It's a fact, Asians spend the most time studying, give up Saturdays, Sundays, Summers, evenings. They study and read 22 hours a week on average in California vs. 9 watching TV, whites are at 15 and 17, Hispanics at 9 and 19 and blacks at 4 and 30. Don't take my word for it, google it. Therefore the results are that test scores are in order, Asians, whites, Hispanics, blacks. Then they blame the teachers. Teachers can't change that, change the hours, if blacks go from 4 and 30 to 22 and 9, they'll make more than whites within 30 years, guaranteed. Asians earned less than whites in 1980 and 1985, passed them in 1990 and now earn 30% more and this would be far higher if not for a substantial percentage being recent immirgrants in low wage jobs.

Personal responsibility is key. Also, two parents, Asians are far more likely to have 2 parents and involved grandparents involved, not a single mother.

So we need integration as Mr. Thursby states, yes, but one in which teachers teach what it takes to be successful. Many teachers don't believe in the meritocracy. They don't believe that the hardest working get the best grades and the best jobs, you hear them say Lowell is OK, Lincoln is OK. It's nonsense. Lowell is the Harvard of high schools, Lincoln is the UC Davis, it's a good school but not in Lowell's league. Asians know this, whites do.

It's not self-esteem. Many of the worst students have very high self-esteem, too high. It takes humility. It takes admitting you have a flaw. It takes giving everything you have to fix that, giving of yourself and your free time and taking on the stress it requires to be a good student. It takes sacrifice and dignity and honor and humanity.

The achievement gap won't disappear until the home gap disappears and the home gap won't disappear until the races who do the worst take a serious look in the mirror and decide to drastically change their basic outlook on life. You can go on and say it's racism and so forth but it isn't, Asians and Jews suffered every bit as much racism. It's how many hours you study, period. Having parents help and a good teacher helps, but the achievement gap won't go away, no kid studying 4 hours will beat a kid studying 21 based on what the teachers do; it has to be based on what they do. If we all give up free time to be be better people and make our kids do the same the achievement gap will disappear. There are other issues but this is 90% of it.

You may not be well-informed as a mother of pre-schoolers about the ins and outs of district policy, but you are correct that the Strategic Plan has imbued the dialogue with race at every turn. By doing so, it has replaced much of the discussion on the fundamental mission of our schools - student achievement. Reading the school site scorecards one cannot help but be overwhelmed by the focus on social justice. And what's wrong with that you ask? Nothing, if it were not an academic plan, the purpose of which is to foster student achievement.

For those that need to develop their scholarship and sense of personal responsibility, the focus on social justice is misplaced. And though the achievement gap highlights the challenges of educating students who start from a position of extreme disadvantage, our work in San Francisco seems to have moved away from academic achievement in order to satisfied the "equity first" agenda. The schools cannot solve all of society's ills. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try, but let's not lose sight of the proper role of a local education agency. Unfortunately, forced integration has not worked and the achievement gap has remained unmoved 25 years after consent decree. Now we can no longer afford integration's busing costs. But we still have a job to do so let's get busy educating and stop proselytizing.

Integrated schools can only be achieved within the context of integrated neighborhoods, which are an outcome of social mobility. And social mobility is a prime outcome of education. You cannot put the cart before the wheel or a bus before a desk and a teacher.