In the fall of 2007, ETF transformed to the Marin Teaching Network (MTN). ETF began as a network of thirty schools spread across southern Marin County stretching from rural farmland and fishing port to suburban campuses. Each school was unique, a microclimate of curriculum and instruction tailored to fit its local context. Each year, a new wave of ninth grade students traveled from their small community schools to enroll in the much larger high schools. Bringing students together from such diverse educational backgrounds challenged both students and teachers, greatly increasing the difficult adjustment to ninth grade and creating curricular and logistical problems for teachers. The need to ensure that all students had access to comparable learning experiences and curriculum led to the original work of the Education Task Force.

ETF is a complete K-14 consortium for southern Marin. It includes 10 elementary school districts (Bolinas-Stinson, Kentfield, Lagunitas, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Nicasio, Reed, Ross, Ross Valley, Sausalito Marin City) and the Tamalpais Union High School District, to which the elementary schools of the 10 districts send their graduating eighth graders and College of Marin. Serving over 12,000 students, ETF is actually the largest of the four K-12 public school units in Marin, Novato Unified which serves 7,850 students, San Rafael Elementary and High School Districts which serve 7,300 students, and Shoreline Unified which serves 800 students.

Beginning in 1980, teachers from the schools of eleven districts formed discipline-specific groups to work on curriculum. Eventually their work resulted in curriculum guides that laid out the scope and sequence of subject matter in math, science, social studies, language arts, computers, foreign language, and health. ETF hosted professional development workshops to support the use of the common curricula and a broad professional learning community was conceived.

The momentum and rigor of this collaboration continues to expand. As concern for school reform has grown, ETF’s focus shifted to clarifying the essential learning expected of all K-12 graduates. The research on change and reform stressed the need for a strongly articulated vision, clarity of focus, and sustained effort in order to achieve substantial results. Accordingly, ETF brought together teachers, parents, students, business and community leaders who identified fourteen Student Learning Outcomes as the educational framework for its K-12 system. These Outcomes provide common learning goals for the entire ETF community. Attainment of these Outcomes is a goal for high school graduation.