Culture controversy. More researchers are beginning to explore the roots of such attitudes, contending that this behavior may contribute to the gulf between white and black achievement in school. It's a controversial subject. Harvard lecturer Ronald Ferguson says that blacks are more likely than whites to tease classmates for making mistakes. "It is a destructive dynamic that leads to anxiety," says Ferguson. "And anxiety interferes with concentration." Other researchers, like the late anthropologist John Ogbu, have found that black high achievers get mocked for "acting white." But scholars like New York University Prof. Pedro Noguera say that anti-intellectual attitudes prevail in all youth culture, black and white. "There are a lot of kids who have been turned off school, not just African-Americans," he says. "I see a lot of white kids like that."

Still, Noguera does believe that differences in black and white parenting have a big influence on children's academic success, both while kids are in school and before they arrive. "Black parents are more trusting that school will take care of things," he says. "And that is a big mistake." Black households, agrees Ferguson, are much more likely to treat education as a job for teachers, while whites are more likely to tutor or coach children as early as preschool. "The real issue is historical differences in parenting," he says. "That is hard to talk about, but that is the root of the skill gap."

Indeed, economists Roland Fryer and Steven Levitt say that even before kindergarten, black-white differences in children's language and number skills are influenced not only by family income but also by such factors as the number of children's books in a home. But whether the source of the achievement gap is the attitudes of parents, kids, or both, the solution is the same, argues Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom, coauthor of No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning. "[Most] schools are not doing anything significant to close the gap," he says. "But schools radically reformed can make up for these problems."

The perfect score. A side door off the library of Charlotte's Highland Elementary leads to a room filled with stacks of great children's books, from Harriet the Spy to Holes. While the kids attend art or gym, each grade's teachers gather here to draft lesson plans, discuss students, and talk tests. At one recent meeting, Bronwyn Roberts, a literacy specialist, brings up a student who had been doing well on the district's twice-monthly mini-assessments. "All of a sudden he was blank," she says. Demetrus Keaton, the boy's classroom teacher, has an answer: His sister, who had been reading to him at home, recently got a job that prevents her from spending time with him. The teacher promises to talk to the boy's mother.

Educators in Charlotte have found that regular assessments shine a light into the achievement gap, forcing schools to rethink what they are doing to make sure every student learns. The city's testing program goes far beyond what is mandated by the federal or state governments. Charlotte makes all students take three "quarterly" tests before the North Carolina End-of-Grade Test. Majority-poor and low-performing schools must give students "mini-assessments" every two weeks. Weak results allow administrators to mobilize tutoring and other extra help. In poor, minority schools where parental involvement can be rare, the tests effectively take the place of the kind of family pressure that often forces suburban schools to excel.

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