<p>@ksarmand: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>True, but that is definitely not a problem existing only among black students! I can say that in my high school regular government class, which is by majority white, no one was interested in paying attention to the current affairs of the country or listening to Obama’s speech.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You sort of lost me… are you implying that illegal immigrantion is the cause of the achievement gap between black and white students 
?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most of the people who are eventually academically successful realize at some point in their lives that intellectual achievement is entirely within their ability. I think most have family who passed on to them the notion that it’s important to do well in school, that with hard work they can be expected to attend a good college, have professional degrees, etc.-----or more impressively, that they arrived at this conclusion on their own. Many students have the full capacity for academic excellence but at some time cease to strive for it, whether it’s because of the expectation they perceive from society or something else entirely. I do think it has to do with mindset, perhaps induced by culture or by society’s expectations, and it is not something that applies only to black students, though it certainly does to a great extent.</p>