School participants in two desegregated urban high schools, Lincoln an
d Norwood East, shared virtually the same image of the good or ''model
'' student. But student peer cultures differed significantly between t
he sites with regards to the acceptability of this and other images fo
r African Americans. Within these contrasting school contexts, six hig
h-achieving black juniors formed and then performed identities as mode
l students, as black persons, and as other selves. They responded in u
nique ways to what they perceived to be conflicting images of who they
ought to be.