MONTICELLO, N.Y. -- Officials at Monticello High School are looking to level the playing field for minority students. NYU researchers found that academic expectation at the school was different for white and minority students, leading to an environment where minority students are less likely to succeed.

The researchers also reported black males, Hispanic males and Hispanic females were less likely to graduate.

Representatives from NYU met with Monticello teachers to work out a strategy to close that achievement gap.

School officials are focusing on improving reading and math scores.

"Talking about race, doesn't necessarily mean that we're talking about racism, but we're talking about how race is complicating some of these sets of issues, " said Dr. Edward Fergus, with NYU.

"They're going to have representatives here working on various areas, that's their expertise, our teachers will have an enormous amount of input as well as our students, because I don't believe this is going to work unless our students are involved in this process," said Monticello School Superintendent Dr. Patrick Michel,

Experts from NYU will be consulting with the school throughout the upcoming year to raise achievement, while also working with the district on a five-year plan.