Racial gap confronted

The politician who heads California's public schools is doing something strange this week: He's leading an enormous conference focused on the biggest failure of the very education system he is in charge of.

Superintendent Jack O'Connell's "Achievement Gap Summit" began Tuesday and continues today, drawing about 4,000 people from across California to the Sacramento Convention Center for lectures on why the academic performance of African American and Latino kids lags behind that of their white and Asian peers – and what educators can do to change the trends.

"I'm looking for solutions and to ignore this would be a disservice to countless millions of students over my last three years (in office)," O'Connell said.

"What's riding on this is more students' ability to become contributing members of our society."

O'Connell, elected as superintendent in 2002 and re-elected last year, has made closing the achievement gap the main focus of his second term. He surprised many people in August when, in releasing annual test scores, he said the difference in performance among groups of students is not just an issue of poverty.

"It's a racial achievement gap," O'Connell said.

Students from all backgrounds can learn, he said, but the public education system is skewed in a way that helps white and Asian students and hurts blacks and Latinos.

Evidence of students' uneven experiences in school was everywhere at the conference – among the biggest to come to Sacramento. California's African American and Latino seventh-graders read at the same level as white third-graders, said Russlynn Ali, director of the Education Trust West, a Bay Area nonprofit group that advocates high achievement for disadvantaged students.

"We have to move very quickly as a state to go from talking about the achievement gap to actually doing something about it," Ali said.

A room over, Linda Darling-Hammond, an education professor at Stanford, was talking about a handful of California high schools that effectively serve students who are black, brown and poor. They include two schools in San Francisco, one in Inglewood, one in San Diego and the New Technology High School in Sacramento.

The schools offer a rigorous curriculum with classes that focus on project work and use interdisciplinary themes. They have low student-teacher ratios.

"It's important to have someone who's caring for you and makes sure you succeed in life," said London Donson, 17, a New Tech High senior who spoke at the conference.

One thing Donson said he liked about his school was going through four years of advisory period (the newfangled version of homeroom) with the same teacher.

Later in the day, superintendents from around the state shared what they were doing to try to create better opportunities for students. A Long Beach educator said he made it easier for students to get into Advanced Placement classes. A Garden Grove superintendent said she was teaching parents how to advocate for their kids. Maggie Mejia of Sacramento City Unified shared her district's experience with high school reform, including the creation of six new small high schools.

Three people from the Office of the Secretary of Education were supposed to talk about what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning to work on during the "year of education reform" he has pledged for next year.

But because of delays in meeting with the governor to talk about the education platform, Deputy Secretary Scott Hill said he could present few specifics Tuesday.

Some people said O'Connell organized the achievement gap conference simply to boost his own political profile. O'Connell has said in the past that he may be interested in running for governor in 2010. He has received $1 million in contributions for an independent expenditure campaign geared at that race.

So now that he's drawn so much attention to the pernicious achievement gap in the public schools, what happens if there is no improvement over the next three years?

"Fair to measure me on that," O'Connell said. "Then I will be very disappointed and will not have been successful in our top priority."

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