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BREEDING ANIMOSITY: THE "BURDEN OF ACTING WHITE" AND OTHER PROBLEMS OF STATUS GROUP HIERARCHIES IN SCHOOLS
Karolyn Tyson University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and William Darity, Jr. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Duke University and Domini Castellino Duke University
RUNNING HEAD: Status Group Hierarchies and a Burden of Acting White Word Count 21,355 (not including tables and footnotes)
* Direct all correspondence to Karolyn Tyson at UNC-Chapel Hill, Department of Sociology, 155 Hamilton Hall, CB# 3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210. Support for this research was provided by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. ABSTRACT Signithia Fordham and the late John Ogbu proposed a hypothesis, now widely popular, that black youths sabotage themselves academically by taking an oppositional stance toward school achievement. Fordham and Ogbu charged that black youths accuse their high achieving peers with being race defectors; the high achievers allegedly were deemed to be "acting white" by doing well in school. Thus, academic underachievement became characterized as an internal, cultural problem of the black community. Our study reconsiders the Fordham-Ogbu hypothesis using both qualitative and quantitative data from public schools in North Carolina. We find the following: (1) There is a general sentiment against high academic achievement among adolescents in North Carolina, regardless of race. (2) There is no evidence of the specific racialized form of opposition to high achievement -- the burden of acting white -- at the elementary level. This suggests that it is not an attitude that is a cultural import from a widely held outlook in black America. (3) We do find limited evidence of racialized peer pressure against academic achievement at the high school level. The context in which it is most likely to occur is a school where black students are grossly underrepresented in the most demanding courses, e.g. Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors courses. For example, in a school were 40 to 60 percent of students are black but only one or two make their way into AP or Honors classes , those one or two are more likely to be the object of the charge that they are "acting white." Black student under-representation produces the toxic environment that leads to racialized oppositionality. Black students legitimately view those classes as the property of white students; they are overwhelmingly excluded. Future studies will report on our findings concerning the processes that lead to black student under-representation in more challenging curricula.
BREEDING ANIMOSITY: THE "BURDEN OF ACTING WHITE" AND OTHER PROBLEMS OF STATUS GROUP HIERARCHIES IN SCHOOLS Almost 20 years have passed since anthropologists Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu (1986) published the article "Black Students’ School Success: Coping with the ‘Burden of Acting White’." Yet it remains among the most popular and influential publications addressing the academic underachievement of black students and the black-white achievement gap. Indeed, there is strong public belief that an "oppositional peer culture" is pervasive in the black community and that it explains the underachievement of African American students and some part of the black-white achievement gap. Scholars interested in black achievement outcomes have had to contend with the claims of Ogbu’s "oppositional peer culture" theory (Ogbu 1986; 1987), including the "burden of acting white" (Blau 2003; DeVos and Suarez-Orozco 1990; Jencks and Phillips 1998; Lawson 1997; Lovaglia, Lucas, Houser, Thye, and Markovsky 1998; Mahiri 1989; Patillo-McCoy 1999; Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco 1995; Sanders 1997; Steinberg, Dornbush, and Brown 1992). Recently, social scientists have engaged in lively debate addressing the claims of the theory (see Farkas, Lleras, and Maczuga 2002; and Downey and Ainsworth-Darnell 2002). The debate centers on whether and to what degree an "oppositional peer culture" exists among black students and the extent to which it affects the group’s academic achievement. Overall, the research findings related to these questions have been mixed (see for example, Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey 1988; Cook and Ludwig 1988; Ferguson 2001; Kao, Tienda, and Schneider 1996; Neal-Barnett 2001; Steinberg, Dornbusch, and Brown 1992) and this has lead to confusion about the phenomena involved and ongoing debate. In this article we review the "burden of acting white" hypothesis, describe the current debate, and use interview and extant data from North Carolina to join the debate assessing the hypothesis. THE "BURDEN OF ACTING WHITE" HYPOTHESIS Among African Americans, the term "acting white" is used to refer to blacks who use language or ways of speaking, display attitudes, behaviors, or preferences, or engage in activities that are considered to be white cultural norms (McArdle and Young 1970; Neal-Barnett 2001; Perry 2002). Understandings of what is "acting white" may vary by region, social class, or age, but also may be idiosyncratic. Nonetheless, some understandings remain remarkably constant over time and place (e.g., listening to heavy metal music is almost always considered a "white" preference). The term also has come to be used with respect to indicators of academic performance and success (Bergin and Cooks 2002; Neal-Barnett 2001). Using focus groups to understand how black teenagers define "acting white," Neal-Barnett (2001:82) reported that the list of items the students identified included "being in honors