Race and Academic Disidentification

Success in school appears to be related to identification with academics ( J. D. Finn, 1989 ). C. Steele (1992) argued that African Americans' relatively poor academic outcomes are attributable to a system of schooling that causes African Americans to disidentify with academics. Previous studies reported empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis. The goal of this study was to examine data from a nationally representative longitudinal sample of students to determine if (a) African American boys remain disidentified through 12th grade, (b) African American girls disidentify, (c) other disadvantaged minority groups (Hispanics) show evidence of disidentification, and (d) disidentification is global across all academic domains or specific to some content areas. In general, African American boys remained disidentified. No other group examined demonstrated significant disidentification. Identification or disidentification did not appear to vary across content areas.