A year-long program, “Closing the Achievement Gap,” with influential educators, policy makers and opinion shapers, is being presented by the New York City Department of Education (DoE) to engage educators, education advocates, parents, politicians and community members in addressing this key barrier to equality and opportunity.

On the evening of January 6, New York Cities School Chancellor Joel Klein and Reverend Al Sharpton engaged in a dynamic discussion about the relationship between the educational achievement gap and human rights in the United States. The discussion was moderated by Dominic Carter of NY1 TV.

The event was sponsored by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture whose Chief, Howard Dodson, called for “an urgent action” to address the dire crisis of education in New York City.

The purpose of the evening was to learn from Klein’s and Sharpton’s perspectives on the progress, challenges and steps to close the achievement gap; to engage in a dialogue with the audiences about the individual and collective work needed to close the achievement gap; and to strategize to develop specific commitments for closing the gap in 2009.

Sharpton and Klein are co-chairs of the Education Equality Project, a non-partisan group of elected officials, civil rights leaders and education reformers that has formed to help ensure that America finally brings equity to an educational system that, 54 years after Brown v. Board of Education, is still not meeting the needs of all its students.

View the video of the discussion (Flash required)

Learn about the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Junior Scholars Program