I am working, this summer, for a program called Project G.R.A.D.(aka Graduation Really Achieves Dreams). There are 75 African American kids enrolled in the program. These kids are working as research learners trying to find information about the achievement gap and and what can be done to close it. When I looked at the graphs, I was proud to see that Asians were the highest achievers. Anyway, most of these kids felt that they had nothing to be proud of because African Americans were at the lowest level of achievement. Most of them felt embarassed and ashamed and others who felt like something needed to be done, adopted a defeatist attitude of " what difference will it make anyway.... we can't force people to improve themselves." One kid just kept looking at the graph, listening to what his classmates were saying. After a bit, he said, "NExt year we all get straight As."