Weighing In: Elementary-Age Students and the Debate on Attitudes toward School among Black Students.
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| Title: | Weighing In: Elementary-Age Students and the Debate on Attitudes toward School among Black Students. |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Tyson, Karolyn |
| Source: | Social Forces. Jun 2002 80(4):1157-1189. |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 33 |
| Publication Date: | 2002 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Academic Achievement, Achievement Need, Black Students, Elementary Education, Elementary School Students, Middle Class Students, Peer Influence, School Attitudes, Student Attitudes, Student Experience, Student School Relationship, Underachievement |
| ISSN: | 0037-7732 |
| Abstract: | Research on African American students' low academic performance has focused on Black adolescents, who, like most American adolescents, exhibit oppositional attitudes. In contrast, an ethnographic study of two all-Black elementary schools suggests that middle-class Black children begin school very much achievement-oriented and engaged, and that school experiences significantly affect development of school attitudes. (Contains 58 references.) (Author/SV) |
| Entry Date: | 2002 |
| Accession Number: | EJ647802 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwGD1eBB1I8_tjFmb8s5JOEiAAAA4TCB3gYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHQMIHNAgEAMIHHBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDDO9nim-9hrGn4osYQIBEICBmfUsE_tK4ol0iABLGsKGnzjJjjUG9vP-TSc-wtcXmXdJGOUrO99rxS3i7kCZX690pBMuWN3LHFxccTNkWhCKMxzHkELf7nhlclBpYLjauTeMqdDpiX6Sqeaj3UyDCIidIsaYQ08ObWWsduL7Iw0Px4JxpFZZQl_x4mQE3zmljz29UHFp25-Q0MG9A71S7bDhZwdwFc-12HdFPA== Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0006767652;sfr01jun.02;2002Jun17.12:21;v1.8</anid> <title id="AN0006767652-1">WEIGHING IN: ELEMENTARY-AGE STUDENTS AND THE DEBATE ON ATTITUDES TOWARD SCHOOL AMONG BLACK STUDENTS </title> <sbt id="AN0006767652-2">Abstract</sbt> <p>Many of the prevailing theories concerning the relatively low academic performance of African American students tend to center on the attitudes of adolescents. Much less research attention has been paid to the attitudes of younger students. As a result, the image of black adolescents -- who, like most American adolescents, exhibit oppositional attitudes -- has come to represent much of what we know and take for granted about black students as a group. The findings of this study, based on data collected in an ethnographic study of two all-black elementary schools, suggest that black children begin school very much achievement-oriented and engaged with the process of schooling. These findings provide evidence that the school experience plays a significant role in the development of attitudes toward school.</p> <p>Perhaps the most pressing concern in education today is the persistence of the black-white test score gap. There is no shortage of attention to this topic in the popular or academic press and in the media. For example, in 1998 Jencks and Phillips published an edited volume entitled The Black-White Test Score Gap; in November 1999 a daily newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina, published a weeklong series entitled "Worlds Apart: The Racial Education Gap," examining the gap in North Carolina schools (Simmons 1999); and in October 1999 PBS explored the topic of the gap in a Frontline special, "Secrets of the SAT." In each of these works, attention was paid to the attitudes of black students. This is not surprising. Some of the more influential theories currently proposed to account for the relatively low academic performance of African American students, as well as other minority and working-class students, center on student attitudes. These theories frame particular student attitudes in terms of resistance and cultural opposition and were developed with reference to adolescents -- mostly high school students (Fordham &amp; Ogbu 1986; Giroux 1981; McLaren 1989; Willis 1977).(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">n1</reflink>) Unfortunately, research on adolescents seems to have formed the basis of much of what we know and take for granted about the school-related attitudes of black students as a group.</p> <p>Little research attention has been focused on the attitudes of elementary-age students. Within sociology, in particular, much of the recent work on student attitudes concentrates on adolescents (Ainsworth-Darnell &amp; Downey 1998; Cook &amp; Ludwig 1998; MacLeod 1987; Mickelson 1990; O'Connor 1999). However, the problem of low academic achievement and underachievement among black and other minority students is not isolated to adolescents. Therefore, if we are considering attitudes as an explanation we must also examine the attitudes of younger students. Currently, we know little about the school-related attitudes of elementary-age black students. Researchers in other fields, such as education and psychology, are more likely than sociologists to focus on attitudes among elementary school students.</p> <p>This article attempts to remedy this situation and perhaps generate more interest in sociological research on the school-related attitudes of younger students. Perhaps the lack of research on young students explains why research findings from samples of black adolescents have been overgeneralized (though not necessarily by the specific researchers), leaving the impression that an anti-school/anti-achievement disposition is the norm among the wider black student population. The young students in the present study leave a very different impression, and although many come from relatively well-off families, they deserve to have their voices included in this discussion.</p> <p>The gap in achievement between African Americans and whites is found at all socioeconomic levels (Jencks &amp; Phillips 1998), and the underachievement of middle-class black students has also been attributed to negative school-related attitudes (e.g., see Pattillo-McCoy 1999). In some cases, the achievement gap is largest at the highest socioeconomic levels. For example, a College Board (1999) report presents findings that show the gap in reading scores among twelfth graders to be largest between African American and white students whose parents graduated from college. Moreover, even affluent, top-ranked school districts such as White Plains Public Schools in New York and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools in North Carolina, which have sizable black middle-class student populations, are struggling with the achievement gap. Fifteen such school districts came together in 1999, forming the Minority Student Achievement (MSA) Network, to share information and develop strategies to improve the academic performance of their minority students. At the first MSA Network conference later that year, Edmund Gordon, professor emeritus of psychology at Yale, named student attitudes and concerns about "acting white" among the issues that had to be addressed in order to improve achievement among minority students (Gordon 1999). The data in the present study speak to those concerns.</p> <p>These data on elementary-age students cannot directly address findings related to adolescents; however, they do raise important questions concerning those findings. While I will attempt to address those questions, the purpose of this article is to increase the representation of the voices of younger black students in the burgeoning body of sociological literature on black students' attitudes toward school and to examine the relationship between attitudes toward school and academic performance. Observations from third- and fourth-grade classrooms and in-depth interviews with students emphasize the role of school experiences, particularly achievement outcomes, in the development of school-related attitudes. In addition, the data also provide clues to understanding the scorn and ridicule that high-achieving students sometimes encounter. In the following section, I briefly address popular perceptions of black students' attitudes toward school before reviewing the research on this topic.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-3"> "Oppositional" Peer Culture among Black Students </hd> <p>Most of us, whatever our interest in education, are familiar with a dominant perception of black students as disengaged from school, resistant and oppositional in the classroom, and not valuing education and achievement. In general, this perception is applied to black students as a whole, regardless of socioeconomic background; however, it is sometimes characterized as most pervasive among low-income inner-city African Americans (Fordham &amp; Ogbu 1986; Portes &amp; Zhou 1994). In any case, the perception of black students as negatively disposed to school and achievement remains powerful in the public mind, as evidenced in recent national and regional reports. For example, in a 1999 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Will Weissert (1999) stated that a recent College Board report attributed the achievement gap between minorities and whites "from kindergarten through college" in part, "to the overriding opinion within minority communities that achieving academically is acting white."(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref2">n2</reflink>) James Traub, writing for the New York Times Magazine in 2000, made the following concluding remark in an article addressing the inability of schools to right social wrongs such as poverty and inequality: "And prominent black figures have to weigh in against the anti-academic and even oppositional peer culture that [Edmund] Gordon and others say is retarding black progress" (<reflink idref="bib90" id="ref3">90</reflink>).</p> <p>In each case, reference is made to a peer culture among black students in general--with no reference to socioeconomic status variables or age--that devalues education or academic achievement. Yet recent research findings from data on adolescents contest the anti-academic attitude thesis. Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey (1998) and Cook and Ludwig (1998) found evidence in large-scale surveys that black adolescents do not generally have more negative school-related attitudes than other groups of adolescents. More recent work by Prudence Carter (n.d.) effectively challenges the thesis that low-income black youths equate "acting white" with high academic achievement; her survey findings also reveal that they hold high values regarding educational achievement and job success. The young people in Carter's study overwhelmingly believed that youths like themselves have a chance of making it if they do well in school. The current study builds on these findings.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-4"> Research Examining Attitudes toward School </hd> <p>Donna Ford, an educational psychologist, has conducted a number of studies focused on younger black students, usually gifted students. In one study, Ford and Harris (1996) surveyed 148 low-socioeconomic-status fifth- and sixth-grade public school black students between the ages of 9 and 14 on attitudes toward school, teachers, achievement, and peer relations and on perceptions of social issues and of parents' achievement orientation. The students were participants in one of three programs: regular education (N = 50), potentially gifted or above average (N = 50), and gifted (N = 48).