It’s arguably the biggest challenge facing many public schools in Minnesota: Disproportionately high numbers of black and American Indian K-12 students aren’t doing well academically, compared with their white peers. Along with Latino kids, they are the focus of any discussion about learning gaps or disparities.

Yet students with the same challenges as those in public schools can thrive at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). Those institutions have long histories of educating students and producing high percentages of America’s professionals of color.

America’s 37 tribal schools serve more than 80,000 people in academic and community programs, while 105 black colleges enroll more than 300,000 students.

So what are they doing right that can help elementary and secondary schools get the same results? That question was the smart focus of a daylong forum last week in St. Paul called “Learning and Teaching with Fire: Lessons from HBCUs and Tribal Colleges.”