Educators face no greater challenge than improving the academic odds for economically disadvantaged, minority children, because they are at the greatest risk for failure. A recent study from the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill uncovered ways in which, despite good intentions, educators unwittingly alienated high-risk minority families. The Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC) and the Carolina Approach to Responsive Education project (CARE), two experimental studies of the efficacy of early intervention, followed high-risk children from birth to age eight. Each family was assigned a Home/School Resource Teacher (HST), who worked with families for the first three years the child attended elementary school. Problems articulated to HSTs by parents or teachers included: (1) rejection of teacher concerns as intrusive; (2) interpretation of teacher's suggestions or referrals as reflections of racial bias; (3) poverty-related programs; (4) cultural differences; (5) unrealistic expectations for children or parents; and (6) parents' lack of advocacy skills. Analysis of these pitfalls suggested ways to create partnerships between predominantly middle-class educational establishments and low-income minority parents, such as: (1) giving parents adequate representation in decision-making; (2) providing Home/School Coordinators or social workers as part of school system staff; (3) having teachers make home visits; (4) developing confidence in parents as educational partners; and (5) communicating regularly with the home. (Contains 23 references.) (BGC)