking your butt all the time."

Studies of the district dating back more than four decades describe an "alienation" between the school district and the community, as it was put in 1963 by the state Department of Education. The problem was reiterated in 1974 and 1997 audits.

It is criticism that today baffles trustees, who insist they continually reach out to parents and others in attempts, for example, to increase parental involvement.

Parents, however, point to the board's decision in November to bring in drug-sniffing dogs to inspect the middle school, which they insist they heard nothing about for more than two months. After a public outcry this spring, the board reversed its decision.

"They are taking the previous stance as previous boards have done," said Wiggins, which she described as ignoring the people who elected them.


Throwing money at it

Because of its preponderance of low-income students who bring in more federal funding, and because it is largely funded by "basic aid" - plentiful local property taxes in a pricey real estate market - Sausalito Marin City is the top-funded urban school district in California, and among the top 2 percent nationwide.
The district:

- Spends $22,232 per student, compared with a statewide average of $7,127 per student in 2004-05, according to the state Department of Education.

- Pays teachers an average annual salary of $70,981, the highest in Marin, where teachers averaged $58,256 for 2004-05, the last year for which complete figures were available. Five long-time teachers in Sausalito Marin City earn $81,695 a year.

- Spent $849,425 last year on administration, including administrators' salaries, out of its $4.6 million budget. Among the state's 27 smallest, wealthiest school districts, Sausalito Marin City ranked among the top three in the cost of administration; it devoted 18 percent of its budget to administration, compared with an average of 4 percent for elementary school districts statewide.

"Clearly, the district has become a small-scale yet bloated organization," said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. "Per-student spending on administration exceeds the total budget that many districts have to put into their total program."

The district can afford several staff consultants and has its own public relations specialist.

But the high per-pupil expenditure demonstrates what many experts have maintained for years: money is but one factor in providing an effective education for students.

Other factors - high expectations of students, highly motivated and committed teachers, parental involvement, the income level of parents - are keys to student success.

Hoyt noted that despite the district's wealth "we are the lowest-performing school district in the county."

"We do have a lot of money and yet, the vast majority of our kids are reading below grade level. We have to do something about that because if we don't, they won't make it at Tam High School. If they can't read, they can't compete."

Fuller put it this way:

"The sad story of the Sausalito Marin City district is one that we keep repeating over and over again, which is that money alone doesn't guarantee higher student achievement. And the problems in Marin City are more deeply seated in the racial isolation of that community, even as it sits on the edge of one of the wealthiest towns in the world."


Working toward change

Trustees contend that progress is afoot and the district soon will excel. Stratigos is fond of saying it will become "the best district in the county."
"We're on the brink of success," he said, pointing to higher test scores and the appointment of new Superintendent Debra Bradley who, he said, will help assure more teacher accountability and a curriculum more focused on academic success.

The board last year ousted Rose Marie Roberson as superintendent because, Stratigos said, it wanted someone who could better lead the district to higher academic achievement. Roberson declined to comment.

Stung by the fact that more than half the students who move on to high school drop out before graduation, the district has begun working with the Tamalpais High School District.

"Students from Marin City need help," said D'George Hines, a sophomore at Tamalpais High School who recently was elected junior class president. "We need all the help we can get."

Hines, 15, should know. He earned good grades in Sausalito Marin City schools but struggled during his freshman year at Tam.

"I was flunking at school and my mother was a wreck," said Hines, a gospel singer and actor who aspires to be a lawyer, perhaps with a career in politics.

His mother took away his cell phone and other privileges. He went to summer school, met with his teachers, asked for help. This year there are no failing grades; his marks are inching up.

He said he and nearly all of his peers struggled last year as freshmen at Tam.

"I guess it's because of the (Sausalito Marin City) school district," he said. "I wasn't taught in-depth on certain things. É All the academic courses could have been done better."

Stratigos said teacher accountability is on the front burner.

The district this year began a formal program to train teachers how to handle student discipline. As part of that effort, the board earlier this year cut four teaching assistants at Bayside, an effort to shift more responsibility for discipline and instruction to teachers, Stratigos said.

Although Wilson lamented the cuts, Stratigos said the district needs teachers who are "not dependent on aides in the classroom. É We need to put teachers in charge of the classroom."


Vision 900
Trustees hope slogans will help in their quest for improvement.

"Vision 900" tumbles into conversations with trustees early and often and refers to a 900 Academic Performance Index score, obtained by only a handful of the best Marin and state districts.

The district this year earned an API of 692, the lowest of Marin's traditional school districts, but higher than just three years ago when the scores were in the 300 range.

California's goal for public schools is a score of 800 or higher, which is based on a scale of 200 to 1,000. In 2005, MLK was among six of 73 public schools in Marin that failed to meet the state's standard for annual academic progress, accountability standards required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Still, it is the swing from the 300s to the 600s in the API that school officials are pointing to as a sure sign things are improving. State testing experts say it is a mistake to make too much of the jump in scores because the subjects and grades tested have changed from year to year, making comparisons impossible.

Another slogan, "94965," was originated by the district's public relations specialist, and refers to the ZIP code of both Sausalito and Marin City. Its message is one of inclusiveness: a school district that comprises not only black children from Marin City but also white children from Sausalito - a goal that will

Students stretch during morning assembly at Bayside School in Sausalito. The Sausalito Marin City School District is Marin's most diverse. (IJ photo/ Frankie Frost)

be attained through the accomplishment of "Vision 900."

Stratigos and trustee Tom Clark believe that outstanding test scores will re-attract the white majority to the district, and thus create schools that are racially balanced and socially and economically diverse, a perfect reflection of the community they serve.

The district also is targeting its buildings - a $15.9 million bond measure approved by voters in 2004 will help pay for renovation of Bayside in Sausalito and a new MLK school in Marin City, with construction to start this fall.

Stratigos envisions a school modeled after a high school, with different classes for different subjects, high expectations of excellence and no excuses for failure - a highly successful academic institution that sends students on to high school fully prepared and ready for success.


Breakfast and poetry

Meanwhile, as the adults plot and plan, the kids at Bayside Elementary go to school day after day wearing infectious smiles and embraced by an aura of contagious hope like small children everywhere.

Each day starts with breakfast in the multipurpose room.
They giggle and tease and chat for awhile and then it is quickly down to business, which on one recent day was the recitation of poems led by Wilson, the principal.

The first was by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the children, 50 or so, recited it perfectly and with gusto. Then there was a poem by Langston Hughes; the children again were flawless in their delivery.

"Splendid, splendid, very good - very good," Wilson said, "though you raced through one and it was a little faster than I wanted."

Somewhere, the experts say, there is a disconnect between most children's obvious willingness and ability to learn and to please - as demonstrated by the poetry lesson - and the acquisition of basic academic skills for many minority youngsters from low-income families.

The challenge in Sausalito Marin City schools, all concerned agree, is finding where that disconnect is and making it go away.

Contact Don Speich via e-mail at dspeich@marinij