Promoting Minority Academic Success: Understanding the Role of Institutional Mechanisms in Distinct School Contexts

Gilberto Conchas

Research into African American school engagement poses an interesting paradox. While many black students report high educational aspirations, their school performance is poor compared to other race and ethnic groups (Fordham, 1996; MacLeod, 1995; Fine, 1991; Weis, 1985; Ogbu, 1974, 1978). Why? The “cultural ecologists” posit that African American youth adopt a caste-like folk mentality that provokes “oppositional behavior” against school success. Black students, as well as other caste-like minorities, anticipate no immediate rewards for educational effort and, as this perspective suggests, give up (Ogbu and Matuti-Bianchi, 1986). According to the “cultural-ecological” paradigm, Black students experience a limited opportunity structure in a racially stratified society that limits their expectations for social and economic mobility. Yet, there are some Black youth who succeed amidst the unequal structures of American society and culture. This theoretical model ignores the variations associated with African American student’s school engagement and expectations. Relatively little attention in the research literature is given to the experiences of successful African Americans students. African American youth are and can be academically successful. Many of these youth expect to realize and attain their aspirations as future professionals in society. Many African American youth are determined to attain social mobility despite ideological constructions associated with Blacks in society. However, there are still some high-achieving African American youth who despite similar schooling experiences foresee distinct career paths that are consistent with general images of African Americans in U.S. society. Why is this so? In an attempt to understand the complex meaning of academic success and expectations, this article explores the variations in school experiences among high-achieving African American youth at a large urban high school in Northern California. The purpose is to determine African American student responses to issues associated with their academic engagement and future college and career expectations. And, to explore why some of these students within the same school setting suggest distinct career aspirations and subsequent expectations. Through African American male students’ own perspectives, we unravel what works and what does not work within the school setting for these students. Three main issues are identified within the school context to help explain this phenomenon: curriculum, school size, and social relations. The hope remains that we can shed light on the complexity of these high school students’ experiences to impact educational policy and practice.

About Gilberto Conchas

Gil Conchas is an Assistant Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A sociologist by training, his work focuses on inequality with an emphasis on urban schooling systems. As the son of Mexican immigrant farm workers, he maintains a strong commitment to promoting school success. His research focuses on the sociocultural processes within the school context that structure variations in educational opportunity for low-income Latino, Asian American and African American youth. Through his research, Gil illuminates student voices as a means to make meaning of their lives in urban communities and schools. Several scholarly journals have published his research on social equity and urban schools. He is also working on two books. The first, Urban Inequality and Opportunity Structures: Race and Ethnic Patterns of Variability in School Experiences Among Latino, Asian and African American Youth, is a two-year qualitative case study that provides a comparative race and ethnic analysis of eighty high school students’ academic and social engagement in an historically racial hostile setting. The study begins to ascertain why and how some racial minority youth become high achievers in urban schooling despite limited opportunity. The second is on research on a Chicano youth serving a “life” prison sentence for second-degree murder. This study is of particular theoretical and methodological significance because the subject of research is Professor Conchas’ younger brother. Currently, Gil is conducting a four-year mixed-method study in a Southern California community, investigating why and how some Mexican immigrant and native-born Mexican American youth succeed in school, while others do not. In addition, Professor Conchas and several doctoral students are doing research on a community based school dropout prevention program in Boston. Gil teaches courses in qualitative research methods and sociological theory about education with an emphasis on race and ethnicity in urban schools.