In one of the largest studies of black male students ever conducted, New Orleans public schools found that while eight out of ten black parents believed their sons expected to go to college, only four out of ten teachers believed their black male students would receive a higher education.

As a rule, children tend to live up-or down-to adult expectations, and it doesn’t take very long for students to detect how much or how little is expected of them. In the New Orleans study, for instance, 58 percent of the 5,423 black boys who responded said they believed that their teachers should push them harder, and 34 percent said their teachers didn’t set high enough goals for them. More than half of these boys were only in grades four through six.

When it comes to expectations of black boys, some African American parents believe that stereotypes creep into many teachers’ perceptions. Last year, Keith Jenkins was a newcomer at a public elementary school in an Atlanta suburb. For the first few weeks, Keith, a large ten-year-old with a baby face and a disarming smile, would stay late to help his math teacher. "I want to be an engineer or a podiatrist," Keith would tell him. The instructor always seemed to reply obliquely before changing the subject: "Why don’t you go out for sports?" he’d ask.

"Keith kept complaining to me that the teacher only wanted to talk about football," says his mother, Debra. Over time, the teacher’s continued dismissal of Keith’s real interests upset the boy. "It’s like he doesn’t want me to be smart or something," he would tell his mother unhappily. "Like I should be playing sports because I am black." [Fearing reprisal, Debra wouldn’t reveal the name of Keith’s teacher, who may have been unaware of the effect his remarks had on Keith.]

Soon Keith no longer stayed after school, and in a few months, the normally sunny-natured child began telling his mom that he had to lose 30 pounds. "I’m too big," Keith would tell his mom. "If I’m skinny, they won’t pressure me to play. I can just be myself."

A lot of teachers, his mother believes, hold fast to certain assumptions about how black male students are supposed to behave. "If they have a kid who doesn’t fit into their stereotype, they put that kid down," she says.

And even when teachers do convey their expectations about academic potential, many African American parents and experts say, the message is equally discouraging: “It’s as if teachers already know that society has decided these boys aren’t going to make it," says Morris Jeff, former president of National Association of Black Social Workers, "so they don’t put forth the same kind of effort for black boys as they do for other students."

Dawn Holmes, the mother of two boys in a large New Jersey town, found herself taking exception to this defeatist approach. For two years in a row, Holmes scheduled conferences with her son’s math teachers because he has received C’s on his eighth- and ninth-grade report cards. "Both times the teachers told me that C’s were just fine for Timothy," says Holmes. "I told each of them that in our house, C’s were not fine." Holmes eventually enrolled Timothy in a tutoring program, and by the end of the ninth grade, her son was earning A’s and B’s again. "I hate to say it, but I can’t help but think the teachers’ attitudes were race-related."

Asked to recall this parent conference, Timothy’s ninth-grade math instructor wasn’t able to speak to specifics. "I can’t comment on the incident because I don’t remember it," she says, "but if a student is doing his absolute best and this grade is a C, then that grade is satisfactory regardless of his color."