In San Mateo County, we pride ourselves on being a place of innovation. We build companies that change the world. We cultivate creativity, invest in early learning and celebrate diversity. Yet when you look closely at how our students are learning to read, you see a story that does not match the ideals we hold. We should be deeply concerned that a very different story is unfolding in our schools.
Countywide, about 58% of students are meeting or exceeding grade-level standards in English Language Arts. That means more than 4 in 10 are not on track with one of the most foundational skills in school. For a county with our resources and reputation, that should stop us in our tracks.
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.
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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.
One of the major issues in our county is the influx of children of illegal immigrants. Under Federal law, these children are entitled to education and in many cases are assigned to a class level according to their declared age. Since we are obligated to educate them, our system is clearly not equipped to deal with the almost inconceivable difference in education levels attained before these children came here. As an example, my wife and I are sponsoring a young lady in El Salvador who is now attending a private (equivalent) Junior HS in Sonsonate. She is the same age as our grand daughter who goes as a freshman to an East Bay HS on the other side of the Hwy 24 tunnels. The gap between their relative education performance is beyond description. How would Mr.Camacho address that shortcoming if our sponsored student were to come here? And she is just one of millions who would be bewildered and totally lost. Her mother is essentially illiterate and a hard working woman in a country that does not value manual labor. She cannot help her with the even basic home work that is assigned. We are fortunately in a position to paying for her tuition and a tutor to help her along. I challenge Mr. Camacho to address the very difficult situations that some illegal migrants face when they come here and try to do the best for their children. Clearly, the value of education my not be a high priority, survival is probably first on the list. His platitudes hide behind the real issues that need to be addressed and throwing money and polished speeches around do not cut it. For the record, I am a staunch anti-illegal immigrant advocate but we are stuck with their children and must comply with federal laws without coddling and must deliver on our promises.
San Mateo County and its Board of Education owns the richest schools in the country.
They could have started offering Universal Preschool for the last 10 years.
Why haven't they?
The County Board of Education allowed districts like Redwood City, San Mateo or Sequoia to waste money on School Segregation. These districts created "underserved" schools deliberately so they can get more Federal funding to provide "extra special" education for certain demographics. Then the same politicians took that extra federal money and invested it in "Montessori", "GATE", "STEAM", "Parent Participation", "Enrichments", "Mandarin Language Immersion", etc. basically schools that only cater to the affluent demographics.
Money just magically moved from low-income neighborhood schools towards affluent Magnet Schools.
And the Board of Education kept watching and kept approving and apparently keeps Virtue Signaling.
Thanks, Mr. Camacho, for your guest perspective. You detail a laundry list of changes you’d like to see but how about a roadmap to accomplish these changes? You say more money and resources should be provided to TK but TK has been around for what, 15 years? Are we seeing any improvement? For your desired cohort or others? Are there any studies showing TK is making a statistical difference in outcomes for those attending TK and those not?
And what about the cohort of kids in school now? Are you going to write them off and grade-inflate them across the high school diploma line? You say teachers are not the problem but I’d take issue with that. I’d say that teachers, in addition to how public education is structured and taught, are the biggest problem. There’s a recent report from UCSD detailing how incoming students must take remedial courses because they don’t meet reading and arithmetic standards. Grade inflation and inferior teaching methods must be addressed now, and not only for those incoming TK kids. Again, assuming TK makes any difference. If no changes are made, submit your column each year for the next decade.
Universal preschool programs have been failures. Studies will twist data to show benefits, but most gains fade by the 3rd grade. The long term studies that showed a long term benefit of preschool for inner city kids (Perry, Chicago preschool program etc.) were MUCH more than just preschool programs. They included intensive parent education, home visits, books given to families etc. Self selected participants who were willing to cooperate with this kind of intervention- those that weren't dropped out.
