In 1991, I began my tenure as principal of a school that was declared underperforming by the State of California. I was appointed to that role by a superintendent who believed the children there were deserving and capable of something more — and she was absolutely right! The test scores at the school were disheartening, the culture was underwhelming and the school was officially designated for improvement. The prospect of transforming this school and uplifting the students was a daunting one, but neither I nor my staff shrank from the challenge.

More than 30 years later, the circumstances at that school in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District (MPUSD) have improved dramatically, but many of the same issues that afflicted students when I accepted that leadership position back in the early ‘90s remain prevalent throughout California. Simply put, the achievement gap separating higher-performing student groups from those lagging below — and sometimes far below — proficiency remains alarmingly wide.

After more than three decades, we should have come further in California; we should have made more progress to boost overall student performance and close the achievement gap. Our shortcomings in this regard are not for lack of trying at the local level. I have seen the dedicated staff in MPUSD exhibit their commitment to support all students, especially those with great need. I have been a part of those efforts. I have seen them echoed throughout California during my time in CSBA and during my numerous visits to school districts and county offices of education as CSBA President. I have watched some of our great educational leaders and staff receive CSBA Golden Bell Awards for their innovative work to close the achievement gap. I see pockets of excellence everywhere I look across this vast and diverse state. What I do not see, however, is a comprehensive, coherent state-level plan to better support local educational agencies in their efforts to bring all students to proficiency and amplify ongoing efforts to close the achievement gap.

This missing piece is a critical factor in the persistence of the achievement gap, and it’s why CSBA, under the vision and direction of our CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy, is calling on the State of California to better support local schools as they strive to improve performance for underserved groups and all students, regardless of zip code. If we are to accelerate closure of the achievement gap, it is critical that the state’s agencies and policymaking bodies become far more accountable for the level and quality of support they provide LEAs working to close the achievement gap.

For decades, the state has relied on piecemeal projects and a collection of mandates — many of them unfunded or underfunded — to try and drive student achievement. During this time, the state has not created a comprehensive plan to hold itself accountable for its own role in closing the achievement gap. To give all students the education they deserve, we need to believe in their potential, we need to be much more intentional about how we support them.

Upon taking over as principal of that underperforming school, I emphasized to our staff the importance of making significant progress, not just incremental steps. I am now addressing not only one school site but also all of California and the state government itself. I challenge the State of California to develop an accessible, coherent plan with explicit benchmarks that indicate what measures the state itself will take to support LEAs in closing the achievement gap and to provide regular, public accounting of its progress toward those goals.

In the meantime, I must emphasize that there is incredible work taking place in classrooms across California every day, and that work is responsible for some of the promising results we saw in this year’s California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP). The results released on Oct. 9 show proficiency rates for Black and Latino students rose between 2 and 2.4 percent from 2024. But at this rate, it would take decades for those groups’ scores to match their white and Asian peers. And that is to say nothing of the socioeconomic achievement gap, as the distance between scores of low-income students and their more affluent peers widened in the most recent CAASPP results.

If we want to make rapid progress in closing the achievement gap, we need to work passionately as well as systematically and efficiently. There is a moral and practical imperative to this work, and CSBA’s call to action comes not a moment too soon. It has been 34 years since I first stepped into the principal’s role, and not nearly enough has changed for California students. Our children do not have any more time to waste.