ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on African American students' acquisition of literacy. Classroom participation is a visible form of literacy engagement. The statistical analyses revealed that the effect of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) on avoidance was not due solely to its effect on students' devaluing. Even the students' level of devaluing constant across ethnic groups, CORI still benefited all students. However, when devaluing constant, the interaction between ethnicity and CORI on behavioral engagement disappeared. CORI decreases the devaluing of reading which increase the dedication of middle school African American students more strongly than it did for European American students. The best forecast of African American students' end of year achievement was their level of behavioral engagement at the beginning of the academic year. For European American students, self-efficacy was a stronger predictor than this behavioral engagement. Dedication is a pathway that is capable of closing the achievement gap between these ethnic groups in the United States.
