St James Community Foundation

What began as a town hall meeting to discuss math misplacement has since grown into a year round math support program. The San Mateo Math Scholars Program offers math tutoring three times a week throughout the school year as well a four week summer math intensive, FREE to students who live in North Central San Mateo. In addition to tutoring, students receive a nutritious meal at each session. St. James Community Foundation sponsors this program because the academic playing field must be leveled. We testified in favor of the passage of SB359, The CA Math Misplacement Act of 2015. We are pleased that the bill became law in September 2015. It is now unlawful for a California school district to place a 9th grade student in math without using multiple measures. But because the students who live in North Central San Mateo are bussed to schools across San Mateo, they are unable to avail themselves to after school academic support. Hence, our work continues. Our goal is to serve 100 middle school students each year preparing them to successfully complete Geometry or CPM math in 9th grade.