No silver bullets, but plenty of passion

Achievement Gap Summit focuses attention on disparities in academic performance among groups

Although they came with widely divergent perspectives on why the problem exists and what can be done to fix it, participants at the state Department of Education’s Achievement Gap Summit Nov. 13-14 seemed to share one thing: a commitment to break the cycle of failure when it comes to educating black, Latino and American Indian students.

“An important thing about this conference was that we had a statewide stage to highlight this issue,” said CSBA President-elect Paul H. Chatman. “We had 4,000 people from all over the state focusing on the achievement gap. It’s about having that courageous conversation about what is real.”

What’s real, according to both anecdotal evidence and hard data, is that Latino and black students are far less likely to graduate from high school or attend college and far more likely to drop out than their white and Asian classmates. Low-income students of all races are less likely to do well in school than wealthier classmates, but black and Latino children from middle-class and affluent families still lag behind whites and Asians from similar economic backgrounds.

“It’s time to stop saying: ‘This is your kid, this is my kid,’ " said Chatman. “They are all our kids. If you are really serious about educating every child, you have to respect their differences. We’ve got to stop this nonsense of trying to put everyone in one box and casting aside those who don’t fit.”

Summit participants included state lawmakers, members of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cabinet, the California Board of Education and other top state education officials—those responsible for allocating funds, passing laws and setting policy. District and county educators, administrators and board members who do the actual work of running the state's public schools made up the majority of the 4,000 who attended.

With more than 125 sessions and six keynote addresses from experts on education, race and class, there was plenty to talk about. Workshop topics ran the gamut—from technical discussions of complex policy, regulatory and legal issues to nuts-and-bolts descriptions of effective reading and math strategies. Senior CSBA staff members led sessions about community collaboration school wellness; a self-described “migrant mother” and school board member who is still working on her English, described how she helps immigrant parents find the courage to visit school and talk with their children’s teachers.

Keynote addresses included a debate between veteran school-choice advocate Chester Finn, who argued that school choice is the key to “freeing poor children from failing schools,” and former New York Times columnist Richard Rothstein, who said schools cannot close the achievement gap unless society addresses disparities in children’s access to health care, decent housing and quality early childhood education.

Broadcast personality Tavis Smiley urged educators in the audience to take a hard look at their commitment to children. “Is this your calling, your vocation, your purpose,” he asked, “or is it your job?”

Education consultant Glenn Eric Singleton, an African American who went to all-white schools throughout his K-12 education, affirmed his conviction that unconscious but pernicious institutional racism is the main factor that prevents children of color from realizing their full potential. Americans, he added, are extremely reluctant to discuss issues involving race, preferring to believe they live in a color-blind society.

“Race is not the only factor” that explains glaring disparities in educational achievement, he said, “but, in fact, race is the missing factor.”

No single Rx for success

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said he and other summit organizers tried to offer the widest possible array of opinions on the complex issue of why schools have consistently failed to succeed with certain students.

“I invited speakers with whom I disagree, some who proposed things I am convinced we must do, and some who said things I am still thinking about,” O’Connell said at a post-conference briefing.

“None of us walked out of the summit with a single prescription,” he added, “but we took the first step in having a difficult conversation” about race and class. “We have to acknowledge that poverty is not the exclusive factor holding black and brown children behind.”

O’Connell said he is increasingly convinced that the public understands the social, moral and economic importance of closing the achievement gap, which the superintendent called “the most pressing issue in education and the most important civil rights issue of our time.”

Jo Ann Yee, CSBA senior director for Strategy Development, Achievement, Diversity and Urban Affairs, said although the Achievement Gap Summit focused welcome attention on a critical issue, the conference is not the first effort to shine a light on the problem. In fact, school reformers have been working to provide equal educational opportunity for all students for decades—since the United States Supreme Court ended federally sanctioned school segregation in 1954.

“Initially, people thought that desegregation would create equal access to quality education,” said Yee, who presented a session at the summit about CSBA’s efforts to improve educational outcomes for students of color. “We’ve been working on this for a long, long time,” added Yee, a former board member in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

High-stakes tests, rigorous academic standards and even flawed legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act are all examples of strategies designed to boost opportunities for low-achieving students, Yee said, adding that the solution to narrowing the achievement gap depends on how one defines the problem. The summit “brought forth the multiplicity of ways the gap is defined,” she said.

Like O’Connell, she said she is convinced there’s no one single answer. “Solutions will have to be devised locally, with the help of school board leadership,” she said. “Communities need to ask ‘What are the reasons for the gap?’ and ‘What should we do collectively to remedy it?’ "

Related link:

Find information about the Achievement Gap Summit on the state Department of Education's Web page @ http://www.closingtheachievementgap.org.