Suburban schoolchildren of color, in the aggregate, do not perform as well as their white counterparts. In fact, the academic achievement gaps in many suburban communities are actually greater than those in urban school districts. This research brief looks at the achievement gap in suburban schools, offering preliminary answers to the following questions: (1) How is it possible that some of our best public schools continue to show disappointing results for their students of color? (2) What are the factors that cause, exacerbate, and even sustain the academic achievement gaps in the suburbs? (3) How can educators understand the complexities that confound the simple presentation of scores? and (4) What can schools and communities do to ameliorate and ultimately eliminate these gaps? The brief concludes that knocking down barriers to high achievement for students of color in the suburbs demands interactive strategies that attend to the whole set of factors that affect achievement. School leaders need to involve students, staff, and the community to develop focused plans and courses of action. Included in the brief is a basic description of the Tripod project, an example of ways of changing classroom practices that may serve to reduce the gap. (WFA)