"Raise Ambitions" by Nipping Negative Culture in the Bud

A fine article appears in today's Washington Post. "Black Parents Seek to Raise Ambitions" describes families in Loudon County who have grouped together to combat the achievement gap head on. Their first step, recognizing there is a problem.

By engaging their children in twice-weekly study groups, father son sessions, and monthly house meetings, these mostly affluent parents are addressing cultural currents and biases in academic performance and participation all too common among African American youth. Count the similarities between the work these proactive parents are doing and John Ogbu's fantastic account in Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement.