It is not the kind of atmosphere most adults would find helpful if they needed to study and learn-high dropout rates, kids promoted without learning, schools short on money, profanity and disrespect, fighting, drug and alcohol abuse. Yet these are "very serious" problems in schools, according to surprisingly large numbers of the nation's black and Hispanic students. These results are from Public Agenda's 2006 Reality Check surveys of parents, students, teachers and administrators nationwide. To help inform these discussions, Public Agenda is devoting its second "Reality Check" report for 2006 to a comparison of the views and experiences of black and Hispanic parents and students to those of white parents and students. This report also looks at the observations of teachers who work in mainly minority public schools versus those who teach in mainly white schools. These surveys, conducted in late 2005 and early 2006, explore parent, student and teacher perspectives on a wide range of educational issues. In a sense, they provide a status report from those "closest to the action." According to this study and others, the vast majority of all youngsters, white, black and Hispanic, are aiming for college. In "Reality Check," nearly three-quarters of black youngsters tell us that they are "definitely" going to college. Unfortunately, just half of these young black students (49%) say they are confident they are acquiring the skills needed to succeed when they get there. [This report was also sponsored by the Wallace Foundation.]