The Strengths of High-Achieving Black High School Students in a Racially Diverse Setting

Abstract

Robert Hill (1972) identified strengths of Black families: strong kinship bonds, strong work orientation, adaptability of family roles, high achievement orientation, and religious orientation. Some suggest these strengths sustain physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of Blacks. This study used narratives and survey data from a cohort of high-achieving Black students in a highly selective honors high school and integrated every element of Hill's Black family strengths-perspective to social/structural inequality and diversity rationale ideologies. Results revealed, upon entering racially diverse school-setting, Black students demonstrated by working through initial feelings of apprehension and establishing racial and gender solidarity through social clubs. Implications for promoting racial integration, development of resiliency, and academic success of Black students are provided. Keywords: academic achievement, Black, race, religion, resilience, social clubs The purpose of this study is to explore how young Black students remain resilient in a racially diverse academic setting. Given subjective nature of resilience, for purposes of this paper, we define resilience as the ability to embrace challenges of life and to retain openness to world in face of adversity (Dass-Brailsford, 2005, p. 575). Through analyses of narratives gathered from a cohort of high-achieving Black students in a highly selective honors high school, we examine emotions experienced by Blacks students prior to and once entering a racially diverse setting as well as how these students establish solidarity through social clubs. Studies suggest possessing strong initiative and motivation, being goal-orientated, and experiencing self as having agency positively influences academic performance of Black youth (Dass-Brailsford, 2005; O'Connor, 1997). In turn, a student's high performance directly influences his or her relationship with peers and larger community (Carter, 2005; Dass-Brailsford, 2005; Horvat & Lewis, 2003; Marryshow et al., 2005). Therefore, identifying strengths of a racially homogenous social context for Black youth could help school administrators, teachers, and parents understand how to promote among Black students as well as how they sustain Black racial identity through achievement. This study analyzes narratives from a sample of high-achieving Black students attending an honors science and math academy, which is called SAMA. The primary objectives are to examine how young Black men and women individually and collectively navigate between racially homogenous home schools and a racially integrated setting. The authors are also interested in highlighting how these students' social clubs affirm their racial identity. In what follows, key studies are summarized regarding how Blacks have successfully navigated racially diverse school settings, historical significance of religious institutions and social clubs for Blacks, and position study within context of this work. BACKGROUND LITERATURE Blacks In Racially Diverse School Settings The United States Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), declared state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and students unconstitutional. Since that time, scholars have debated whether racial integration (Orfield, 2001; Reynolds, 2006) or racial segregation/separation (Bell, 1980; McAdoo, 2007) is in best interest of young Black men and women. According to several scholars, racial integrated students feel compelled to act White (Neal-Barnett, 2001), perceive Blackness in certain ways (Peterson-Lewis & Bratton, 2004), attempt to erase their racial identity (racially agnosticism) to better fit attitudes, behaviors, and values of dominant culture (Fordham, 1996; Levin, Van Laar, & Foote, 2006), or develop unique ways of merging aforementioned perspectives (Ford et al. …