Less than a decade ago, when California first developed its testing and accountability system for schools, there was some controversy within education circles about whether -- and how -- to publicly report test score data based on student race, ethnicity and socioeconomic background.

Some feared an accountability "backlash" against students of color, students from low-income families and those who are still learning English. Would educators be blamed for circumstances over which they have no control? Would effective teachers flee challenging schools if they were held accountable for the low achievement of disadvantaged students?

Ultimately, the Academic Performance Index approved by the state Legislature did hold schools accountable for the achievement of ethnic subgroups of students as well as socioeconomically disadvantaged students. When it came to holding schools accountable for achievement, however, until just this year, those subgroups were held to lower expectations.

With several years of data now behind us, it is clear that accountability has brought about positive change in our schools. But while the achievement of all student groups has improved steadily and significantly, our accountability system has also revealed achievement gaps that are stark and pernicious.

When looking at performance by "All Grades" in 2006, there is a jarring 166-point gap between California's African-American and white students and 145-point gap between Hispanic/Latino and white students. These gaps are simply unacceptable if California hopes to have a thriving workforce in our increasingly competitive global economy. Our state has both a moral and an economic obligation to solve this problem.

For many years, educators both lamented achievement gaps and believed them to be the immutable result of economic disparities in our society. Now, with several years of data disaggregated by race as well as income, it is impossible to explain the gaps by poverty alone. The fact is, academic achievement by African-American students and Hispanic/Latino students who are not socioeconomically disadvantaged lags behind or hovers near the achievement levels of white students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

While arguments have been made that the range of poverty within the classification "socioeconomically disadvantaged" is broad and that white students tend to be at the higher end of that range, myriad data -- from SAT scores to distribution of qualified teachers to dropout rates -- lead to the unavoidable conclusion that the race of a student is likely to affect how that student is served by our educational system.

It is time that we willingly and openly discuss, examine and change this disconcerting fact. We know that all groups of students can learn to high levels -- a student's race does not determine how well that student can learn. So we must address those things in our system that are holding groups of students back.

I don't believe for a minute that our hardworking educators are motivated by racism. I believe and see every day in our schools people of all races working tremendously hard to eliminate these achievement gaps. But the gaps persist, even as the students served by our public school system are now 72 percent non-white. So we all need to confront the things about our system that have allowed racial achievement gaps to continue.

Recognizing that much has been said and written about the national educational phenomenon of achievement gaps, I've called on our state's education system to have a public, comprehensive and collaborative discussion about why such gaps exist.

Just as there were fears when we first began to shed light on the achievement of specific subgroups, there are now fears about talking openly and in depth about what that light reveals. To do so requires us to discuss race, culture and both individual and systemic expectations in a way that causes discomfort. Yet it clearly is time that we become willing to take this step.

On Nov. 13 and 14 in Sacramento, I hosted a statewide Achievement Gap Summit where some 4,000 educators, including many from North San Diego County, gathered to discuss causes and promising solutions for closing the gap.

We examined issues of access -- do all students have access to the effective teachers, counselors and other services they need to succeed? We talked about school and community culture and climate, examining what it takes to offer supportive learning environments for all students, including family involvement, a supportive school staff and culturally relevant instruction.

Expectations were another major theme, because it is clear that not only as a state but as individual educators, parents and communities, we must hold all students to equally high expectations if we want all students to succeed. We also had some uncomfortable discussions about unconscious biases, assumptions and beliefs that can lead to low expectations and negative results.

If anything has become clear, it is that there is no single silver bullet solution to closing the achievement gap, and that schools need the flexibility to tailor individual solutions to individual students.

Nor is this effort in any way an attempt to backtrack from our system of high standards and accountability for educating students to those standards. On the contrary, it is an attempt to work together to create the kind of continuous learning system we see in California's most successful schools and districts.

With hard work and commitment, I believe California schools can narrow and eventually eliminate the achievement gaps that threaten not only the futures of individual students but the future of our state.

Jack O'Connell is state superintendent of public instruction.