</p> <p>On attitudes toward school, the researchers found little difference between the groups. Ninety-nine percent of the sample disagreed with the statement that school is a waste of time for black students. With the exception of one student in each case, all students reported that getting good grades was important to them and that school was either important or very important. However, statistically significant differences were found regarding attitudes toward academically successful students. Perceptions of gifted students were most positive among gifted students, followed by potentially gifted, then average students. Half of the students reported that other students are teased for academic success, though just over a quarter (27%) reported that they themselves were teased. In addition, only small groups of students agreed that peers rejected them when they made good grades (N = 38) or that they had fewer friends when they achieved (N = 23). These findings indicate that low-socioeconomic-status black students generally hold positive attitudes toward school, although some high-achieving students experience peer-related problems because of their academic success. The basis of these problems (e.g., why students tease and reject one another for high achievement) was not examined.</p> <p>In spite of evidence such as Ford and Harris's (1996), the image of an anti-achievement/anti-education ethos among black students, particularly adolescents, remains popular. Perhaps the most influential work on the school-related attitudes of black students has been that of Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu (1986). In their oft-cited piece, Fordham and Ogbu theorize that black students operate by the rules of an "oppositional culture" that views academic achievement as "white" and therefore to be avoided. Using data from an ethnographic study of a predominantly black inner-city high school, the authors describe how black students consciously underachieved so that they would not betray the black community and would avoid ridicule and ostracism from their black peers. Findings such as these resonate with educators, scholars, and the general public because they are consistent with the popular cultural belief that education is not valued in the black community.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-5"> RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES TOWARD SCHOOL </hd> <p>Apparently, research findings supporting an opposing view have had limited influence on public attitudes about this issue. In fact, the results of a number of studies have shown that black students tend to have more positive school-related attitudes than others. In one such study, a test of Ogbu's "oppositional culture" explanation of the racial achievement gap using national data on sophomores from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey (1998) found that black students reported more pro-school attitudes than whites.(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref4">n3</reflink>) In general, the results did not support the "oppositional culture" hypothesis. A few findings are particularly noteworthy here. The researchers found that African American students were more likely than whites to report feeling a sense of satisfaction from doing what they were supposed to do in class and to report that education is important to getting a job in the future. They also found that relative to whites, black students were "especially popular" among their peers when they were also perceived as good students.</p> <p>That black adolescents do not bear an unusually high cost for achieving academically is also supported by the results of Cook and Ludwig's (1998) study. In their analysis, which used the NELS data for more than 17,000 students in public and private schools across the country, the researchers were specifically concerned with Fordham and Ogbu's (1986)"burden of acting white" thesis. Not only did Cook and Ludwig find that there were more social benefits than costs associated with high achievement for black students in the sample, but they also found that black students in predominantly black schools reaped slightly greater social benefits for high academic achievement than black students in predominantly white schools. The researchers also found that when adjusting for family background characteristics, black students cut class less often than whites and spent about the same amount of time on homework as whites. Overall, the findings did not correspond with the claim that black students oppose doing well in school more than other groups.</p> <p>Similar findings were reported in MacLeod's (1987) ethnographic study of two groups of boys (one predominantly black, one predominantly white) in an inner-city Boston housing project. The black boys in that study had more optimistic attitudes toward school and the future than their white peers; the former were more likely to believe that hard work in school would pay off. Other studies also find little difference in attitudes between African Americans and other groups. In a study of behavior, motivation, and achievement in a racially mixed junior high school, researchers found no significant group differences in responses to a questionnaire assessing student attitudes toward success (Hall et al. 1986). In particular, the study reported that both black and white students valued high grades. However, black students did report slightly higher ratings for the degree to which they would feel proud to earn the highest grade on an exam. African Americans also rated higher than whites on the degree to which they believed their parents would be proud of that achievement. Another study, which examined ethnic differences in school achievement using a sample of 15,000 students from nine high schools, found that black students were just as likely as others to believe that academic success pays off, although they were less likely than others (with the exception of Hispanics) to believe that academic success comes from hard work (Steinberg, Dornbusch &amp; Brown 1992).</p> <p>The degree of similarity in attitudes toward school among students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, though, is not necessarily a positive sign. In a later publication, Steinberg (1996) commented on the extent to which American high school students, in general, were "disengaged from the serious business of education" (<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref5">18</reflink>). His study of students from "all walks of life" prompted Steinberg (1996) to conclude, "The adolescent peer culture in contemporary America demeans academic success and scorns students who try to do well in school" (<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref6">19</reflink>). This more recent publication was based on surveys of more than 20,000 teenagers from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds in California and Wisconsin over a three-year period.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-6"> MAKING A CASE FOR OTHER VOICES </hd> <p>Despite survey and ethnographic evidence that counters the thesis that black students express more anti-school values than other groups, cases of negative school-related attitudes among black and other minority adolescents are not uncommon. The following example is taken from a study of black and Latino adolescents participating in a tutorial program in South Central Los Angeles: "Sometimes [former friends] laugh at us. They make fun of us. Sometimes they go into [our class] room and they say that they don't want to get it [smart], that they better get out of the room, that maybe it's contagious" (Kaplan 1999:194).(<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref7">n4</reflink>)</p> <p>These words capture well the anti-achievement disposition. To be clear, the student making this statement does not share his peers' views. In fact, the majority of students presented in Kaplan's article, all of whom participated in the tutorial program, held positive attitudes toward school and achievement, primarily because of their participation in the program. The student quoted here is describing the attitudes of students who are not in the tutorial program and the ridiculing with which he and his peers in the program must contend. I use this quote here simply as an illustration of the anti-achievement attitude. Interestingly, however, although this type of attitude is found among other groups of adolescents (Steinberg 1996), it is most often characterized as peculiar to blacks. Again, that this type of attitude exists among blacks -- even among younger students -- there is no question. For example, Ford and Harris (1996) also reported that over one-third of the students in their sample of fifth and sixth graders claimed that they were accused of acting white for getting good grades.</p> <p>The problem with this issue of anti-achievement attitudes, and acting white in particular, is twofold. First, anti-achievement attitudes among blacks have been overgeneralized; they are not as widespread as many reports indicate. Second, most interpretations of this problem are off the mark. Tendencies toward disengagement from school and teasing "nerds" are commonplace among all adolescents. However, when black high school students are studied, these tendencies are interpreted culturally and recommendations tend to center on "fixing" black culture. When white students are studied, these same tendencies are interpreted as being characteristic of adolescence (e.g., see Kinney 1993). When studying black students, researchers must be careful to distinguish between a cultural burden of high academic achievement (such as acting white) and a more general burden of high achievement, because there is a difference.(<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref8">n5</reflink>) However, the findings from the current study counter the perception of a widespread burden of high achievement among black students -- cultural or general -- and indicate that the origins of a "burden" where found, are often less cultural than school-based.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-7"> Data and Methods </hd> <hd id="AN0006767652-8"> BACKGROUND ON THE STUDY </hd> <p>The data reported in this article were collected as part of a larger study examining the mechanisms by which the environments created in schools contribute to the production of particular student outcomes (attitudes, behavior, achievement). For the purposes of the study, this examination centered on a black independent school, which I call Alternatives, and an all-black public school, which I call Madison.(<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref9">n6</reflink>) Black independent schools are defined here as schools that are founded and run by African Americans for the primary purpose of educating black children. Although Alternatives, like most other black independent schools, is open to all students, it remained exclusively black during my period of observation in the 1996-97 school year.