SMCSBA supports the governance team -- school board trustees, superintendents and senior administrative staff --and provides networking opportunities for its members. We are a chapter of the California School Boards Association which is involved in developing, communicating and advocating the perspective of California school districts and county offices of education.

SMCSBA provides educational opportunities at four monthly dinner events for board members and administrators on critical issues as well as a New Board Member Workshop in the fall. Each academic year is celebrated with the J. Russell Kent Award Banquet which celebrates creative teaching within the county.

October Meeting: The Algebra Crisis

The California State Board of Education, following the Governor’s lead, has raised the mathematical bar for students in the state. The new policy comes at a time when schools are already struggling, with mixed success, to meet the needs of an ever-increasing student population in algebra.  There aren’t any silver bullets or easy remedies for this challenge, but we do know from research and experience what it does take to significantly increase the achievement of students in mathematics.  This presentation will share lessons learned and successes from a decade long math initiative of school districts in the Bay Area.  We will share information about high leveraged assessments, intensive professional development and support strategies for struggling students.

David Foster - Program Director, Mathematics
David Foster has been the Director of the Noyce Foundation's mathematics program, the Silicon Valley Math Initiative, for 10 years.  He is Co-Director of the Santa Clara Valley Math Project and Co-Chair of the advisory committee of the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service published by CTB-McGraw Hill.  David is the senior author of Interactive Mathematics published by Glencoe-McGraw Hill.  He was formerly a Regional Director for the Middle Grades Mathematics Renaissance, the mathematics component of the California Alliance for Math and Science, and he was a founding member of the California Math Project Advisory Committee and the California Coalition for Mathematics.  He joined the Noyce Foundation in 1996, and works in the Morgan Hill, California office.