The Influence of Minority Group Cultural Models on Persistence in College

Abstract

In this article rates of attrition and aspects of college performance are compared between two groups of Black college students in Northeast urban, commuter college setting. These data were used as test of Ogbu's cultural-ecological model regarding the effect on educational achievement of being or involuntary immigrant. Black students whose fathers were immigrants, that is, those who had not been born in the United States, stayed in college longer than did Black students whose fathers were native to the United States-involuntary immigrants in Obgu's model. Other selected measures of academic performance for example, placement tests, were also found to be more predictive for the voluntary immigrant group. Implications of these results are discussed. In the latter half of the 20th century, America-historically land of immigrants-has become an even more pluralistic society due to the influx of people of color of varying ethnic backgrounds. For example, in California the recent census indicates that non-Hispanic Whites are now minority, and it is predicted that during the first half of the 21st century the numbers of those of non-European backgrounds will exceed those of the hitherto dominant European American cultural groups (America's Demographic Quilt, 2001; Purdum, 2001). Some people come to the United States to escape political oppression, but in most cases they come to better the social and economic prospects for themselves and their families. The general belief is that immigrant or second generation children will better the family status through educational attainment, and much emphasis is placed on having their children do well in school in ethnic minority 1 communities. However, although mostly all parents express the wish that their children do well in school, it is well known that school achievement varies across ethnic groups (Gibson & Ogbu, 1991). A number of reasons have been offered to account for this situation. Many scholars and critics cite lack of the kinds of cognitive skills in these children necessary to support educational success. For example, Golden, Birns, Bridger, and Moss (1971) and Golden, Bridger, and Montare (1974) have suggested that everyday language styles in normal lower-class families contribute to different cognitive abilities than those of the more successful groups-White and/or middle class. Others, arguing more broadly, posit that history of adapting to color-conscious society has led African Americans to develop a unique culture, part of which includes specific and unique cognitive strategies that, while useful in some ways, make the child less ready to deal with the standard school curriculum (Shade, 1991, p. 231). The work of Boykin (1991), Miller-Jones, (1989), and Willis (1989) is consistent with this perspective. In addition, defective inner-city schools, which many of these children attend, have been held up as factor responsible for the lower educational performance of minority group students (Comer, 1980; Edmonds, 1986). Educational anthropologist John Ogbu (1991) takes somewhat different approach. He argues that while the above critiques may offer partial understanding of the problem they do not take into account all the data about group performance. For example, regarding class differences, while Black children from middle-class backgrounds do better than children from lower-class backgrounds, as group, they still are not as successful in school as middle-class White children (Ogbu, 1991, 2003). Further, immigrant children from quite different cultural and language backgrounds than the American middle-class standard have been shown to thrive, even in those city schools that are considered second-rate in their educational advantages (Ogbu, 1991). Regarding language differences, Ogbu and Matute-Bianchi (1986) cite evidence to the effect that students of Asian (Chinese and Japanese) and Mexican heritage in California did poorly in school in the pre- World War II era because of their lack of English language proficiency, but after decade the Asian students were doing very well while the academic difficulties of Mexican Americans persisted. …