I had been wondering when someone would point out that the "vision" was giving so little attention to the factors causing the

"achievement gap." Some of the causes, unfixable by schools, even when offering before and afterschool programs from early bird aerobics to midnight basketball, include: poverty, crime, drug and alcohol addiction, children having children, the influence of pop culture, the harrassment of some successful minority students, emotional instability in the home, lack of a two parents living and raising their child together, the rise of violence in video games, the lack of respect for books and learning in general, parents who want to be friends instead of parents, the clothing styles that emulate and praise "pimpin'" and "'ho-in'"...An awful lot for the district to lay on themselves, isn't it? And maybe it takes a wee bit of arrogance to claim that a school district is going to "end...racism" (all kinds?) in 5 years. A "vision" that is indeed audable in its idealism,  but also sorely lacking in scholarship needed to untangle and understand the many twisted threads of "school" failure.