Respone To Article in Pacific Sun
November 29, 2005
Dear Editor:
My thanks to the Pacific Sun and reporter Jill Kramer for your October 21st report on the "Achievement Gap." While I cannot agree with your entire report, and some much-needed progress that we have made in recent years went unreported, it is important that these issues are discussed openly and articles such as yours helps to encourage just such a dialogue.
Seven years ago the voters of the Sausalito Marin City School District made a commitment to change the direction of our schools. One year ago these same voters spoke again and for the first time in the community's history endorsed a school bond measure. This $15.9 million measure, approved by over 70% of the voters, will allow for the construction of a new middle school that will greatly enhance the learning environment. For the first time we will be able to provide our students with science labs, music rooms, study areas and state-of-the-art technology that is common in nearly all other middle schools in our county. We cannot hope to close an achievement gap with substandard facilities. Additionally, the bond measure will allow for the replacement of our K-2 learning pod important in helping us to get our children's education off to a positive start.
But we are not waiting for tomorrow's facilities to make the changes that must be made now. Significant progress has been made in academics as we see in test scores that have risen over 300 points in recent years. Our long-term academic goal is expressed in our district's program Vision 900, which sets an ambitious goal to raise our test scores so that our academic proficiency is equal to or better than that of any other school district in Marin County.
We are in the process of expanding our pre-school program knowing full well that children who are well prepared to start Kindergarten have a considerably better chance at success. Our district has been working closely with the Marin City Community Service District and the Marin Community Foundation on the creation of a new cultural center in the heart of Marin City that will provide a comprehensive new after-school learning center. We are also working in a partnership with Tam High School to introduce our eight grade students to the rigor of high school. Teachers from Tam come to our MLK campus and work with our eight graders to strengthen their math and language arts skills.
Discipline is an all-important issue that we have worked tirelessly to make fair, effective, and efficient throughout all grade levels. All of our children are now in uniforms. Incrementally we're seeing the benefits of this and other changes. Is racism, as you suggest, an important factor and in some sense a root-cause for many of these seemingly intractable problems? Undoubtedly, but our mission is and must be to move beyond that reality and continue our focus on how to fix these inequities rather than bemoan them.
When our district elected a new school board in 1998 we told our fellow citizens that all the changes we wanted to see would take time. We know that we have come a long way and still have a long road ahead. The achievement gap is an unfortunate reality that haunts our past. Today we're working hard to make sure that it does not impact our future.
Best wishes,
Dr. Shirley Thornton
Vice President
Sausalito Marin City School District Board of Trustees
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