Minority groups make up a large share of the working and the non-working poor. Moreover, throughout the last several decades, many minority students in the large urban schools, particularly Hispanic, Native and African-American, have had a difficult time taking advantage of a public education. The major tension points and associated problems include prejudice, low achievement rates, and high dropout and suspension rates. The premise of this paper is that solutions to these problems reside in the identification of the changes that must be made by each of the major stakeholders. Teachers need to examine attitudes and practices that may foster low expectations and discipline problems. Although the students are the victims, student attitudes need to be similarly examined. One key change calls for the repudiation of a prevalent notion among many minority students that studying is "acting white." Studying is a norm requisite for minority groups to effectively compete in public schools. Minority community leaders and groups need to lead the call for repudiation of the "acting white" phenomenon. They also need to collaboratively engage with the schools in order to improve student success. Finally, urban teacher education programs need to emphasize effective interpersonal skills, knowledge and understanding of the diverse urban culture, and effective instruction in linguistically relevant pedagogy.