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that is necessary is a nationalization of academic standards across the states.

In the United States, the achievement gap between black and white students did not spring up overnight. This has been part of the American tapestry since slavery was instituted and it was codified into law that blacks be denied the right to read and write. Through multiple generations of this forced illiteracy into the Jim Crow era of the south and the discrimination and ghettoizing of the north, many black students suffered academically. Through the Brown vs. Board of Education case to busing and then to the suburban and exurban sprawl, there have been concerted efforts to make sure their is a disparity in the education offered to urban and predominately black students versus that offered to suburban/exurban and predominately white students. Until the more social issues such as proper housing, employment, and health issues are addressed, the academic achievement gap will continue to be part of the national discussion. While there are efforts on the part of organizations such as Hope Unlimited and SPROG in Kirkwood, Missouri or the National Urban League, Teach for America, 100 Black Men, and the many alumni associations working with black students, it is a single sandbag against a rushing flood.

The greatest tip offered is for parents to become the voice and advocate for their child. Demand the educational rights that white students take for granted. Do not accept a teacher's pronouncement that a child can not learn a higher order math or should just be allowed to make up words as they write. Expect excellence from the teachers and make it a point of using the public discourse to achieve these ends, the teachers job is to teach and the parents job is to make sure their child gets the absolute best education. Visit the schools, sit in the classrooms, review the homework, go to the library, go to the School Board meetings, form alliances with other parents for study sessions and to be collective voices for change in the schools. To close the achievement gap will take action for it is well-known that a proper education is the doorway to a brigher future.

Learn more about this author, Taye Foster Bradshaw.
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