Superintendent Kevin Skelly spoke in the English Resource Center today to clarify the controversial statements he made last Monday about the ethnic achievement gap in California schools, and now hopes to advance district-wide goals for student growth and college readiness.

Some members of the Palo Alto community, including a number of Paly parents and teachers, were upset by Skelly’s earlier comments that an immediate solution to academic discrepancies between ethnic groups would be unrealistic. While Skelly did say last week that he believed schools can help minority students to consistently score as high on standardized tests as their white and Asian counterparts, he also pointed out that trying to simply eradicate the problem would be “hope over experience.”

Addressing an audience that included staff, parents, and administrators from a variety of local schools, such as Paly and Jordan Middle School, Skelly discussed the reasoning behind his beliefs about education.

According to Skelly, education should focus not on measuring and increasing academic performance or achievement, but on encouraging growth and “realizing potential.” He also expressed his dislike for the term “achievement gap” and for the way the issue has been handled in the past.

“I believe that we do teachers a great disservice when we castigate them for the achievement gap,” Skelly said. “I believe ‘achievement gap’ is a term that beats up on teachers. I think it beats up on schools. I also think it beats up students. It measures achievement wrongly.”

In addition to emphasizing the importance of preparing students for college instead of trying to raise the Academic Performance Index (API) scores that depend on standardized testing, Skelly apologized for any disturbance caused by the way his remarks were interpreted.

“I said two things that I would have said differently,” Skelly said. “I used the terms ‘hope over experience’ and ‘deluding ourselves.’ I wish I hadn’t said that. But we need to be focused on the growth of students, not a metric that damages them and those who work to improve their lives.”

The meeting then opened into a general discussion in which members of the audience voiced various frustrations and hopes for the state of education in Palo Alto and debated socioeconomic and ethnic influences on achievement. One recurring theme was that performance can be improved by ending institutionalized racism and developing new approaches to teaching.

According to a member of the audience, “our students of color are achieving less regardless of socioeconomic status…maybe it has to do with our own personal biases. You can’t talk about this without talking about race.”

Many teachers and parents expressed the need for comprehensive, progressive programs that break down such biases and boost student motivation.

“I’d like to see us help kids build vision and give them the information they need to be college-ready,” one teacher said.

A San Jose Mercury News article with more detail concerning Skelly and the statistics of the California achievement gap can be found here.