If you ask me:

Together, we can close the achievement gap

While some have dubbed 2008 as the “Year of Education,” I know for a fact that for the vast majority of those reading this column, every year is the “Year of Education.” Every year is about improving our education system, because it is the key to ensuring California has a well-qualified workforce to secure a healthy economy in the future.

In spite of the fiscal constraints we face this year, there is still much we can do to make certain that all students fulfill their potential, whether they choose to go on to college or straight into the world of work. Earlier this year, I unveiled a number of proposals that require little or no new funding. While we need extra investment to be truly successful in the long run, there is much we must accomplish right now.

Public education in California faces an ominous challenge in the form of the achievement gap that exists between white students and students of color, as well as gaps with English learners, poor students, and students with disabilities. Statewide test scores in 2007 indicate that we need to work harder to raise the achievement of all our students and that we have made little progress in closing the achievement gap.

The achievement gap can be seen in test scores, drop-out rates, and rates of college entry and completion. The gaps in all of these measurable indicators influence a student’s future ability to earn a living wage, pursue a satisfying career and own a home. These indicators show up later in terms of measurable gaps between the haves and have-nots, and you can directly relate those gaps to impoverishment, imprisonment, even lower longevity and level of health. Now, it is true that the achievement gap exists nationwide, but in nearly every other state it is viewed as a problem affecting minorities of students. In California, the students representing the achievement gap are the majority of our school population. In California, closing the gap is more critical than anywhere else in this nation, and it is the way to help all students succeed, so we have a moral and economic imperative to reverse past trends and finally close the gap.

Over the past year, my Statewide P-16 Council has determined how the state can create the conditions necessary for closing the gap. The council’s work was rooted in four major themes: Access—the extent to which all students have equitable access to core conditions, such as qualified, effective teachers; rigorous, standards-aligned curriculum; and effective interventions; Culture and Climate—how schools can offer the best environment for promoting learning and a sense of belonging for students, parents and school staff; Expectations—how we must truly foster high expectations for all of us in education; and, finally, Strategies—the proven effective or promising practices the state can promote for closing the achievement gap.

In terms of Access, quality preschool is a key, and my intention is to co-sponsor legislation consolidating all current Title 5 programs serving preschool-aged children, thus creating the largest state-funded pre-kindergarten program in the nation, with an emphasis on high quality. In order to provide our pre-K teachers with a roadmap for delivering quality to our earliest learners, I also formally released the California preschool learning foundations. Beyond Pre-K, I am coordinating a new, unprecedented partnership with the leaders of all segments of public higher education in California. Together, they will collaborate on an integrated, concerted, measurable and coordinated plan to close the achievement gap. Also part of the Access plan is an agreement among all four systems of public education in California—K–12, community colleges, the California State University and the University of California, joined by our private colleges, the business community and career technical education community—to join 31 states in the American diploma project. This will help to fix the disconnect between what we expect of our high school graduates and what our business and higher education communities need from our high school graduates.

It is also long overdue to begin an honest dialogue about Culture and Climate, and specifically race, in our schools. To address this matter, I have directed the Department of Education to include evaluations of racial and cultural issues within the existing California School Climate Survey and/or the California Healthy Kids Survey. It is also my objective to call on experts from around the nation to create top-quality professional development programs on what it means to be culturally responsive in the classroom. Another key component to this is my work with the deans of California’s schools of education to imbed culturally responsive instruction in California’s teacher pre-service and professional development programs.

As far as Expectations are concerned, I’m calling for a deeper implementation of our internationally renowned standards and an expansion of our accountability system so that, in addition to the Academic Performance Index, we can measure and reward schools for taking specific actions toward closing the achievement gap. Furthermore, I announced that to become a California Distinguished School, schools will both have to meet current criteria and narrow their achievement gap as well.

As part of my Strategies plan, I am proposing a pilot program allowing the Long Beach and Fresno unified school districts—the fourth and fifth largest districts in the state—to partner in a new and exciting way, giving them additional flexibility in exchange for their agreement to commit to additional benchmarks of progress and to learn together, model and replicate effective practices. Now, research also shows the need to improve our collection and use of information as an education system, and a grant of more than $2 million from the Gates and Hewlett foundations to determine the kind of data our state needs to truly improve teaching, learning and decision-making, both statewide and locally, will help us do this. Finally, I am sponsoring legislation this year to provide more professional development in the use of data.

These recommendations are not the complete answer, but they are a promising beginning toward reaching our goal, and the goal of closing the achievement gap demands this kind of focused desire. It calls for a willingness to change, to be bold and to try new ideas. The time has come for us to answer this call. Together we can close the achievement gap and open the door to a better future for every student, without exception.