ABSTRACT
School failure, high drop-out rates, low college enrollment, overrepresentation in special education classes, and low standardized test scores reflect a pervasive problem of educational underachievement among African Americans (Sanders, 2000). Over the last 20 years, both educators and researchers have attempted to understand the factors that account for this problem. Much of the research in this area has been framed with a sociological, cultural, or motivational perspective (Caldas & Bankston, 1997; Ferguson, 1998; Gutman & Midgley, 2000; Kozol, 1992). Perhaps one of the most widely cited explanations for African Americans’ educational underachievement has been John Ogbu’s (1985) cultural-ecological model. The cultural-ecological model posits that cultural and social adaptations to years of discriminatory treatment have resulted in survival strategies among African Americans that contradict their stated educational values. In addition, some African Americans reject the tools and competencies necessary to survive and flourish within the dominant American culture (Ogbu, 1974, 1982).
