He also works with teachers to identify biases, for instance: black children are less likely to complete homework because they are lazy. His research indicates that blacks and whites spend the same amount of time on homework, but blacks are less likely to finish. “It’s not laziness,” he says. “It’s a difference in skills.”

How these messages get delivered is crucial. “I don’t want to be another one of those people lecturing black parents,” he says. “I tell them we in the black community  we  need to build stronger intellectual lives at home.”

He recalls speaking to a primarily white group at Georgia State University. Afterward, a black parent came up to him. “He told me, ‘I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m not comfortable with you saying it in front of this audience,’ ” Dr. Ferguson said. “And I said, ‘It’s not ideal, but this was an opportunity to get these things to you.’ ”

Ronald Franklin Ferguson grew up the eldest of five boys in a blue-collar section of Cleveland. Getting a good education was a top priority for his family. His grandmother and mother were both public school teachers; six of the seven children in his father’s family attended college.

Two of his brothers picked careers that give back to the community. One is a rural doctor, the other works with children in the Fergusons’ old neighborhood, using karate lessons to instill good values. The two other brothers had drug problems, and one died at age 39. Dr. Ferguson is raising the living brother’s son.

Dr. Ferguson was not a typical child. “When I was 8, I wanted to know what’s a good job to help people,” he said. “The person I asked said, ‘city planner.’ So anyone who asked, I said, ‘I want to be a city planner when I grow up.’ ”

In 1986, he did his first educational study, and by the late 1990s, his work focused on the achievement gap. The first district he worked with was Shaker Heights. After the student newspaper published an article contrasting test scores of white and black students, all hell broke loose. Dr. Ferguson was invited in to help calm the waters.