Achievement Gap ‘Summit’ in Calif.

Jack O'Connell, left, California's superintendent of public instruction, talks with actor Edward James Olmos during the Achievement Gap Summit at the Sacramento Convention Center on Nov. 13. Mr. Olmos, the keynote speaker, said California schools should be the first in the nation to require all students to wear uniforms.

—Hector Amezcua /Sacramento Bee/AP

By Linda Jacobson

Sacramento, Calif.

Education experts and advocates from across the political and ideological spectrum gathered here this week to trade views—and pose competing policy recommendations—on ways to close persistent achievement shortfalls among poor and minority children.

The two-day achievement gap “summit,” called by California’s elected state schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell, drew more than 4,000 teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, and others from most of the state’s 58 counties for a variety of sessions Tuesday and Wednesday. It was intended to showcase programs and districts that are improving performance among the various subgroups tracked under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Tuesday’s program featured a debate between two high-profile figures in the education field with opposing views on what both described as a persistent problem: Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, and Chester E. Finn, founder of the Thomas B. Fordham...