We can build a better outcome

It becomes even harder to ignore when you look at students who have been historically underserved. Only about 1 in 3 Latino students in our county are proficient in English Language Arts, and the same is true for students from under-resourced families. For students with disabilities it is about 1 in 5, and for English learners it is about 1 in 12. Even with limited data for foster youth, we see similarly low results.

For 10 years, we have tracked proficiency across student groups using multiple measures. Over that time, one thing has held constant: the gaps have barely moved, even as student needs have grown more complex. Despite new investments, initiatives and plans, we have not changed outcomes at scale.

To understand what this means in real time, imagine putting these trends on a calendar. At the current pace, students with disabilities would not reach the countywide average level of proficiency until 2057. For Latino students, it would take until 2060. A child entering kindergarten today should not have to wait until retirement age for that goal to be met.

This is where the conversation tends to get uncomfortable. People want quick explanations. They reach for the familiar myths about students, families or culture. But the truth is simpler and far more important. When a county with this much wealth, talent and opportunity is improving proficiency for some of our most vulnerable students by only one point a year, the problem is not in our children or in our educators. We have incredible teachers working incredibly hard. The problem is in our system, and systems can change.

Even that 2060 projection hides another problem. A countywide proficiency rate of 58% is not good enough. Our goal cannot be to bring students from historically underserved groups up to a bar that is already too low for everyone. Strong school systems across the country routinely achieve 70% to 80% proficiency overall, with narrowing gaps. There is nothing about San Mateo County that makes that out of reach except our current choices.

So what do we do with this data? We can neither pretend that everything is fine nor declare the problem too big to solve. When improvement is this slow, it is not a failure of effort by children or families. It is structural. Uneven access to high-quality early learning. Inconsistent curriculum and coaching. Shortages of bilingual and special education teachers. Attendance barriers that pull students away from foundational instruction. Data that arrives too late to shape teaching.

The encouraging news is that structural problems can be fixed. Other places have done it. When communities invest in early literacy from birth through third grade, the trajectory of learning changes. When schools commit to strong first instruction and give teachers time, coaching and the resources they need, achievement accelerates. When we build educator pipelines from within our own communities and support their livelihood, we reduce turnover and strengthen relationships that support learning. When TK and preschool are high quality and widely accessible, students arrive ready to thrive rather than already behind. And our leaders in Sacramento must continue prioritizing investments that match the scale of student need.

San Mateo County has what many places only dream of: a strong tax base, engaged families, dedicated educators and community organizations that care deeply about children. We can use those assets in a more focused and coordinated way. That means a countywide commitment to early literacy, a clear expectation for high-quality instruction in every classroom, real investment in the teacher pipeline, stronger partnerships with families around attendance, and better use of data so teachers can act in real time.

If we do these things, the projections for 2057 or 2060 become irrelevant. The lines on the graph bend. Students are not asked to wait decades for a fair shot.

The data we have now is a warning, not a destiny. San Mateo County has never been content to let the future happen to it. We build the future. Our students deserve a school system that moves at their pace, not at the slow crawl of our current trend lines.

Silicon Valley can crack artificial intelligence. Surely we can teach every child to read. Acceleration is the plan.

Héctor Camacho is executive director at the San Mateo County Office of Education.