Closing the achievement gap

WASHINGTON -- Twelve-year old Alex Carter is an A student who loves science and reads a book a week. So it surprised his father when he announced last year that he didn't want to enroll in an honors class that his teacher recommended for the following term.

"That class is for the smart people, the nerds," Alex told him. His father replied, "Well, who are you?"

Alex is a junior league football player, an avid golfer, and a lifelong suburbanite. He's also one of only a handful of African-American students in his seventh-grade class at Eagle Ridge Middle School in Ashburn, Va. He dreams of becoming a professional athlete like his father, Tom, who played cornerback for the Washington Redskins.

But as he nears his teenage years in a predominantly white school in Loudoun County, his parents are concerned that he could abandon academic pursuits because he thinks they are better left to his white classmates.

That's why Tom and Renee Carter joined last year with about 15 families, including the parents of nearly every black male sixth-grader, to push their sons to graduate on time in 2012 with options for the future and without lowering their expectations or test scores along the way. They call it Club 2012.

The group holds monthly house meetings, twice-weekly homework sessions, "rap sessions" between fathers and sons, and social or community service activities. The parents speak often with educators, many of whom attend parent-organized events.

"We know there is an achievement gap in the county, in the state, in the country," said Gabrielle Carpenter, mother of one of Alex's classmates and a guidance counselor at Dominion High School in Sterling, Va. Carpenter founded Club 2012 and her goal is to make sure the youngsters don't fall victim to the achievement gap.

Carpenter and Carter invited other parents to the Carpenters' house to share some sobering statistics.

In Loudoun, an affluent county known for its strong schools, black students consistently lag behind their white classmates on standardized tests. Last year, 63 percent of black eighth-graders in the county passed the state math test; 62 percent passed in English. White students' pass rate for both subjects was 89 percent. At Eagle Ridge, where 8 percent of students are black, the gaps were similar.

Many parents in the group have college degrees and can afford such activities as summer camp and tutoring, two indicators that researchers have linked to higher achievement.

Carpenter said she understands that her son now cares most about his friends and being cool. So she figures if she can get all of the boys to buy into the idea that math is cool, too, then they will help one another succeed.

The parents said they are focusing on boys because research shows African-American girls are more likely to achieve in school and go to college than African-American boys.