How African American families can facilitate the academic achievement of their children: Implications for family-based interventions

The current academic underachievement of African American children is a deplorable consequence of centuries of systematic discrimination in all areas relevant to academic success (Cress-Welsing, 1990; Murray & Jackson, 1997; Woodson, 1990). However, regardless of the causes of the current situation, parents still have the greatest power and responsibility to facilitate the academic achievement of their children. That does not mean that other social systems do not impact African American achievement, but that the impact of those other systems can be moderated by family strengths (Kumpfer & Alvarado, 2003). Unfortunately, most African American parents have been conditioned to think that the educational system has the primary power and responsibility for their children's achievement. This is not only an erroneous assumption about the role of the educational system but, given the problems of the public schools that most African American children attend (Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2002; Murray & Jackson, 1997), this assumption can be deleterious to their academic success.