</p> <p>According to the literature, black independent schools create particular school environments that are characterized by high expectations, the cultivation and promotion of positive black racial images, and the provision of a warm and nurturing socioemotional climate, all of which enable black students who have had academic difficulties in other settings to be academically successful (Lomotey &amp; Brookins 1988; Ratteray 1992). Thus in this study I sought to learn more about how the characteristics of school environments operate to produce particular student outcomes. The idea was to examine a black independent school and another type of school characterized by a different environment. Because public schools, particularly predominantly black urban schools, are usually defined in direct opposition to black independent schools in terms of school environment (Foster 1992; Lomotey &amp; Brookins 1988; Ratteray &amp; Shujaa 1987), I chose to include a public school in the examination.</p> <p>I selected the city of Hopeville, one of the largest cities in the Southeast, because it offered a sizable pool of black independent schools and a majority black population. These factors increased the possibility of finding both an appropriate black independent school and an all-black public school in the same city. I selected Madison and Alternatives based on their location in this city and comparability of racial composition and school size. However, in addition to school type, the schools differed in another important respect: Alternatives was a Christian school. Because most of the black independent schools in the area had some religious affiliation -- as is the case with black independent schools nationally (Ratteray 1990) -- this was the only school I was able to find that met the criteria of size, locale, and racial composition.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-9"> THE SCHOOLS AND THE SAMPLE </hd> <p>Madison and Alternatives were similar to each other in a number of respects. Both schools were relatively small: Madison had a population of 299 students in kindergarten through grade 5, and Alternatives had 195 students in prekindergarten through grade 6. There was one principal at each school, a black male at Alternatives and a black female at Madison. All of the 16 teachers at Alternatives were black, but 5 of the 24 teachers at Madison were white and all others were black.</p> <p>Madison was one of six elementary schools in the Hopeville public school system classified as having a 100% African American student body; however, most of the schools were majority African American. Madison was not a special public school created to serve black students, nor was it a magnet school or specially designed in any way; rather, much like other public schools, the racial composition of the school was a result of de facto neighborhood segregation. Madison was one of eight schools in the system with fewer than 65% of the students classified as low income, and, of those schools, it was one of only two with a predominantly black student population. Still, over half (59%) of the students at Madison were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, compared to 80% for all elementary school students in the district. All students at Alternatives participated in the school's lunch program because lunch fees were included in tuition.</p> <p>Madison is located in a somewhat affluent area of Hopeville, a middle-class residential community of about 10,000, not far from the city's central business district. In 1990, median income in this community was $46,000, and 39% of the adult residents 25 and older had at least a four-year degree (CensusCD+maps, U.S. Census 1990). The area is home to some of the city's most prominent African Americans and other black professionals. The 1960s and 1970s saw the community's population change from white to predominantly black, but unlike other areas in the nation where this has occurred, property values actually went up rather than down. This is one of the few areas within the city limits that still attracts middle-class African Americans. Madison draws students from some of these families along with children from less affluent families.</p> <p>Students traveled from a wider geographic area of the city to attend Alternatives, which is located a few miles east of the city's central business district. Most Alternatives families were members of the church of which the school is an outgrowth, and this affiliation attracted many to the school. Although the median household income of the Alternatives sample seems high at almost $50,000 (see Table 1), some families struggled financially to keep their children at Alternatives. In a few cases, parents fell so far behind in tuition payments that they were forced by the school to keep their children at home until they were able to pay some portion of the bill.</p> <p>I studied two classrooms at Alternatives and two at Madison. In total, there were 72 students in the four classrooms. Sixteen students (8 from each school) did not participate in the study either because they did not return the consent forms or because they returned the consent forms declining participation.(<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref10">n7</reflink>) The observation data reported here focus on the 56 students who consented to participate in the study. The interview and report card data come from a sample of 40 of these students, 10 from each classroom.</p> <p>More than three-quarters of the students in the interview sample lived in two-parent families (some included stepparents). All interviewed parents (N = 36)(<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref11">n8</reflink>) were high school graduates. In the Madison sample, more than half of the parents reported at least "some college" eight were college graduates, and some had graduate degrees. Half of the parents in the Alternatives sample also reported "some college" but only five were college graduates, and no one had an advanced degree. Self-reported median family income of parents participating in the study fell in the range of $40,000 to $59,000 annually at Alternatives and $60,000 to $79,000 annually at Madison(<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref12">n9</reflink>) (see Table 1). These figures are well above the median family income for both the city as a whole ($25,173) and African Americans nationally ($26,522) (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1999). The 59% free or reduced-price lunch figure for Madison is not consistent with the reported household income of the parents in the sample. The most plausible explanation for this discrepancy, as an employee at the district's central office explained to me, is that parents underreported household income to the school.</p> <p>The children in this sample differ from the majority of their peers in family income and household composition. A few things should be kept in mind regarding the high income level of the sample, however. First, these figures are based on medians of interval-level categories (e.g., $40,000-$59,000) and are therefore imprecise at best. Second, most of the children in this sample live in two-parent families. Compared to national figures that show that single-parent households account for more than half of all black family households (Current Population Reports 1997), we might expect a higher average household income for this sample. Household income for all but 8 of the 36 students for whom this information is available is based on two incomes. In other words, of the parents interviewed, in every home in which there were two parents, both worked. The single parents in the sample reported significantly less household income than the married parents -- a difference of about $25,000.</p> <p>Third, contrary to popular belief, the size of the group of high-income (significantly above the national median) black households in the United States is nonnegligible. For example, according to U.S. Census figures for 1996, total money income of $45,000 or more accounted for 23% of black households (Current Population Reports 1997). It would be a mistake, then, to dismiss children from these families as some kind of anomaly and therefore irrelevant in this discussion. Furthermore, it is rare that a class distinction is made in scholarly and popular discussions of attitudes toward school among black students. When Fordham and Ogbu (1986), for example, write about the attitudes and "mind-set" of "black Americans" that contribute to academic underachievement, they do not specify the particular segments of the population to which they are referring. Although their data are generated from students in a low-income school, the theory of an "oppositional collective identity" and "oppositional cultural frame of reference" is generalized to the wider "black community." Finally, it is worth repeating that the widespread perception of an anti-achievement disposition among black students, as well as some of the empirical evidence that would support this perception (see Pattillo-McCoy 1999), includes middle-class black students. For these reasons, the voices of these higher-socioeconomic-status black students do matter in this discussion and can make an important contribution to our understanding of the issue of attitudes toward school among black students as a group.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-10"> CLASSROOM OBSERVATION </hd> <p>At each school, I selected one third-grade and one fourth-grade classroom for observation (see Table 1). From November 1996 through June 1997, I spent one full day per week in each of the four classrooms. I observed students, recording in a notebook the conversations and interactions among and between students and teachers and the actions, facial expressions, body language, movement, demeanor, and tone of voice of the participants.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-11"> STUDENT INTERVIEWS </hd> <p>In each of the four classrooms, I selected a random sample of 10 students (5 girls and 5 boys where possible) for in-depth interviews. The interview sample contained 23 girls and 17 boys. I also interviewed the parents of these children, the homeroom teachers of the four classrooms, and the principals. Student interviews were conducted after at least three months of classroom observation. The students were familiar with me by then and appeared relatively comfortable in the interview. I conducted interviews privately on school grounds after school (e.g., in the library or the school yard). All interviews were audiorecorded. Most students were eager to be interviewed and talked openly and candidly during the interview; however, a few students were reticent and offered very little detail in their responses.</p> <p>Student interviews focused primarily on school experiences and attitudes toward school, learning, and achievement. The question format was general and open-ended so that the student rather than the interviewer identified the experiences and events that were salient or important to her or him (e.g., "Tell me about your school"). To learn more about students' experiences in schools and their expectations and attitudes, I asked them to tell me about their time in kindergarten up until their current grade, the work they did in school, and their teachers ("Tell me about your kindergarten teacher." Probe: "What was she or he like?"). I asked students to tell me about their school, what they liked and disliked about it, and how they felt about school in general. I asked them to tell me about grades they were happy with and those they were unhappy with, thus allowing them to define their own measure of achievement. I also asked students to tell me how those grades made them feel and why they think they received them. I inquired about career aspirations and expectations for future academic achievement.