Public schools: the solution to Mississippi's woes. (college preparation)(Column)

Nine years ago, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF)

examined how well Mississippi" K-12 school system was preparing

Black students to meet the college admission requirements then in effect.

This research revealed two important facts.

First, Black students who took college preparatory courses in high

school scored higher on the ACT than Black students who did not take

them. In many all-Black school systems, very few students who took

the ACT had completed the more rigorous courses. Without

encouragement and support from educators and parents, students took

easier courses that did not prepare them …