In a recent article in the Atlantic (“The College-Town Achievement Gap,” 1 June 2017) Eric Gleibermann focused on the achievement gaps in some of the public high schools in this country where the gap is most severe—university towns. To some, this might appear contradictory since three of these towns—Berkeley, CA; Ann Arbor, MI; and my home town, Chapel Hill, NC—are reputed to be predominantly progressive and liberal.

And yet, as the Stanford University researchers analysis of test scores of hundreds of school districts, suggests, “Berkeley and Chapel Hill have the widest and third-widest achievement gaps between black and white students.”

Who knew? Students and parents of color in our district have known for years, since it’s been an issue since the schools were desegregated in the late 1960s. Many of the administrators, staff and teachers in our district also know but so far have not succeeded in narrowing the gap…