In studying the disparity of academic achievement between minority and nonminority students, anthropologists and educators have identified a distinct variability in the academic success between two discrete subgroups within the minority school population: those who have voluntarily emigrated from their original societies and those who have involuntarily become members of a particular society because of slavery, conquest, or colonization. In the United States involuntary minorities primarily include African Americans, Native Americans, and many Hispanic Americans. An overview of involuntary-minority academic success and failure is followed by an alternative explanation based on the ability of the local school to institute measures that develop a sense of trust, or at least an abeyance of mistrust, in the school and school authorities. Some strategies are proposed to develop the necessary sense of trust. (Contains 46 references.) (SLD)