In spite of his degrees, laborious research and extensive experience, Alfred Tatum has remained humble.

The assistant literacy education professor recalls his inspiration: “[People need to] pay attention to the voices of students, I learned a lot from my eighth-grade students.”

Tatum recently published “Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap,” a book that presents nationally collected research on underachieving students and Tatum’s strategies for improvement.

After teaching at a low-performing inner-city school, Tatum strove to eliminate some negative connotations teachers may have of academically challenged students.

“Many [students] were marginalized based on certain expectations teachers have of low-performing students, which adversely affects their performance,” Tatum said.

Norman Stahl, the chair of the Department of Literacy Education, praised Tatum for bringing the gap between socio-economic levels and achievement to surface.

“The data is pretty correct in noting the differences in literacy rates [among young males], there is so much that can be done,” Stahl said.

Tatum said in order to bring about national change, teachers and administrators need to recognize “poor reading performance is usually the result of a combination of factors,” including the cultural, social and emotional issues an individual student has.

“It’s a package, you don’t find a North Shore-type high school in a poverty-stricken area,” Stahl said.

A lot of students in inner-city schools deal with survival, if you’re trying to eat you might not have time for homework, said Donald Bramlett, the director of the Office of Retention Programs.

Lornett Vestal, a junior pre-sociology major who attended the Chicago Vocational Career Academy, said while there are problems with teachers and curriculum, the major issue inner-city students face is funding.

“We were working in our architecture design class on computers from 1986 in 1997 while other students were working on [Computer Assisted Design],” Vestal said. “I bet there are some kids who think Bill Clinton is still president.”

Though more work lies in front of Tatum, his colleagues are optimistic.

“Tatum is still a young, emerging scholar who can provide the community with an impartial viewpoint,” Stahl said.