.- pell county, wemaryland have one of the largest educational equity gaps in the state. to what extent do you believe this is a function of educational racism, funding, or poor leadership? what do you think is the best way to close this gap? >> i guess my name is on that question. i think probably a combination of all three things. in this community, there are people that don't recognize that people who are different contribute something different to the society. we found that davidson middle so -- davidson middle school, where we have program improvement six or seven years ago, when we put students together in heterogeneous classes, kids of all ability levels, all ethnicities, every student in the school, their test scores rose. when you put a group of diverse kids together, everyone grows. point index for students in california. it was all about rec rising that we all bring something to the table and that we all have something to offer. learnk a lot for us to how to be allies for people who are not ourselves. there are issues around race and ethnicity, but poverty lays

our age is pell grants, over half of what we administrate and financial aid here. county,in marin according to the uc accord, we have one of the largest education at witty gaps in the state. to what extent do you believe -- to what extent do you believe this is a function of racism, funding, or poor leadership? what you think is the best way to close this cap? -- gap? >> i guess my name is on that question. i think probably a combination of all three things. in this community there are people who don't recognize people who are different contribute something different to the society. we found at davidson middle that when we put students together, all students together in heterogeneous groups -- all ability levels, all ethnicities, school, thet in the .est scores rose what we found was, when you put studentsf diverse together, all scores rose. it was all about recognizing that we bring something to the .able recognizing how to be allies of people who are not like ourselves. i think there are issues around race and ethnicity, but poverty is a much larger piece. it is poverty

. $6.4 million of our age is pell grants, over half of what we administrate and financial aid here. >> this question is from sally matsuishi. here in marin county, according to the uc accord, we have one of the largest education equity gaps in the state. to what extent do you believe -- to what extent do you believe this is a function of racism, funding, or poor leadership? what you think is the best way to close this gap? >> i guess my name is on that question. i think probably a combination of all three things. i think that in this community there are people who don't recognize people who are different contribute something different to the society. we found at davidson middle school that when we put students together, all students together in heterogeneous groups -- all ability levels, all ethnicities, every student in the school, the test scores rose. what we found was, when you put a group of diverse students together, all scores rose. thead an 86-point gain on academic performance index and california to raid we also so wed suspensions by 86% kept students in school. it was all about recognizing that we bring something to the table. we all