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-12"> TECHNIQUES OF DATA ANALYSIS </hd> <p>During data analysis, I searched interview transcripts and field notes, manually and by computer, looking for repeated themes and patterns in the data. I also looked for the contradictions and exceptions, engaging in what Strauss (1987) calls "constant comparisons." Across the four classrooms, a distinct pattern of school engagement and achievement orientation was evident. These were the most prominent and persistent themes emerging from the data. For example, almost without exception, each day's classroom observation contained signs of school engagement and/or achievement orientation. Although there were also signs of disengagement in some form or another, they were significantly fewer in number than those of engagement and were often explained by student frustration, anger, or sadness related to poor performance or denied opportunities to participate in the classroom.</p> <p>Analysis was done on multiple levels: within and between schools, classrooms, and students. I created a number of charts for individual students, classrooms, and schools. For example, I created grade school charts for each student in the interview sample using quotes and other information. I chose quotes that best illustrated, justified, and/or elaborated the conceptual themes or categories (Blauner 1987; Miles &amp; Huberman 1984). I use quotes from those charts in this analysis. The charts roughly characterized each student's overall school experience to date. From these charts I was easily able to assess the school experiences and the commonalities and contrasts between individuals as well as between groups (class, school).</p> <p>In the analysis that follows, I present classroom field notes and student interview narratives highlighting important indicators of school engagement. I employ Steinberg's (1996) definition of engagement here: "the degree to which students are psychologically 'connected' to what is going on in their classes." Steinberg further characterizes engaged students as "interested in school and committed to doing well there" and as "there physically as well as emotionally" (<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref13">15</reflink>). Engaged students care about their performance in school and are active participants in the classroom.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-13"> Results </hd> <hd id="AN0006767652-14"> Madison field notes, November 15, 1996, Mrs. Miller's classroom </hd> <p>Mrs. Miller asks the students to clear their desks and take out their math homework. There are some reactions: "Oh, goody." "Yay." Mrs. Miller is calling out the answers to the homework. Now she allows the students to call out the answers. They shout, "Yes!" emphatically for each answer they have correct. Someone calls out: "Got all mine right." Mrs. Miller asks Gregory for the answer. His answer is correct. The students yell, "Yay." After they work the last problem out on the board, the students shout, "One more, one more." Mrs. Miller says no, and tells them that they will now work independently. Mrs. Miller instructs the students to go to their practice books. They shout, "Yay."</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-15"> Madison field notes, December 5, 1996, Mrs. Solco's classroom </hd> <ulist> <item>8:45 Mrs. Solco informs the class that she had two correct papers for yesterday's "Problem of the Day" that she threw out because they were without names. She said the other students who got the problem correct were awarded stars on the display board. Heather begins to complain and then starts to cry. No one else in the class has any reaction to this news. Evidently, one of the papers belonged to Heather. A few minutes later, Heather is still crying. She gets up and goes to the display with the stars, perhaps to see if there is one by her name. Seeing no star next to her name, she goes back to her seat and cries some more. 8:54 Heather is still crying. Mrs. Solco says to her, "I will not tolerate it. Go to the restroom and fix it." Heather takes a pass and leaves the room crying.</item> <item>8:55 Heather returns.</item> <item>8:59 Heather is still crying and rolling her eyes at Mrs. Solco.</item> <item>12:24 Heather is still preoccupied with the missing star. She continues to check the poster for her star. Now she is rummaging through the garbage can. She takes out some papers and looks through them. She hands the papers to Mrs. Solco.</item> </ulist> <p>These classroom observations present a different view of black students; they are excited and enthusiastic during learning activities and care deeply about achievement. Rarely did the students I observed appear to be embarrassed by their ability to do well or by actual high achievement. In most instances, students openly expressed their emotions related to classroom experiences of both success and failure. To understand more fully the significance of these findings, the next section will break down the students' behavior and attitudes into concrete categories.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-16"> STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AT MADISON AND ALTERNATIVES </hd> <p>Ability Shows</p> <p>Students openly and enthusiastically vied for what I call "ability shows," opportunities to demonstrate competence through classroom participation. Insofar as students expected a successful ability show, they eagerly sought opportunities to reveal to their peers, teachers, and, perhaps most important, themselves how bright and capable they were. The intensity with which students vied for a show seemed to depend on their level of confidence. Students regularly shouted "Oooh!" or called out "Me, me, ooh, ooh, ooh!" or "Please me!" sometimes with pained looks on their faces as they waved their arms in the air for a chance at a show.</p> <p>Ability shows are significant for students in this context for two reasons. First, successful ability shows supply actors with a sense of personal satisfaction and confidence in their abilities. Second, the shows can potentially provide others with positive information about the actors that can then be projected back to them (in the form of praise or some other reward). Students often used ability shows as a primary source of information to determine who the smart people were in the class. Thus the more opportunities to stage a successful show, the greater the chance to be considered smart. It is for this reason that students sometimes staged deceitful ability shows. In this case students somehow indicate to others that they have earned a higher grade(s) than they in fact have or that they have correct answers when they do not.</p> <p>The students at Madison and Alternatives could hardly restrain their enthusiasm in the classroom, and for the most part their classmates did not condemn them for this behavior. This type of behavior was the norm; at one time or another every student vied for an ability show. Ability shows were so important to the students that some students were reduced to tears and tantrums when, for whatever reason, they were denied the opportunity by teachers.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-17"> Alternatives field notes, March 6, 1997, Miss Clifton's classroom </hd> <p>Janet is now crying. She was complaining loudly that Miss Clifton did not call on her.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-18"> Madison field notes, November 25, 1996, Mrs. Miller's classroom </hd> <p>Allen gets upset and folds his arms and looks angrily at Mrs. Miller. Mrs. Miller had called on Darlene to read after it appeared that he did not know where they were in the book when she called on him to read.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-19"> Madison field notes, April 22, 1997, Mrs. Miller's classroom </hd> <p>Mrs. Miller calls on Brad to work the problem on the board. Trey called out to Mrs. Miller, asking her if he could do the problem on the board. "He always gets to do problems!" Trey says angrily about Brad. Allen is also upset and he complains about the same thing. Mrs. Miller says something to the boys about their reaction and Trey responds, "'Cause he get to do more things than anybody in Quest."(<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref14">n10</reflink>)</p> <p>This eagerness to participate in class fully embodies Steinberg's definition of engagement and indicates that the students had a positive relationship to school. Rather than downplaying ability, these young students eagerly sought public opportunities to demonstrate competence and ability in the classroom.</p> <p>Celebrating Achievement, Lamenting Failure</p> <p>Students at Madison and Alternatives were noticeably proud of their academic successes, big and small, and as visibly embarrassed by their failures. For example, failed ability shows brought about looks of disappointment and frustration, while successful ability shows usually prompted public celebrations. Students gave each other high fives, danced, pumped their fists in the air, and exclaimed their satisfaction in hushed tones (attempting to avoid being punished for "disruptive" behavior), openly displaying their pleasure. Failure and low achievement inspired the opposite response from students.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-20"> Alternatives field notes, January 1, 1997, Miss Clifton's classroom </hd> <p>Class spelling bee. Mycah has the word dedication. She spells it incorrectly. With a sad look on her face, she walks to her seat and flops down in the chair, putting her head down on the desk.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-21"> Alternatives field notes, December 19, 1996, Miss Clifton's classroom </hd> <p>Spelling bee. Paulie spells drizzle incorrectly. Sherry spells it correctly. "Very good," Miss Clifton remarks. Sherry begins to smile. Sullen, Paulie says to her, "It's not funny." Sherry tells Paulie that she was smiling because she "got it right."</p> <p>Here again we find examples of engagement: students who are psychologically connected to achievement outcomes. They are proud of their academic accomplishments and saddened by their failures, and in neither case do they hide their feelings.</p> <p>Teasing and Ridiculing Achievement</p> <p>A particularly telling sign regarding attitudes toward achievement was found in classroom teasing. Interestingly, whereas older black students are often said to ridicule and ostracize their peers for high achievement, these young students ridiculed each other only for low achievement. Everyone was teased; whether high or low achievers objectively in their class, all students were teased for making mistakes or otherwise performing poorly.(<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref15">n11</reflink>)</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-22"> Madison field notes, November 20, 1997, Mrs. Solco's classroom </hd> <p>Annette and Gina (low achievers) seem to be the only ones who have followed the instructions for the graph. Many others did the graph incorrectly. Annette and Gina seem pleased with themselves and they are laughing at other students.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-23"> Madison field notes, November 25, 1996, Mrs. Miller's classroom </hd> <p>Two boys (low achievers) are arguing. One says to the other, "Least I don't fail, at least I made a B, a B<sups>+</sups>." He then says to me (about the other boy): "He made an F."