Last year, Winburn Middle School principal Tina Stevenson told teachers at her school about a New Jersey principal who had turned failing schools that were populated with a large number of black and Latino students into successful ones in just a few years.

That principal, Baruti K. Kafele, who had spoken to a group of educators in Lexington, said it was his mission to share what he had done at his schools so that the national crisis of a growing achievement gap for black and Latino students, particularly boys, could be corrected.

Kafele, right, talks about the issues that bury black and Latino students at the bottom of statistics that are indicators of success. That same population is jettisoned to the top of all statistics that predict academic failure, such as suspensions, arrest data and drop out rates.

To turn those statistics around, he says, teachers must know their students and build relationships with them. Parents must be more vigilant and involved. And students must change their attitudes from ones of hopelessness to ones of success.

Two Winburn language arts teachers, Elizabeth Powell and Lori Revel, knew many of the students who were having difficulty in their classrooms were black or Hispanic males. If Kafele had techniques or strategies he was willing to share, they wanted that information made available to not only their school but also other schools on the north side of Lexington that feed into the struggling Bryan Station High School.

"I went to his Web site and called him," Powell said. "I got him directly."

Kafele agreed to return to Lexington, but only Winburn and Leestown Middle School joined forces to host the conference.

Stevenson, however, wanted more people to hear what Kafele had to say. After all, we all have a stake in how well our children perform academically.

She contacted the Rev. Richard Gaines of Consolidated Baptist Church and he agreed to have his church host an evening community meeting for those interested in improving student achievement, with Kafele as the guest speaker.

"Everything just fell into place," Powell said.

As a principal, Kafele led the transformation of three New Jersey middle schools and one high school. One school, Sojourner Truth Middle School in East Orange, N.J., emerged as one of the highest performing urban middle schools in the state.

Kafele, whose first name means "teacher," has been named a Milken Educator for his instructional practices, student-learning results and other classroom accomplishments.

Now a consultant, best-selling author and speaker, Kafele said he will address educators and education partners during the first part of his visit and discuss six components and six questions leading to the transformation of the attitudes of teachers and students.

First, he will address the teacher's attitude toward students, starting with the question "Do I believe in them?" Then, he'll examine the teacher's relationship with the student by asking, "Do I know them?"

Next, the teacher's compassion for the students will be discussed by asking, "Do I care about them?" followed by a questions about the learning environment, "Do I supply students with an environment conducive to success?"

The relevance of the instruction will be examined in, "Do I realize who they are?" And lastly, he will ask about empowering students for success and teaching young boys their future roles as men with: "Do I teach them how to fly?"

"We are the flight instructors," Kafele said. "How do we expect them to soar if we don't know how to fly?"

Later in the day, Kafele will give parents, students and others information about the achievement gap and "a wealth of information of what they can be doing at home and how they can be building relationships with their sons' teachers," he said.

Powell hopes the conference will enable people to acknowledge the problem, take down all barriers that inhibit solutions and begin to work together, she said. "We want to put it out on the table and say it is what it is," she said. "What are we going to do about this?"

Stevenson is hoping for more awareness, she said. Although she and her staff implement a lot of different techniques and strategies, she wants them to know that the issues with young males are very serious here and abroad.

"What can we do to embrace these populations?" she said. "What can we do to take care of their basic needs and how do we bring the community and our parents in?

"We want them to trust us again," she said. "It is a lot about trust."

Merlene Davis: (859) 231-3218. Email: mdavis1@herald-leader.com. Twitter: @reportmerle. Blog: merlenedavis.bloginky.com.