[Editor's note: These are the remarks of California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell at the Achievement Gap Summit in the Sacramento Convention Center on November 13 and 14, 2007. This is a sensitive and important ongoing problem in California and I was impressed and heartened that O'Connell took this topic on. Here is what he had to say at the beginning of the days' sessions.]

Friends, I stand before you this morning with a mix of trepidation and excitement. Trepidation because we gather to talk about the most intractable issue facing public education today - the systemic and persistent achievement gap that holds far too many of our students back.

A gap that has persisted through years of efforts and reforms. Successful reforms such as standards, which brought impressive and consistent gains to all of our students, but which, despite our best efforts, have not closed achievement gaps.

Yet I do stand here today excited. Excited about our potential and our resolve. For the fist time in our history, the State of California has gathered more than 4,000 caring educators to focus on, discuss, and learn about, the kids who far too often have been left behind.

And despite the difficulties, despite the enormity of the challenges, we have all gathered here together determined to make a difference.

So, if you could share my vantage point from up here on this stage, I know you would share my excitement, my optimism, and you would agree this is a room of positive change!

So my biggest thank you is to you. Thank you for being here and for your commitment to our most needy children.

And what an impressive group we are. More than 4,000 of us from every part of this state, 52 of 58 counties are represented in this room - teachers, school administrators, superintendents, paraeductors, parents and school board members -- leaders from business, government, local communities and state government.

But it's not just the sheer numbers that impress me. What impresses me is what your presence at this Achievement Gap Summit says about the biggest challenge we face in public education today.

It says that educators from preschool through college are ready to join together and confront this challenge. It says that we're willing to look at new ways to meet the needs of all of our students.

I also want to specifically thank the statewide P-16 council and its chair, Dr. Barry Munitz, as well as our partners that have helped lay the foundation for this summit with a year-long focus on issues of access, culture, expectations and strategies for closing the achievement gap.

My friends, the achievement gap is not new, nor is it unique to California. For decades, many of us assumed that the achievement gap was the immutable result of poverty, and there was not much that schools could do to make a difference. We tracked students, making their life choices for them even before they entered high school. We held high expectations for some, and expected little of others.

The movement to high standards for all students has made a powerful, positive difference for all groups of students. We've shed light on the achievement of all student groups, and thanks to the hard work of our teachers and schools, we've seen significant improvement across the board. But the data also show that the achievement gap is not closing, nor is it solely based on poverty. We have a racial achievement gap as well.

Our test scores show that African American students and Latino students who are not poor are achieving below the levels of white students who are poor.

In a state as diverse as California, a state with the wonderful potential of becoming a leader in the diverse global village of our future, we simply cannot allow the achievement gap to persist.

We know all groups of students are capable of achieving, so we must identify and eliminate those things that are holding groups of students back. And we must do this with a sense of urgency. We simply cannot allow another generation to grow up with the achievement gap as a fact of life.

Closing the gap is a moral imperative. It's a social and economic imperative as well. We're all here because we feel that imperative. Because we're willing to do the hard work it will take to answer this call.

And let's be clear, closing the achievement gap will involve long, hard, often uncomfortable work and it will cause many of us to change not only practices but beliefs. We are asking in many instances for nothing short of a culture change, a change that demands time.

So we ask for almost the impossible: we ask, for urgent patience. We must have patience to do the hard work of letting programs mature, systems to align and imbed, and for all of us to learn new skills and strategies -- while at the same time maintaining a clear sense of urgency. I ask you to keep that in mind over the next two days and in the months and years ahead: closing the achievement gap requires us to have urgent patience.

Now, if I believed there were a single solution even a half-dozen sure-fire solutions to closing the achievement gap I wouldn't have invited you all here today.

Over the next two days you'll be hearing the perspectives and experiences of educators, researchers and community members from across the ideological spectrum. Those invited to present to you their findings, their strategies or their perspectives weren't required to meet any political, ideological, or pedagogical criteria. But they were required to meet one criteria: measurable progress in narrowing the achievement gap.

If the data shows that what you are doing in your school or your community is working to narrow the gap, you are probably presenting a workshop at this summit.

Those of you here to listen and to learn will be hearing about quality preschool, family involvement, racial and cultural awareness, school leadership, effective before and after-school programs and much more.

My staff and I will be listening and learning, too. And our goal will be to develop, implement and sustain a plan for what the state can do differently - a plan that holds us accountable for creating the conditions necessary for closing the achievement gap.

Second Day Opening

Welcome to the second day of this remarkable summit. I am so impressed by what I've seen and learned already -- the energy, the commitment, and the sharing of so many powerful strategies for improving student success.

Here at the department of education, over the past year, we've been approaching our work on the achievement gap by looking at what the state can do differently, and how we can hold ourselves accountable, for creating the conditions necessary for closing gaps.

Now that's a little different than they way we've looked at this in the past - and it's meant to be. We're not focused on trying to tell you how to do things differently or institute one more reform wrapped in achievement gap paper. Instead we're looking squarely at the state and identifying areas where we can better add value - or remove barriers - to better assist you in your efforts to close gaps.

In that context, we've focused on four themes. And because we're educators, we've given those themes their very own acronym - aces.

We've looked at issues of access - how do all students gain access to what they need?

Culture and climate - how can schools offer the best learning environment for all students?

Expectations - are high expectations for teachers and students truly held?

And finally, strategies - practices that are promising or proven effective for closing the achievement gap.

And yesterday and today our work continued. We've looked at the achievement gap through the lens of broader social issues - such as access to healthcare, safe neighborhoods, stable families -- and we've discussed education as a civil right. We've looked at specific strategies -- service learning, community and business partnerships, online instruction, organizational changes, instruction focused on English learners.

Let me just say there's a whole lot of learning going on!

What I see here is what I see at every successful school and every successful district in California - and that is a continuous learning environment.

Schools that are moving in the right direction are schools that embrace new information and data, schools eager to put new ideas to work to better serve students.

I'm working to make the California Department of Education a continuous learning system. Now, I heard some laughter out there - and I don't blame you. But I want you to know that I'm serious. When I say closing the achievement gap will take hard work from all of us, I mean all of us. So we're taking a serious look at ourselves here at the department and working to move away from a focus on compliance to one of leadership and assistance. Changing our culture to become a continuous learning system won't be easy, but it's the right thing to do, and I hope you'll do the same in your schools, businesses and communities.

Certainly, we have a powerful example of continuous learning right here at this summit, and today we'll be stretching our minds some more.

Because we will not close the achievement gap until we do have this conversation and examine why it is that our African American and Latino students are systemically and continuously less successful in school than their white and Asian peers.

It's time to talk about and confront the fact that nationwide, only about 17 percent of African American young people and only 11 percent of Hispanic youth had earned a college degree in 2005, compared with 34 percent of white youth in the same age bracket.

Research by Linda darling Hammond of Stanford (who spoke here yesterday) Tells us that between 1980 and 2000 three times as many African American men became prison inmates as became college students, and Most were high school dropouts.

Clearly, closing the achievement gap is the civil rights issue of our day, and clearly, we cannot close the achievement gap unless we are willing to have the sometimes uncomfortable conversation about race and the racism that persists - unconsciously or not - in our society today.

So as continuous learners, I hope we all will embrace this learning process. let's look at the data about race, and have Courageous conversations. Let's learn what we can to move past any harmful practices our system has engaged in that have perpetuated the racial achievement gap.

Let's work together once again and have another productive, powerful day!