</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-24"> Madison field notes, December 26, 1997, Mrs. Miller's classroom </hd> <p>Hope (high achiever) has some wrong answers. She says she doesn't "get it." A few students call her "dumb" and "foolish."</p> <p>These incidents do not correspond with Steinberg's (1996) claim, based on findings among adolescents, that American students "glorify stupidity." Although both low- and high-achieving students at Madison and Alternatives engaged in this type of ridiculing and teasing, the behavior was most pronounced at Madison, and low achievers were most likely to ridicule each other or the established high achievers (such as those in the gifted program) for occasional poor performance.(<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref16">n12</reflink>) For example, once, as Mrs. Miller had students calling out the number of problems they had gotten wrong on a math test so that she could record grades, Trey, a low-achieving student, sat laughing. Trey had gotten all ten of the problems correct and was quite pleased with his perfect performance as he listened to student after student call out one or more wrong. When Regina and Brad, two students in the school's gifted program Quest, respectively called out one and two wrong, Trey tipped his head back and, with a smirk on his face, quipped snidely, "And y'all in Quest too." The ridiculing of low achievement was found in every classroom I observed. However, I found no evidence of students being ridiculed or ostracized for academic success unless their peers suspected that they were showing off or being boastful (in which case the ridicule had more to do with resentment). In other words, students were not scorned for being smart; they were scorned for how they did smartness, for arrogant and obnoxious behaviors.(<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref17">n13</reflink>) Modest high-achieving students did not encounter this problem and in fact were well liked by their peers.</p> <p>A few high-achieving students seemed to be regular targets of their classmates' scorn. Two students in particular warrant mention. Brad and Hope, both in Mrs. Miller's class at Madison, were often the object of low-achieving students' contempt. In the case of Brad, some students believed that he was a show-off and that Mrs. Miller called on him more than others. At the same time, it was not unusual to hear Mrs. Miller tell Brad to put his hand down because she knew that he knew the answer. Hence, while everyone vied for ability shows, the students seemed less tolerant of Brad's doing so. Calling on Brad more than others or publicly declining to call on him because he knew the answer called attention to him in a way that seemed to lead to resentment among other students, particularly low-achieving students.</p> <p>With the other student, Hope, the problem seemed more obviously connected to her own behavior. Not only did Hope have a reputation among her peers (and teachers) of being a "busybody" but she also regularly called attention to or made fun of other students' mistakes and failures. The following incident illustrates Hope's behavior.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-25"> Madison field notes, November 5, 1996, Mrs. Miller's class in Health </hd> <p>Mrs. Peeples collects the tests and talks to the students about it. She says that they went over this information before and had the page numbers to read on their own. She says that only four people correctly answered the question. Students ask her to name the four people. Mrs. Peeples refuses, but she reads aloud some of the incorrect answers. The students laugh. Mrs. Peeples tells the class she doesn't understand the responses and she reads another response that is especially odd. The students laugh. Mrs. Peeples puts the papers on her desk. Hope goes over to the desk. She sees Dion's name on the paper with the odd answer that Mrs. Peeples has just read. Dion is at the desk with Hope. Hope tells Dion, so that all can hear, that the paper is his. Dion says it isn't. Hope says, "Your name is on it." Dion still denies that the paper is his. They go back and forth; Dion will not admit that the test is his and Hope, insensitive to his embarrassment, will not let it go.</p> <p>As a result of her treatment of others, Hope's classmates, especially the low-achieving students, usually did not miss an opportunity to ridicule her in the same way. Hence, smart students were not ridiculed because they were smart; they were ridiculed if their behavior was perceived as obnoxious, boastful, or arrogant in any way.</p> <p>Of the 56 students across the four classrooms who participated in the study, 31 met the criteria of a high-achieving student as defined in this analysis. Only about 4 of these students were regularly ostracized because of arrogant behavior. In fact, based on classmate friendship nominations ("Who are your friends in the class?"), many of the high-achieving students were among the more popular in their class with both high- and low-achieving students. High-achieving students were more likely than their lower-achieving peers to receive three or more friendship nominations.</p> <p>Again, both high and low achievers were teased for poor performance, but at other times students encouraged and stuck up for one another in the classroom. This was especially true of the students at Alternatives, who, perhaps because of shared church membership, were a much closer-knit group than the students at Madison. Low-achieving students were usually the beneficiaries of their classmates' compassionate behavior.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-26"> Alternatives field notes, February 20, 1997, Miss Clifton's class </hd> <p>Miss Clifton calls on Shane (low achiever) when he says he hasn't been to the board yet. Another student comments, "He'll get it wrong, I know." Miss Clifton says to her, "You have a lot of nerve and you know that was wrong" Shane remains seated and refuses to get up. Finally Miss Clifton is able to coax him up to the board. His answer is correct. The students clap for him. "Nice going, man," one of the other boys says to him. Other students praise Shane and the other student is now crying.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-27"> Alternatives field notes, February 25, 1997, Miss Clifton's class </hd> <p>Math. Fractions. 1/12 of 144 = ( ).</p> <p>Karly (high achiever) writes 11. "Come on, Karly, you can do it, girl" other students say to her. Karly changes her answer to 12. The students are commenting that the work is easy, some are "oohing" and "aahing" with raised hands, hoping Miss Clifton will call on them. Miss Clifton calls on Bobby (low achiever) to do a problem. He doesn't want to do it. The other students tell him that it's easy. Bobby does the problem correctly and the students clap for him.</p> <p>Feelings and Attitudes toward Academic Failure</p> <p>It was obvious that low-achieving students at Madison and Alternatives were suffering as a result of their poor academic performance. Rather than being burdened by high achievement, as some scholars posit black adolescents are, these young black students were facing a burden of low achievement, which came across most poignantly in the interviews. This finding that black children experience emotional distress in the face of academic failure is not unique. In another study focused on urban black elementary school students, which assessed the process by which students were admitted to a school's high-track classes, Gilmore (1985) noted that children who were not admitted to the program cried (as did their parents).</p> <p>To complement classroom observations concerning black students' attitudes toward school, I turn now to interview narratives. I focus on low-achieving students to illustrate that failure and underachievement, at this stage, are not conscious choices for black students. The narratives of these students demonstrate quite vividly that they experience failure as painful and seek ways to avoid the experience.</p> <p>Lynette, Allen, and Trey were among the lowest-achieving students in Mrs. Miller's third-grade class at Madison. Their attitudes toward school appear clearly connected to their achievement experiences. For example, when I asked Trey if there were any subjects that he did not like, he named science. I followed up by asking why, and he responded, "'Cause." "'Cause what?" I asked. "I don't know. I just don't like it," he said. Finally, after pausing for some time, he lowered both his head and his voice and said: "That every time I'm failing. I only passed two tests." On the other hand, Trey named math as his favorite subject because he said he won an award for "best math" in the second grade. This is significant because Trey's math grades (D<sups>+</sups> average) in the third grade were among the lowest in his class, yet he continued to cling to the year-old evaluation of himself as "best" in math.</p> <p>Successes were as great a source of pride for these children as failures were disappointing and frustrating. Students who were struggling academically often expressed a desire to avoid school for that very reason. This relationship between academic failure and a dislike of school is also found among adolescents and often results in their dropping out of school (Taylor 1989); however, some researchers imply that school failure is a result of negative dispositions toward school (Ogbu 1978; Rumberger &amp; Larson 1998). In the following narratives we begin to see that the relationship is reversed: failure seems to bring about the negative school-related behaviors and attitudes of these students.</p> <p>At the time of his interview, Allen stated that he liked school but admitted that his feelings might change in the near future depending on his academic performance.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-28"> Madison, third-grader Allen </hd> <p>Researcher: Do you think you'll always like school?</p> <p>Allen: [Nods] Uh-huh.</p> <p>Researcher: Why?</p> <p>Allen: [Hesitates] Well I don't know about fourth grade.</p> <p>Researcher: Why? What's wrong with fourth grade?</p> <p>Allen: 'Cause I might get harder and harder problems.</p> <p>Researcher: And then what would happen?</p> <p>Allen: I'll probably fail and get kept back.</p> <p>Researcher: You think so?</p> <p>Allen: Uh-huh.</p> <p>Researcher: Why?</p> <p>Allen: 'Cause I probably haven't done all my work.</p> <p>Researcher. Why wouldn't you do all your work?</p> <p>Allen: I will, but I might get mine wrong and if we have a test it might be hard--which I don't want to take in fourth grade.</p> <p>Researcher: You don't want to take any tests in fourth grade?</p> <p>Allen: Uh-uh.</p> <p>Researcher: Why not?</p> <p>Allen: 'Cause it might be hard and I might -- all I'mma do is just stay home and act like I'm sick.</p> <p>Allen had had his share of failure and was not looking forward to more of it in the fourth grade, where he anticipated the work might get harder and more difficult for him to handle. As he considered the possibility of more failure, he quickly devised a simple plan to avoid school in the future.