Extra-School Factors in Achievement, Attainment, and Aspiration Among Junior and Senior High School-Age African American Youth

Abstract

It is generally accepted that school-related achievement, attainment, personal and career aspiration, and eventual attainment are functions of the direct and interactional effects of many factors. Using a psychological perspective, the present article examines individual, family, and community factors that show evidence of having effects on achievement, attainment, and aspiration among African American youth at the junior and senior high school level, and reviews certain methodological aspects involved in these findings. Achievement refers to the traditional indices of the degree to which a student has encountered success in school. These may include school grades, grade point average, rank in class, scores on standardized achievement and aptitude tests, and other scaled indicators used within the school setting to document and report level of academic progression. Attainment has a meaning similar to achievement in that it represents academic progression in the school setting. Attainment is denoted by the reaching of certain academic milestones such as the completion of junior or senior high school or the completion of three years of mathematics in high school. It also includes recognition by means of performancebased awards or certificates and other indicators that represent important ordinal steps in level of academic progression. Aspiration is by definition a more ethereal concept and is more difficult to define and measure than the preceding constructs. It is denoted by the personal aims, goals, and objectives toward which an individual directs seeking behavior. It may be measured by career choice or by self-report instruments related to one's goals and objectives such as career interest and academic interest inventories. It may also be measured by less structured personality measures and by the actual attainments necessary for progression toward the aspired goals. An example is the completion of four years of high