For decades, there have been no easy answers on how to close the racial achievement gap.

"It is immensely complicated," Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt said yesterday. "The truth is we're going to have to do more of almost everything."

Mr. Roosevelt was among those who testified at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education hearing on the achievement gap. State Rep. Jake Wheatley, subcommittee chair, led the meeting at Pittsburgh Schenley High School.

Ross Wiener, vice president for program and policy for The Education Trust, based in Washington, D.C., said that Pennsylvania has large achievement gaps -- as much as between 30 and 40 percentage points -- between white and black students and between low-income and other students.

Mr. Wiener said there have been modest improvements in achievement in the state for all students and "some small narrowing of the gap" in the last few years.

He said that Pennsylvania has "one of the most unfair" funding formulas for education in the nation.

Mr. Roosevelt said Pennsylvania is in dire need of education reform because its laws are "as outdated and archaic" as any other state.

Mr. Roosevelt said no one knows what is an adequate amount to spend for urban education because most urban school districts are struggling, not succeeding.

Linda Croushore, executive director of The Consortium for Public Education, said she would like to see mandatory all-day kindergarten, year-round school, a statewide teacher salary and education funded through the state without local property tax bills.

Jerome Taylor, associate professor of Africana studies at the University of Pittsburgh, suggested a statewide conference to help educators learn the best strategies.

Olga Welch, education dean at Duquesne University, said structural racism needs to be addressed.

Marilyn Barnett, principal of Imani Christian Academy, former principal of Westinghouse High School and chair of the education committee of the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP, said she favors school vouchers, charter schools, privatization of schools and "the dismantling of the public school monopoly" by permitting more choices.

Some state officials pointed to efforts already being made in the state to raise achievement.

Beth Olanoff, policy director for the state Department of Education, noted accountability block grants have enabled more children to enroll in pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten, to receive tutoring and to have smaller classes sizes in the early grades.

She said that the achievement gap between student subgroups has been narrowing for the past five years.