I would argue that differences in education outcomes have more to do with class than with race. (And yes, race is related to class for a number of reasons.)

I would further argue that pep-talks are nice, but I doubt that a child's lack of success is often due to a lack of pep. Rather, a lack of pep is more likely due to lack of success. Further, this lack of success may or may not have much relationship to actual intelligence.

I propose, instead, that we teach kids HOW to succeed. And this is trickier than essays and maths. This is about teaching kids who to talk to, and what to ask for. This seems to be almost natural for upper and middle-class families. It is not intuitive, though, for lower-class kids to know how to talk to a guidance counselor at school, or a college recruiter, or a potential employer. It is not intuitive for them to know who to reach out to, what steps to take, and so forth. Too often, their parents don't know either.

Baltimore schools are pretty much segregated according to this article:

[publicschoolreview.com]

Before anything else you should have an integrated classroom where children learn about each other first-hand.

By all means teach about accomplished Blacks. Maxie Maultsby, Colin Powell, Barack Obama, the list is very long. Bring in a variety of speakers from the community. All children benefit from exposure to successful people of whatever race.

And Hispanic and Native American. Can't stop with just black history.

As a retired educator I agree. But we must also address three other issues. Going all the way back to the times of slavery, it was a criminal act for a Black person to be educated, even to the point of costing one's life. Given that, Black culture developed which did not value education. Some of that exists today cue to the curse of culture (once a norm, belief or set of behaviors become entrenched in the culture, it influences, shapes, and limits that which follows).

Second, also going back to slavery times, Blacks developed psychological games for psychological survival -- games like ribbing, jiving, shucking, signifying, playing the dozens, among others. These games have been carried on to the modern Black street culture, and interfere with productive, goal-driven behavior and formal learning. They must be driven out of he Black culture by parents and Black community leaders.

Third, many young, poorly educated single mothers must be taught how to provide an atmosphere at home which encourages and enables learning. If that is missing, the child is not likely to do well in school. When I was teaching at the college level a Black student of mine from the Chicago ghetto did an independent study to find out what made the difference in whether the person made it to college or not. He found two factors: First, the mother who did provide that enabling environment for learning and demanded that the child did learn and keep is or her nose clean. Second, one or more teachers who both provided a very positive role model and who told the student that he or she knew that the student could learn and absolutely demanded that the student strove for excellence.

Very well stated.