well, parochial school kids routinely read about 2 grades ahead of their public school peers. Black kids who go to Catholic schools do much better academically.

another area that has boomed recently - home schooling. Home schooled kids often outperform those in public schools. I have a black friend who home-schooled one of her three daughters because the child had dyslexia and the public school was not cutting it. She then realized - that child was doing much better than her older sister had at the same age. So she also decided to home-school her youngest. Because she wanted the best education for her kids that she could afford to give them.