Marin schools have mostly emerged out of last year’s danger zones of chronic absenteeism and high suspension rates, according to a new annual state report unveiled Thursday.
Last year, the California School Dashboard, a state school performance evaluation tool, had nearly two-thirds of Marin school districts at the near-poor or poor level for chronic absenteeism — defined as missing 18 or more days in a school year. This year, however, none of the districts were in the poor — or “red” — zone in chronic absenteeism. Many of those that were near-poor — or “orange” — level last year have likewise improved, the report said.
“The credit for this goes directly to Marin teachers and staff for building a culture where kids want to go to school, and where they know the teacher will be sad if they are missing,” said Mary Jane Burke, Marin County superintendent of schools. “In this culture, the kids feel that ‘I’m a member of a larger community, and I add value.'”
Parents and community members can view the dashboard at caschooldashboard.org. In addition to chronic absenteeism and suspension rates, ratings are available for English language arts and math — and, in the high schools, career and college readiness and graduation rates.
Last year, three Marin school districts — Shoreline Unified, Bolinas-Stinson and Sausalito Marin City — were in the “red” zone in chronic absenteeism. This year, all three have moved up to near-poor or “orange” or to “yellow” — mediocre. Some have also improved other rankings in English and math to “green” for good, and “blue” for very good.
“While we are pleased with the progress that we are seeing in some areas, we still see important work ahead of us to ensure that our students are achieving at the high levels of which they are capable,” said Bob Raines, superintendent of Shoreline Unified School District, in an email.
“Our teachers, administrators, and instructional staff are all dedicated to implementing instructional strategies that will ensure success for all students — especially our students of color and those children who come to us speaking languages other than English.”
John Carroll, superintendent of the Bolinas-Stinson School District, said while the escape from the red zone in chronic absenteeism might be significant for the larger districts, at Bolinas-Stinson, not so much. The district has two schools with a combined enrollment of about 120 students, according to 2017-18 data.
“The dashboard is not a useful tool for a small district like ours when it comes to attendance and suspension,” Carroll said. “I predicted with near certainty that suspension would improve this year, literally because of one very rare incident the year before.
“Similarly, we are so small that when we look at chronic absenteeism, I know the specific students and why they missed school as much as they did,” he said. “If one family goes on a vacation for a week while school is in session, the needle will move and there is nothing we can do to stop it.”
Carroll said he was nonetheless proud to see his district move up from near-poor — or “orange” — zone last year in English language arts to the very good — or “blue” — level this year.
“I suspect that may have something to do with our implementation of a new language arts program — articulated from grade to grade — over the last few years,” he said.
Itoco Garcia, superintendent of the Sausalito Marin City School District, said he attributes the progress in the district’s TK-8 school, Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, to a “greatly improved school climate, teacher stability, a student success coach in every classroom, arts integration and our community school model coupled with our new block English intervention schedule and a commitment to deep work around racial equity via courageous conversations.”
“We still have a lot of work to do, particularly with English language learners,” Garcia added. “I am particularly excited that African-American students scored significantly higher in ELA and math than state averages.”
Mark Phillips of Woodacre, a professor emeritus in education from San Francisco State University, said while tools such as the dashboard can be useful in some instances, he thinks the state should survey actual students. Most of the results from the dashboard come from test scores, attendance records, graduation records and other data.
“Kids as young as fourth grade can provide dead-on feedback related to their teachers, the school and the curriculum,” Phillips said in an email. “The latter is from my own doctoral research. High school students can provide even better feedback. Yet we continue to not include them in evaluation or in policy making.”
Statewide, the dashboard shows that schools are making progress on four out of six statewide indicators — graduation rate, suspension rate, college and career readiness rate and math and English language arts test scores, according to a statement Thursday from the California Department of Education and the state Board of Education. The dashboard, however, also shows a troubling 1.1 percent rise in chronic absenteeism statewide.
“Students in grades K–8 are considered chronically absent if they miss 10 percent or more of expected days of attendance,” the statement says. “Possible issues that may have contributed to the increase include rising homelessness, work stoppages and natural disasters, which affect health, housing and transportation.”
Overall, “California public schools are making steady, albeit slow, progress in important areas — we are headed in the right direction,” said state board President Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond. “We also are seeing places making strong gains — schools and districts that we will want to study further. In other places where progress is stuck, we
need to examine the nature of the support being provided to local educators.”
Here are the 2019 Marin County results:
Bolinas-Stinson School District: “orange” on chronic absenteeism, “green” on suspension rate, “blue” on English, “yellow” on math.
Dixie (Miller Creek): “orange” on chronic absenteeism, “orange” on suspension rate, “blue” on English, “green” on math.
Kentfield Elementary School District: “orange” on chronic absenteeism, “green” on suspension rate, and “green” on English language arts, “blue” and math.
Larkspur Corte Madera School District: “green” on both chronic absenteeism and suspension rate, and “blue” on both English language arts and math.
Mill Valley Elementary School District: “green” on chronic absenteeism and suspension rate and “blue” on both English language arts and math.
Lagunitas School District: “orange” on chronic absenteeism, “yellow” on suspension rate, “blue” on English and “green” on math.
Nicasio School District: “orange” on chronic absenteeism, “blue” on suspension rate. No other data available.
Novato Unified School District: “yellow” on chronic absenteeism, “green” on suspension rate, “green” on graduation rate and college and career prep, “yellow” on English and “green” on math.
Novato Charter: “yellow” on chronic absenteeism, “”green” on suspension rate, English and math.
Reed Union School District: “orange” on chronic absenteeism and suspension rate, “blue” on English and math.
Ross School District: “green” on chronic absenteeism, “blue” on suspension rate, English and math.
Ross Valley Charter: “yellow” on chronic absenteeism and suspension rate, “blue” on English and math.
Ross Valley School District: “green” on chronic absenteeism and suspension rate, “blue” on English and math.
San Rafael City Schools (high school): “green” on suspension rate and graduation rate and college and careers prep, “orange” on English and “yellow” on math.
San Rafael City Schools (elementary): “green” on suspension rate, “yellow” on suspension rate and “yellow” on English and math.
Sausalito Marin City School District: “orange” on chronic absenteeism and suspension rate, “yellow” on English language arts and “orange” in math.
Shoreline Unified School District: “yellow” on chronic absenteeism, “orange” on suspension rate, “green” on graduation rate and college and career prep, “orange” on English and math.
Tamalpais Union High School District: “green” on suspension rate, “blue” on graduation rate, “yellow” on college and career prep, “green” on English and math.
Willow Creek Academy charter: “red” on chronic absenteeism, “orange” on suspension rate, “blue” on English and math.