Come on Mr. Camacho - you refuse to admit that most of the problems are among certain demographics that do not seem to value education. Until we find a solution to challenge the parents and others in their upbringing, you can keep on throwing money at it without tangible results. You actually addressed this fallacy yourself without providing solutions. A Board of Education member in San Francisco was forced out as she had the nerve to bring this up. When will your Board stand up for the truth and spend the available funding wisely?
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(6) comments
Cultural issues - but in America we like to pretend we are all the same. We are not.
One of the major issues in our county is the influx of children of illegal immigrants. Under Federal law, these children are entitled to education and in many cases are assigned to a class level according to their declared age. Since we are obligated to educate them, our system is clearly not equipped to deal with the almost inconceivable difference in education levels attained before these children came here. As an example, my wife and I are sponsoring a young lady in El Salvador who is now attending a private (equivalent) Junior HS in Sonsonate. She is the same age as our grand daughter who goes as a freshman to an East Bay HS on the other side of the Hwy 24 tunnels. The gap between their relative education performance is beyond description. How would Mr.Camacho address that shortcoming if our sponsored student were to come here? And she is just one of millions who would be bewildered and totally lost. Her mother is essentially illiterate and a hard working woman in a country that does not value manual labor. She cannot help her with the even basic home work that is assigned. We are fortunately in a position to paying for her tuition and a tutor to help her along. I challenge Mr. Camacho to address the very difficult situations that some illegal migrants face when they come here and try to do the best for their children. Clearly, the value of education my not be a high priority, survival is probably first on the list. His platitudes hide behind the real issues that need to be addressed and throwing money and polished speeches around do not cut it. For the record, I am a staunch anti-illegal immigrant advocate but we are stuck with their children and must comply with federal laws without coddling and must deliver on our promises.
San Mateo County and its Board of Education owns the richest schools in the country.
They could have started offering Universal Preschool for the last 10 years.
Why haven't they?
The County Board of Education allowed districts like Redwood City, San Mateo or Sequoia to waste money on School Segregation. These districts created "underserved" schools deliberately so they can get more Federal funding to provide "extra special" education for certain demographics. Then the same politicians took that extra federal money and invested it in "Montessori", "GATE", "STEAM", "Parent Participation", "Enrichments", "Mandarin Language Immersion", etc. basically schools that only cater to the affluent demographics.
Money just magically moved from low-income neighborhood schools towards affluent Magnet Schools.
And the Board of Education kept watching and kept approving and apparently keeps Virtue Signaling.
Thanks, Mr. Camacho, for your guest perspective. You detail a laundry list of changes you’d like to see but how about a roadmap to accomplish these changes? You say more money and resources should be provided to TK but TK has been around for what, 15 years? Are we seeing any improvement? For your desired cohort or others? Are there any studies showing TK is making a statistical difference in outcomes for those attending TK and those not?
And what about the cohort of kids in school now? Are you going to write them off and grade-inflate them across the high school diploma line? You say teachers are not the problem but I’d take issue with that. I’d say that teachers, in addition to how public education is structured and taught, are the biggest problem. There’s a recent report from UCSD detailing how incoming students must take remedial courses because they don’t meet reading and arithmetic standards. Grade inflation and inferior teaching methods must be addressed now, and not only for those incoming TK kids. Again, assuming TK makes any difference. If no changes are made, submit your column each year for the next decade.
Universal preschool programs have been failures. Studies will twist data to show benefits, but most gains fade by the 3rd grade. The long term studies that showed a long term benefit of preschool for inner city kids (Perry, Chicago preschool program etc.) were MUCH more than just preschool programs. They included intensive parent education, home visits, books given to families etc. Self selected participants who were willing to cooperate with this kind of intervention- those that weren't dropped out.
Come on Mr. Camacho - you refuse to admit that most of the problems are among certain demographics that do not seem to value education. Until we find a solution to challenge the parents and others in their upbringing, you can keep on throwing money at it without tangible results. You actually addressed this fallacy yourself without providing solutions. A Board of Education member in San Francisco was forced out as she had the nerve to bring this up. When will your Board stand up for the truth and spend the available funding wisely?
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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