Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance leaders are calling for change and improved achievement for black students in Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.

Group leaders, community members and school officials met Monday at St. Joseph CME Church to discuss the achievement gap between black and white students.

Prior to the meeting, the groups distributed a report card to school officials outlining failures in 11 categories, including eliminating the minority achievement gap, decreasing the dropout rate of black students and more.

According to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, about 44 percent of black elementary school students passed both reading and math End of Grade tests, compared with 93 percent of white elementary school students.

Bishop Gene Hatley, pastor of Barbee’s Chapel Baptist Church and host of the meeting, announced the launch of Barbee’s Chapel Harvest Word Community Resource and Enrichment Centers, a program geared toward bringing volunteer tutors, computers and other academic resources to children who need them. The program will start Feb. 1.

In a Monday newsletter to district educators, Superintendent Neil Pedersen wrote, “With the talent of our staff and the resources available to our students, we can and should do better.”

Pedersen said the district has slowly worked toward closing the achievement gap, but a recent revision and rescaling of the math test to a higher standard created a new gap.