i'm the president of the ptsa at my child's elementary school and a member of coleman advocacy for children and youth. i am here today to talk about the achievement gap and how our african-american children are falling behind and how the gap is growing between african-american children as a group. this summer i took part in a leadership academy with coleman advocacy and learned that more than 65% of african-american children in the districts are not proficient in language, arts and math, while caucasian children looks nothing like ours. i also learned about the school to prison pipeline and the result achievement gap plays. our african-american children fall forced and get pushed into prison because the district has not taken the time to sit down with the little african-american boys and girls and really invest in them. more needs to be done before it is too late. it is important. our children's lives are at stake now more than ever. [speaker not understood] is on the verge of extinction in the city. if more is not done to help our children's future generation. thank you for giving me the o