CreaTV San Jose was commissioned to cover three forums presented by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation that explored the causes of, and identified solutions to, California's troubling student achievement gap.

The first two forums — Closing the Achievement Gap in Silicon Valley and Solutions for Closing the Achievement Gap in Silicon Valley — recently aired on CreaTV San Jose’s Community Channel 15.

The forums featured a host of top educators, business and civic leaders, including California Superintendent of Schools, Jack O'Connell, who tackled ways to narrow the academic gap that separates Hispanic and African-American students from their white and Asian peers.

The academic gap, which has persisted for decades, is reflected in lower overall test scores and lower high school graduation rates among Hispanic and African-American students.

Silicon Valley Education Foundation CEO Muhammed Chaudhry said, "Closing the achievement gap is the most critical challenge of this generation. Too many low-income Latino and African-American students are not succeeding in crucial math and science classes that are needed to prepare them to enter industries that drive Silicon Valley and 21st century jobs."

While there are many out-of-school influences contributing to the achievement gap, such as children raised in poverty and an increase in the English Learner population, these forums focused on how the public education system can change practices to better meet the needs of students of color. The forums identify a set of local policy recommendations that business, education and government leaders can support and local school boards can push to adopt.

CreaTV San Jose sent out its crew and fly pack (a control room in a suitcase) to capture all three forums, which took place on February 26 at Hewlett Packard, March 17 at Google and April 28 at Microsoft.

Programming on CreaTV San Jose’s Ch 15 can be viewed by Comcast Cable subscribers in the City of San Jose and Campbell and is available via LIVE STREAM and video on-demand at www.creatvsj.org.