By the time youngsters reach high school in the United States, the achievement gap is immense. Some remarkable inner-city schools, however, are showing that the achievement gap can be closed, even at the middle and high school level, if poor minority kids are given the right kind of instruction. In this article, the author features six schools that have successfully closed the achievement gap. These schools share a trait that has been largely ignored by education researchers: They are "paternalistic institutions." Paternalistic schools are highly prescriptive institutions that teach students not just how to think, but also how to act according to what are commonly termed traditional, middle-class values. (Contains 1 figure.)