The Influence of Minority Group Cultural Models on Persistence in College

In this article rates of attrition and aspects of college performance are compared between two groups of Black college students in a Northeast urban, commuter college setting. These data were used as a test of Ogbu's "cultural-ecological" model regarding the effect on educational achievement of being a "voluntary" or "involuntary" immigrant. Black students whose fathers were "voluntary immigrants," that is, those who had not been born in the United States, stayed in college longer than did Black students whose fathers were native to the United States-"involuntary immigrants" in Obgu's model. Other selected measures of academic performance for example, placement tests, were also found to be more predictive for the voluntary immigrant group. Implications of these results are discussed.