</p> <p>Lynette was facing a similar struggle with failure. Already having had the experience of being retained (first grade), when I asked her if she was looking forward to fourth grade, fearing more failure, she said she was not. Part of that conversation follows.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-29"> Madison, third-grader Lynette </hd> <p>Researcher: Are you looking forward to going to the fourth grade?</p> <p>Lynette: Uh-uh.</p> <p>Researcher: Why?</p> <p>Lynette: 'Cause my grades are low.</p> <p>Researcher: So what does that mean that your grades are low? Does that mean that you won't like fourth grade?</p> <p>Lynette: I don't think I'mma pass.</p> <p>Researcher: How come?</p> <p>Lynette: My grades are low. [Exasperated, "I already told you" tone]</p> <p>Researcher: What do you think fourth grade will be like?</p> <p>Lynette: Harder than all those years I had before.</p> <p>Lynette was painfully aware of her academic deficiencies and her performance in relation to that of her classmates, and she was very clear on the fact that she did not like school (one of the few students who admitted this). Her academic troubles were clearly a source of distress for her and seemed to be the root cause of her negative attitude toward school.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-30"> Madison, third-grader Lynette </hd> <p>Researcher: Do your parents talk to you about school? [She nods.] What do they say?</p> <p>Lynette: They tell me to try my best.</p> <p>Researcher: And what do you think about that?</p> <p>Lynette: I feel strong then. But when I get to school I'm just weak.</p> <p>Researcher: Really? What do you mean by "when you get to school you're just weak"?</p> <p>Lynette: I'm grumpy and I don't wanna do my work.</p> <p>Researcher: Why not? Why are you grumpy?</p> <p>Lynette: I don't like school. [She says this in an "I already told you" tone.]</p> <p>Researcher: Why do you think you don't like school? Do you think if you understood more you would like it more? [Nods her head] You think so? Yeah? So you think maybe if your tutor helps you a lot you would start to like school more? [Nods her head again] Yeah?</p> <p>Lynette: Uh-huh.</p> <p>Researcher: Why?</p> <p>Lynette: Because I'm improving a lot and I would be the super person in class like Regina.</p> <p>Researcher: You think Regina is the super person in class? Why?</p> <p>Lynette: Because she knows everything.</p> <p>Researcher: How do you know Regina knows everything?</p> <p>Lynette: Because she always raises her hand and she always says it [the correct answer] and stuff.</p> <p>Researcher: I see you raise your hand.</p> <p>Lynette: But sometimes I might get it wrong.</p> <p>Note that Lynette's description of Regina included no hint of resentment or animosity toward this high-achieving student. In fact, Lynette counted Regina among her best friends in the class. Lynette was aware of and still connected to what was going on in her class. Being the "super person" in class and having opportunities for successful ability shows remained important to her. However, based on her experiences with failure, Lynette, like Allen, anticipated only more failure in the future and thus little chance of being the "super person" Consequently, rather than looking forward to the higher grades that the majority of their peers did, Lynette and Allen were apprehensive.</p> <p>This interpretation is consistent with findings presented in Reginald Clark's (1983) examination of the family characteristics that contribute to the failure or success of poor black high school students. In that study, Clark provided case histories of at least two failing students that parallel the experiences of some of the low achievers in the current study. Clark identified past school failure as a significant factor in the adolescents' current problems, including their disrespectful and detached attitudes toward school and teachers. His findings also showed that even among these students, achievement is a desired outcome; however, because the students did not expect that success was possible, they did not put forth much effort. Lynette and Allen appear headed in the same direction.</p> <p>High-achieving students at Madison and Alternatives did not fear the future in the same way that Lynette and Allen did; in fact, most of them looked forward to the challenges awaiting them in higher grades. These high-achieving students saw themselves as smart and capable individuals and were anticipating continued success in the future. However, they did not necessarily view all of their work as easy. Many thought their academic work was challenging, but it was the challenge, coupled with the perception of high ability, that excited them.</p> <p>David was one of the highest achievers in his fourth-grade class at Madison. He envisioned that he would continue to like school because, as he said, "I'll probably still like to learn. And I'll have more problems and stuff. Like hard math, calculus, and stuff." Over at Alternatives, Karly, also a high-achieving fourth grader, was looking forward to "new things, like algebra, ratios and a lot of other things," in fifth grade. Rather than being turned off by the thought of harder work, these students seemed pleased by the prospect. The different trajectories of achievement led to different expectations for the future and different attitudes among the young students. The students' responses to their achievement outcomes, at this stage and in these settings, do not appear to be culturally based; instead, they seem to be part of a rather universal process. Studies in the field of educational psychology using samples containing both black and white students support this view (Middleton &amp; Midgley 1997).</p> <p>Although there were other low-achieving students in the samples at both Madison and Alternatives, I chose to highlight Lynette, Allen, and Trey because their suffering was most apparent in narratives as well as classroom behavior. With the exception of Trey, these students also seemed more resigned to failure, perhaps because of a longer and more persistent history of poor academic performance. Other low-achieving students in the sample with shorter or less stable histories of failure were slightly more hopeful that their performance would improve. They were also less likely to report that they did not like school.(<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref18">n14</reflink>)</p> <p>Take Rhonda, for instance, a low-achieving fourth grader at Alternatives who said she feels "great" about school. What is particularly interesting about this case is that Rhonda was retained in kindergarten at another school, where it appears she had had a thoroughly negative experience. Since coming to Alternatives, her school experience had changed for the better. In addition to being placed in her age-appropriate grade, she now was having some experiences of academic success, which she said made her "feel intelligent."</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-31"> Alternatives, fourth-grader Rhonda </hd> <p>Researcher: What is it you like about school?</p> <p>Rhonda: You get to make new friends and you learn something and your teacher says you're not dumb, you're not stupid, 'cause you're smart and intelligent.</p> <p>Researcher: Is that important to you?</p> <p>Rhonda: Yup.</p> <p>Researcher: Why?</p> <p>Rhonda: Because I want to feel intelligent and smart.</p> <p>Researcher: Can you tell me why you want to feel that way?</p> <p>Rhonda: So if I get a job I won't have to be dumb and stupid.</p> <p>Researcher: Have you ever felt like you were dumb and stupid?</p> <p>Rhonda: No.</p> <p>Researcher: Have you always felt like you were intelligent?</p> <p>Rhonda: No.</p> <p>Researcher: Do you feel like you're intelligent now?</p> <p>Rhonda: Yes.</p> <p>Researcher: When did you feel like you weren't intelligent?</p> <p>Rhonda: When I was two years old. When I was in day care these big people they always pick on me and they'll say, "You dumb, you stupid, you ugly."</p> <p>Rhonda's narrative offers further evidence of the children's relationship to school and achievement. Here again, too, we glimpse the significance of being able to view oneself as "smart" In the space of a 30-minute interview, Rhonda made 17 references to ability ("stupid" "smart," "intelligent" "dumb"), more than any other student. The experiences of being retained, earning poor grades, and being called "dumb and stupid" by adults no doubt all contributed to her intense desire to "feel intelligent." Fortunately, Rhonda's academic successes at Alternatives and the encouragement of her teachers there provided her with some indication that she might not be "dumb" after all. For example, although her grades were somewhat low (2.4 GPA), she described them as "intelligent" because, as she said, getting a few "A's and B's and sometimes C's" made her "feel intelligent." Yet Rhonda was still unsure of her ability; she told me she was only "a little bit smart," explaining that "sometimes I make F's and D's."</p> <p>Pride in Achievement</p> <p>Grades provided one of the more powerful indicators of ability for students. When asked about grades with which they were pleased, most students talked about the highest grades they received, but others talked about passing grades they earned in subjects or on tests that they found difficult. Again, this is not what we would expect to find among students whose culture disparages academic achievement. Not only did students not disparage achievement, but most of them readily owned up to their feelings of pride. Pride was a motivating factor in achievement for many of the students. One-third of them, both high and low achievers, used the word proud to describe either their own or their parents' feelings about their academic achievements.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-32"> Madison, fourth-grader Tracy </hd> <p>Researcher: How did that make you feel when you got your report card and you had all of those A's?</p> <p>Tracy: I felt so happy. I'mma admit to this, I wanted to just say, "Hallelujah." And it was just real, my parents were real proud of me.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-33"> Alternatives, fourth-grader Tia </hd> <p>Researcher: Did you ever get a grade that you didn't like?</p> <p>Tia: I got, I had it, 'cause when my report card came out I had a high grade, then when the second quarter, when it came, I had twos, which meant only 70% through 80%.</p> <p>Researcher: And why didn't you like that?</p> <p>Tia: Because I knew I could do better than that. 'Cause I made a high one before it came and I knew I could do better than that.</p> <p>Researcher: How did it make you feel when you got those twos.</p> <p>Tia: I didn't feel proud of myself because I knew I could do better than that and I just wasn't studying and practicing that hard.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-34"> Madison, fourth-grader David </hd> <p>David: When I get A's and stuff I'm happy with those 'cause those are like high as you can get and stuff, so I'm happy when I get A's in everything.</p> <p>Researcher: Why is that something that makes you happy?</p> <p>David: 'Cause my parents are proud of me and I'm proud of me. And I guess the teacher's proud of me, I guess. And then that just makes me happy and so, it just makes me happy.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-35"> Madison, fourth-grader Marcus </hd> <p>Researcher: Have you ever been on the honor roll or the principal's list?