RACE AND ACADEMIC DISIDENTIFICATION

Success in school appears to be related to identification with academi cs (J. D, Finn, 1989). C. Steele (1992) argued chat African Americans' relatively poor academic outcomes are attributable to a system of sch ooling that causes African Americans to disidentify with academics. Pr evious studies reported empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis. The goal of this study was to examine data from a nationally represen tative longitudinal sample of students to determine if (a) African Ame rican boys remain disidentified through 12th grade, (b) African Americ an girls disidentify, (c) other disadvantaged minority groups (Hispani cs) show evidence of disidentification, and (d) disidentification is g lobal across all academic domains or specific to some content areas, I n general, African American bays remained disidentified, No other grou p examined demonstrated significant disidentification. Identification or disidentification did not appear to vary acres content areas.