| The achievement gap and differential school performance between majority and minority students has received considerable research attention (e.g., Finn & Rock, 1997; Gregory, 2000; McWhorter, 2000; Ogbu, 2003; Steinberg, Brown, & Dornbusch, 1996; Witherspoon, Speight, & Thomas, 1997). John Ogbu (1980, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1990, 2003) has offered the cultural ecological theory as a means of explaining the underachievement of African Americans in U.S. schools. One of the major premises of Ogbu's theory is that African American students tend not to perform well in school as a means of dissociating from the majority, White culture and maintaining their own minority culture. This would suggest that student attitudes about race and ethnicity influence how they perceive school which in turn influences the effort that they put forth. The purpose of this study was to examine how student perceptions and behaviors may influence the relationship between racial or ethnic identity and achievement.;One Hundred Fourteen Black middle and high school students completed the Cross Racial Identity Scale (Vandiver, Cross, Fhagen-Smith, Worrell, Swim, & Caldwell, 2000), the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992), the Conditions scale of the Secondary Student Aspirations Survey (Plucker & Quaglia, 1998), and the Behavior Composite (Worrell, 1995). Additionally, demographic information and self-reported grades were collected from the students. Correlations and regression analyses were used to analyze the participants' responses. Additionally, canonical correlation analysis was used to investigate the multivariate relationships among racial and ethnic identity.;It was found that perception of school climate and self-report of pro-school attitudes/behaviors mediated the relationships among racial identity, ethnic identity, and academic achievement. Although, some support was found for Ogbu's (2003) notion of low effort syndrome, the concept of racelessness was not supported. Instead, the attitudes that were positively related to academic achievement, though indirectly, were ethnic identity and an acceptance of other cultures. The results of this study suggest that schools should teach ethnic and racial pride, respect for one's own culture, and the cultures of others, because these variables influenced school attitudes and behaviors, which in turn influenced academic achievement. |