</p> <p>Marcus: I've been on the honor roll this year and that was my first time and my mom came to the ceremony and I got a pin, we ate -- you were here, right? And so you know.</p> <p>Researcher: You liked it?</p> <p>Marcus: Yes, I was very happy.</p> <p>Researcher: Why?</p> <p>Marcus: 'Cause my mom took me to Red Lobster afterwards and she was very proud of me and I felt good 'cause she was proud of me 'cause I worked hard as I could.</p> <p>Here again, the children's narratives present a clear picture of students who cared about their academic performance. The approval and emotional support they received for achievement from their parents were also important to them. The children's statements, particularly the use of the word proud, are not indicative of students who felt "burdened" or stigmatized by achievement. From other statements, though, we do know that the students felt stigmatized by failure. For example, in his interview, Allen told me that he felt "ashamed" of himself for the F's he received in health and science. Employing Osborne's (1997) theoretical understanding of identification with academics here, these black students were solidly identified with academics; good performance was rewarding to them and poor performance was punishing.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-36"> Discussion </hd> <p>In this article I revisited the issue of negative school-related attitudes among black students and brought the voices of younger students into the discussion. The scenes in the four elementary school classrooms at Madison and Alternatives and the narratives of the students contradict the notion that school, learning, and academic success are unimportant or uninteresting to black students as a group. There is also no support for the thesis that a rejection of school norms is part of a larger black culture. Among the students in the present study, there were no signs of condemnation or ridicule of students who appeared to be learning and excelling except when it appeared that those students were frequently showing off or themselves ridiculing others. Only in cases where high-achieving students' behavior was perceived as boastful or obnoxious were students ostracized. Lower-achieving students seemed to resent behavior that appeared to put them down. They were insulted and hurt and expressed bitterness by treating the higher-achieving students whom they perceived to engage in such behavior in kind. I also found numerous cases of both high- and low-achieving students teasing one another for academic failure and at other times encouraging and cheering each other's and their own successes.</p> <p>The students in these classrooms openly expressed their enthusiasm and excitement toward learning and schoolwork. They sought response opportunities in an exaggerated, active manner, which conveyed their strong desire for achievement as well as a lack of fear (of social ostracism) or self-consciousness about high achievement at this age. These findings are contrary to what some scholars expect would be found among black adolescents.(<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref19">n15</reflink>) Yet it is not enough simply to say that these behaviors are "not indicative of adolescent norms." The lack of such outward enthusiasm and eagerness is used as one indication of black students' negative disposition toward school and therefore is part of the explanation for why their academic performance is consistently below that of other groups. It is important that we attempt to explain this change in behavior among black and other students. Steinberg's (1996) findings suggest that the adolescent norms that Ferguson describes are not unique to black students. Therefore it seems likely that the shift is part of a general developmental process but that the particular form it takes may be shaped by factors such as race, class, gender, and school experience.(<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref20">n16</reflink>)</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-37"> POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS OF THE FINDINGS AT MADISON AND ALTERNATIVES </hd> <p>Competition</p> <p>An alternative explanation for the type of behavior found at Madison and Alternatives is that it was about competition; perhaps the classroom environments were very competitive and thus encouraged competitive behavior. There are a number of reasons why this explanation is unlikely. First, teachers in all four of the classrooms under observation usually punished students for their unrestrained enthusiasm and excitement. Punishment came in the form of denied opportunities to respond or otherwise participate in the classroom activity; teachers either did not call on the offending student(s) or asked the student(s) to leave the room. For example, teachers commented, "I'm looking for a quiet hand," or "I don't call on students who hyperventilate."</p> <p>Second, if this behavior were merely about competition, we would not expect to find so many students expressing disappointment, sadness, and embarrassment over failure in the private space of the one-on-one interview. Furthermore, these feelings were more often expressed when students were discussing private events such as test scores and report card grades, rather than public events in the classroom such as mispronounced words or wrong answers given. This indicates that the children's personal struggles to comprehend and master academic material outweighed their inability to impress or outperform others in the classroom. This was a matter of competence rather than competition. Child psychologists agree that children have a strong need to feel a sense of competence (Poussaint 1972). Ability shows provided occasions to fulfill that need -- hence the frenzy among both high-and low-achieving students for opportunities to participate.</p> <p>Atypical Schools</p> <p>Madison and Alternatives were not typical of the schools that black students attend. They were both small schools with all-black student populations, and Alternatives was a Christian school. These factors undoubtedly made the children's experiences different from those of other black students, most of whom attend large public schools with at least some children from other racial or ethnic backgrounds (although these schools tend to be highly segregated between majority and minority children).</p> <p>Within the context of their schools and classrooms, the students in this sample had only other black students as referents.(<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref21">n17</reflink>) For example, because all of the high-achieving students at these schools were black, an association between whites and achievement may have been slower to develop among the students.</p> <p>Both schools explicitly attempted to provide students with particular types of experiences perhaps not found at other schools, such as acknowledging and appreciating the culture and contributions of African Americans and other minority groups and conveying high expectations verbally and through the use of challenging academic material.(<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref22">n18</reflink>) This appeared to contribute to the children's continued school engagement, excitement, and general enthusiasm toward learning. The racial composition and the environments of these two schools helped encourage academic engagement and positive attitudes toward achievement among their students. This evidence points to the significance of the school experience in the development of attitudes toward school.</p> <p>Class Background</p> <p>Most of the children in this sample were from middle-class families, but there were a fair number of children from working-class families, especially at Alternatives. As a group, though, the parents in the sample had higher education, higher family income, and, in some cases, higher occupational status than the average African American adult (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1999). These factors surely played a role in fostering pro-school and pro-achievement attitudes among the students. It is also likely that these factors influenced teachers' perceptions and treatment of the students (Brophy 1983; Good 1983; Rist 1970).</p> <p>I also found evidence, not presented here, that parents provided assistance with homework and school projects and generally placed heavy emphasis on school achievement. Many of the parents also had access to resources that could facilitate their children's school success. For example, some parents were able to hire tutors for their children when necessary or to purchase supplemental educational materials, and some were able to call on family members or friends who were educators for help with specific problems. Many of the parents also appeared comfortable dealing with school personnel and making demands of the school, and few mentioned having difficulty balancing time constraints of jobs and their child's needs at school. We know from studies like those conducted by Annette Lareau (1987) that there are class-based differences in families' relationships with schools. Thus, it is likely that the cultural, social, and financial capital of these middle-class children were important factors here.</p> <p>Does this mean that in the absence of such capital, children will begin school with less curiosity about the world and less eagerness to express their natural desire to explore and master their environment than more privileged children? This is an empirical question. However, we know from the research of Ford and Harris (1996) that black fifth and sixth graders from low socioeconomic backgrounds overwhelming felt that school and getting good grades were important. Furthermore, previous research has suggested that all children, regardless of social class or racial background, come to school with a desire to learn and achieve (Gallas 1998; Sennett &amp; Cobb 1973; Suarez-Orozco &amp; Suarez-Orozco 1995) -- the factors with which this article was ultimately concerned. Individual children certainly begin school with different levels of preparedness; different levels of ability, motivation, excitement, and enthusiasm; and different capabilities and strengths. Schools can help either minimize or exacerbate those differences once children arrive.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-38"> Conclusion </hd> <p>This research addressed black students' early school engagement and attitudes toward achievement and learning. Although the study was based on a small regional sample of middle- and high-income black elementary school students, the findings do raise questions about the current state of knowledge about black students' relationship to school and learning and the dominant view of black students as culturally opposed to achievement. In most cases, public statements regarding black students' negative attitudes toward school contain no qualifiers isolating the problem to black students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or from particular schools or regions of the country. For these reasons, although the children in this sample cannot speak for all of their black peers, their words should not be dismissed.