Tam Union District Reports Persistent Low Grades Among Black Students

Despite years of remedial efforts, low grades among African American students at Tamalpais Union High School District rose significantly in 2025-26 and were the highest rate among all student ethnic groups, the district reported.

An average of 44% of the district’s 87 Black students in 2025-26 received D, F, or incomplete grades, compared to the prior three-year average of 33%, according to a report presented at a district board meeting on Sept. 29.

“This report took the wind out of my sails,” said Ida Green, a Black trustee. “It seems like the same old story.”

Green, a former trustee of the Sausalito Marin City School District, said she wants to see more collaboration among the Tam Union high schools and the “feeder” districts.

“What is going to change with the learning styles?” Green said. “How are we going to change the narrative?”

Assistant Superintendent Kelly Lara, who presented the findings, said the district would introduce parent-student conferences this fall with struggling students and parents of Black students.

In addition, Kathy Flores, the new director of the Black Student Success Team at Tamalpais High School, is conducting detailed tracking of every student’s class schedule, grades and transcripts for the current marking period to make sure they are taking the classes they need for state university admission, Lara said.

“The Black Student Success Team is off to a strong start,” Lara said.

Among Asian students in the district, an average of 13% had D, F, or incomplete grades in 2025-26, compared to a prior three-year average of 9%. For Hispanic students, an average of 21% got the poor grades, level with the prior three-year average.

Among white students, an average of 7% had D, F or incomplete grades, compared to an 8% average for the prior three years. With students of two or more ethnicities, an average 9% had D, F or incomplete grades, compared to an 11% average for the prior three years.

Tammy Edmondson, a member of the community activist group MVFree, accused the Tam Union district of “trying to hide the proficiency gaps” between white, Black and Hispanic students in the district by releasing preliminary results of the California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance tests.

The district released the preliminary results at the Sept. 15 board meeting and discussed them in more detail at the Sept. 29 meeting.

The preliminary results, which reflected the highest total scores for district students in the last five years in English and in math, were not broken down by race or ethnic groups. That will be done on Oct. 15, when the state Department of Education releases the official final results.

“For the past four years, the most important finding of the CAASPP has been huge and growing proficiency gaps between the district’s white students and the Black and Hispanic students,” Edmondson said. By not disaggregating by race, “this conveniently hides the district’s most serious and persistent problem,” Edmondson said.

She accused the district of a “persistent pattern” that began when a new board majority took control in 2024. Since then, there has been a “systematic dismantling” of equity and diversity programs, Edmondson said.

She said she hoped the board majority would change in the Nov. 3 elections, in which seven candidates — including two incumbent trustees — are running to fill three seats on the board.

Courtney Goode, the district superintendent, disputed Edmondson’s statements. He said the efforts to bolster academic achievement among Black students has been a key focus since he arrived in July 2025.

“We brought back the Compass program from College of Marin that had been missing for four or five years and that targets traditionally marginalized students and enrolls them in college classes while they are still at Tam High School,” Goode said.

“We’ve also made focused efforts to reach out to traditionally marginalized kids and enroll them in more advanced coursework,” Goode said. He added that the district is about to launch an audit of transcripts of traditionally marginalized students to make sure they were on track to graduate and were eligible for state public university admission.

Lara added that once the final CAASPP results are released, the district would analyze the disparities among student ethnic groups and set up new supports based on the test results.

Goode joined the district while it was in the middle of a major controversy over a split decision by trustees not to renew a $250,000, one-year contract for consultants Tenisha Tate-Austin and her husband Paul Austin to run the Tam High Black Student Success Team and the Hub center.

Lara said students could graduate with a D grade, but it would prevent them from eligibility to attend a California State University or University of California campus by meeting “A to G requirements.” The requirements refer to a list of specific classes, such as world language and others, that students must have on their transcripts for entry into a state public university system.

On Tuesday, Lara presented two additional reports, the first showing that Tam Union students had a 99.57% graduation rate in 2025-26, up from a 97.41% average over the prior three years. In the second report, students overall had a 76.35% A to G completion rate in 2025-26, down from an average 77.14% A to G completion rate in the previous three years.

The Tamalpais Union High School District serves about 4,000 students at three comprehensive high schools and two alternative high schools.