A16 Education Page A21 Georgia Tech's higher demands increase minority achievements.

The experience of other states, particularly Texas, suggests that tying school grades to achievement by race offers hope for lifting minority achievement.

Last month, the first districtwide reading and writing scores for 4,700 fourth graders illustrated just how low minority achievement is in the schools.

The district now holds an annual meeting on equity and excellence, and it joined a network of suburban districts dedicated to raising minority achievement.

In recent years, this campus has begun gathering another set of numbers, offering a different portrait of minority achievement.

Mr. Patrick said problems in the state's system included gaps in minority achievement and students who were ill-prepared for college and the workforce.

That left the programs intended to lift minority achievement in a state of legal and financial uncertainty.

A small sign by the door marks the area as a special place for minorities, a haven papered with posters and symbols of minority achievement.

But ending the order meant that the state withheld $47 million that would have gone to programs to improve minority achievement.

Mr. Paige was the city's first black superintendent, a symbol, to some, of minority achievement.