</p> <p>While previous research on adolescents has tended to suggest a culture-based explanation of student attitudes (e.g., Fordham &amp; Ogbu 1986), the findings of the present study suggest that the schooling experience, particularly achievement outcomes, plays a central role in at least the development of attitudes toward school. Children who were experiencing academic failure were more likely to express negative school-related attitudes than children who were not, and those attitudes were directly related to their achievement experiences. The children's negative statements about school reflected a desire to avoid further experiences of failure. This would imply a conceptualization of attitudes toward school as part of a developmental process rather than a specifically cultural one. It is not always apparent that previous theorizing on attitudes toward school takes this view. Therefore, although the "oppositional culture" theory does have its merits, it appears to be less useful for explaining the underachievement of middle-class black students at the elementary level.</p> <p>Important research questions still to be addressed include the following: What happens during adolescence that may contribute to a change in attitudes toward achievement among students? Does this change manifest itself differently among racial groups? When does the change occur? Could negative attitudes found among some adolescents be masking other feelings (such as fear, hurt, or embarrassment related to poor academic performance)? As others have stated, a sense of academic competence may well be the most important variable in promoting school engagement among students (Braddock 1990; Frisby &amp; Tucker 1993). Congressional testimony by Jomills Henry Braddock (1990) warned that children who "suffer a crisis in their academic abilities ... will begin adopting counterproductive, effort-avoidant strategies" (<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref23">51</reflink>). Some evidence of the onset of this process was found in the narratives of a few of the children in the present study.</p> <p>It is interesting that we rarely find examples in the literature of adolescents expressing their feelings about achievement and failure in the way that the elementary school children did here. Is it no longer important to "feel smart" or be the "super person in class"? Does getting an A no longer make you want to say "Hallelujah"? Does it no longer make you feel good to have your parents be proud of your achievements? I suspect that the answer to all of these questions is "no" but that among adolescents, publicly owning these feelings is not acceptable. There is considerable evidence to support the assumption that the masking of feelings related to failure is an important piece of the puzzle. Evidence is found in Clark's (1983) interviews with low-achieving black students and in Claude Steele's (1992, 1995, 1997) work on stereotype threat and disidentification (see also Osborne 1995). While anti-school and anti-achievement attitudes may exist among black students, they are not as widespread as some reports would have us believe, and part of the explanation for those attitudes may be found in the school experience.</p> <p>An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C., August 12-16, 2000. For comments and suggestions on various drafts of this article, I am grateful to Carrie Costello, Miki Kashtan, Kimberly DaCosta, Michael Hout, Samuel Lucas, Tally Katz-Gerro, Judith Blau, and Prudence Carter. This article also benefited from the helpful comments and criticisms of anonymous reviewers. Direct correspondence to Karolyn Tyson, Department of Sociology, 155 Hamilton Hall, CB# 3210, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210. E-mail: kdtyson@email.unc.edu.</p> <hd id="AN0006767652-39"> Notes </hd> <p>(n1.) Not all oppositional behavior is resistance. Giroux (1983) uses the term resistance to refer to student behaviors that are rooted in "moral and political indignation" (<reflink idref="bib288" id="ref24">288</reflink>).</p> <p>(n2.) Weissert's interpretation of the report is not entirely accurate (see College Board 1999).</p> <p>(n3.) The researchers also conducted analyses using the eighth-grade sample, and their results were similar to those for older students.</p> <p>(n4.) The race of the student speaking is not specified in the article.</p> <p>(n5.) In other research I have conducted, I found evidence of a "burden of acting white" among black adolescents, but I am not convinced that Fordham and Ogbu (1986) found that particular burden in their data. In their study, no students reported being accused of acting white for high achievement. Instead, the authors interpret as cultural what appears to be a more general burden of high achievement.</p> <p>(n6.) The names of the city, all schools, and participants are pseudonyms.</p> <p>(n7.) The majority of nonparticipating students were high-performing students. Ail but four of them scored above the national norm on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS).</p> <p>(n8.) Four parents (three from Madison) could not be reached for interviews.</p> <p>(n9.) Although the household income of this sample is relatively high, I would not describe Madison as an affluent school. Surprisingly, with respect to the condition of the facility, Madison had more in common with low-income, inner-city schools than with more affluent suburban schools. For example, the school lacked air-conditioning, a gymnasium, and an auditorium. Madison was an old school, and it showed. The signs of disrepair were numerous, including a leaking roof (old metal buckets lined parts of the hallway on rainy days), roaches, and rusty and broken playground equipment. As of this writing, renovations tentatively scheduled for the year following this study (1997-98) are still pending.</p> <p>(n10.) Quest is the school's gifted program. Brad is in Quest, but Trey and Allen are not.</p> <p>(n11.) I classify students as high achievers if their year-end GPA was B- or above and their ITBS scores were at or above the 50th percentile. In cases where GPA was not available (I have report cards for students in the interview sample only), I based this classification on ITBS scores, classroom observation, and teacher comments to me (in teacher interviews and informal conversations).</p> <p>(n12.) Unlike Madison, Alternatives did not have a program for gifted students. This may partly explain the finding that Alternatives students were somewhat less likely to ridicule one another for low achievement; the distinctions between high- and low-achieving students were not formally established and thus not as clearly marked. The other part of the explanation has to do with the Alternatives students' closer connection to one another due to their shared church membership. More than 75% of the students in the school were members of the church.</p> <p>(n13.) I am grateful to Reviewer 4 for identifying this distinction between smartness and "how students do smartness."</p> <p>(n14.) Of the 40 students interviewed, only 5 stated that they did not like school. All of the 5 students were struggling academically. In general, the better students thought they were performing academically, the more they seemed to like school. Nineteen students could be classified as low achieving, but again, most continued to hold out hope for better outcomes. I suspect they remained hopeful because of past successes and parental and teacher encouragement.</p> <p>(n15.) Ferguson argues that among black adolescents "students may hesitate to raise their hands in class, or seem too eager to learn because they fear social ostracism by their peers" and these are behaviors that surveys cannot capture (Cook &amp; Ludwig 1998:394).</p> <p>(n16.) It is interesting how low-achieving students are able to turn the tables on the problem of achievement so that by adolescence, the social burden is on the high-achieving students.</p> <p>(n17.) However, teachers at both schools sometimes made comments to their classes comparing them to white students.</p> <p>(n18.) There were ways in which both schools unintentionally undermined these attempts. 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| Header | DbId: eric DbLabel: ERIC An: EJ647802 AccessLevel: 3 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Weighing In: Elementary-Age Students and the Debate on Attitudes toward School among Black Students. – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Tyson%2C+Karolyn%22">Tyson, Karolyn</searchLink> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Social+Forces%22"><i>Social Forces</i></searchLink>. Jun 2002 80(4):1157-1189. – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 33 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2002 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Academic+Achievement%22">Academic Achievement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Achievement+Need%22">Achievement Need</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Black+Students%22">Black Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+School+Students%22">Elementary School Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Middle+Class+Students%22">Middle Class Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Peer+Influence%22">Peer Influence</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22School+Attitudes%22">School Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Attitudes%22">Student Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Experience%22">Student Experience</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+School+Relationship%22">Student School Relationship</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Underachievement%22">Underachievement</searchLink> – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0037-7732 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Research on African American students' low academic performance has focused on Black adolescents, who, like most American adolescents, exhibit oppositional attitudes. In contrast, an ethnographic study of two all-Black elementary schools suggests that middle-class Black children begin school very much achievement-oriented and engaged, and that school experiences significantly affect development of school attitudes. (Contains 58 references.) (Author/SV) – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2002 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ647802 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 33 StartPage: 1157 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Academic Achievement Type: general – SubjectFull: Achievement Need Type: general – SubjectFull: Black Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Elementary Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Elementary School Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Middle Class Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Peer Influence Type: general – SubjectFull: School Attitudes Type: general – SubjectFull: Student Attitudes Type: general – SubjectFull: Student Experience Type: general – SubjectFull: Student School Relationship Type: general – SubjectFull: Underachievement Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Weighing In: Elementary-Age Students and the Debate on Attitudes toward School among Black Students. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Tyson, Karolyn IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2002 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0037-7732 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 80 – Type: issue Value: 4 Titles: – TitleFull: Social Forces Type: main |
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