Here is my take on why black students are failing in schools across America.
Going as far back as the 60s 70s, etc. The quest to create, discover, etc. black culture is what is killing the black community. This quest was supported by paternalistic whites and fully bought by blacks who were told they had no culture.
What they end up creating as black culture were things that were in opposition to mainstream society. This could be in language, dress, behaviors, etc. Black culture seems to have large elements of what is opposite to what it means to be successful in society because many of the successful traits are labelled as white culture.
What people fail to realize is culture is not black, nor white. Culture is basically transmitted beliefs, values, and assumptions from one generation to the next generation. So while there may be groups of blacks who identify with the similar traits mentioned, not all blacks will demonstrate the same traits. Therefore, there is no such thing as black culture. At the same time, there is no such thing as white culture. Culture is what you do.
Not wanting to be labelled as acting white the oppositional identity emerged. For example, showing up on time is considered a white thing. This has given rise to CP time. Another example would be a sense of urgency to accomplish a task. Black people are more relationship oriented, not task oriented. That is a white thing.
Blacks will succeed when they drop this black culture quest and focus on what is needed to succeed in society.
Appropriate cultural curriculum is more nonsense than sense.