or advance placement classes." Incidentally, the list also included "Speaking Standard English, dressing in clothes from the Gap or Abercrombie and Fitch rather than Tommy Hilfiger and FUBU, [and] wearing shorts in the winter" (Neal-Barnett 2001:82). Fifteen years earlier, Fordham and Ogbu (1986) had posited that this notion of "acting white" was part of a larger oppositional peer culture constructed by blacks as a result of the history of enslavement and discrimination faced in America. In response to persistent racial inequality—including discriminatory treatment in the labor market—black youths constructed a culture in opposition to "white" culture. In essence, according to Fordham and Ogbu the oppositional identity is "part of a cultural orientation toward schooling which exists within the minority community" (1986:183). Consequently, black students who are striving for academic success have their cultural authenticity as a black person called into question; that is, they are accused of "acting white." According to the theory, academic achievement is not valued among African Americans because it is perceived as conforming to standard norms of success among white Americans. Moreover, it does not pay off for blacks like it does for others. Therefore, black students are confronted with a choice between representing an authentic "black" self or striving for academic success. Fordham and Ogbu claimed that it is this dilemma, this "burden of acting white," that contributes to the relatively low academic performance of black students. They are not alone in their assertion (see for example, Herbert 2003; McWhorter 2000; Weissert 1999). Faced with this dilemma, these authors believe, many black students choose to stifle their academic ability and achievement in order to stay true to the race and avoid charges of "acting white" and other ridicule and ostracism from their black peers. However, in the original published study (Fordham and Ogbu 1986), which addressed black academic underachievement, no respondent was shown to have directly referenced being accused of acting white with respect to achievement. Empirical Assessments of the Hypothesis Only within the last ten years have the main propositions of the oppositional culture thesis, including the "burden of acting white," been examined empirically. Two high-profile studies (Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey 1998; Cook and Ludwig 1998), both examining data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), found little evidence of either an oppositional culture or a "burden of acting white" among black adolescents. For example, Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey’s (1998) analysis showed that blacks actually had more pro-school attitudes than whites, and Cook and Ludwig (1998) reported finding little difference between black and white adolescents in the degree to which they valued academic achievement. The results of the latter study also suggested that there were more social benefits than costs to high academic achievement for black students. Another more recent analysis of survey data from schools in Shaker Heights, Ohio, also found little evidence of a peer culture that is oppositional to achievement among black adolescents (Ferguson 2001). Ferguson found that black and white students with similar family background characteristics were not very different with respect to their satisfaction with school, interest in their studies, or opposition to achievement (2001:387). Findings from qualitative studies (Akom 2003; Carter n.d.; Tyson 2002) also fail to substantiate the acting white and oppositional culture hypotheses. Although focusing on younger students, Tyson (2002), for example, did not find opposition toward achievement or any mention of "acting white" among students in an ethnographic study of all-black elementary schools. In fact, she reported that the students were "very much achievement oriented and engaged with the process of schooling" (2002:1157). Akom (2003) studied a group of adolescent females in the Nation of Islam attending a predominantly black urban school and specifically raised the issue of acting white with participants. Interestingly, none of the descriptions the participants offered included reference to academic achievement. The findings of these studies challenge many of the claims Fordham and Ogbu (1986) made, which were based on a qualitative study of one predominantly black high school in Washington, D.C. However, there is also empirical evidence that substantiates some of Fordham and Ogbu’s (1986) claims (Bergin and Cooks 2002; Ford and Harris 19996; Horvat and Lewis 2003; Steinberg, Dornbusch, and Brown 1992). For example, Neal-Barnett’s (2001) focus groups with black adolescents revealed that high achieving black students often encounter charges of "acting white," and some respond in ways that undermine their academic performance. In another survey of 148 low-SES black students in fifth and sixth grades, Ford and Harris (1996) found that half of the sample knew students who were teased for academic achievement, 26 percent reported being rejected when they made good grades, and 16 percent reported not having as many friends when they achieved. Note, however, that reference to "acting white" was not included in the Ford and Harris survey and no statistical comparisons to teens of other race or class groups are provided; thus it is not clear whether the peer-related achievement problems were in fact related to a "burden of acting white" specifically, or to the general culture of mediocrity which "shuns academic excellence" that a number of researchers have observed (Coleman 1966; Cookson and Persell 1985; Steinberg 1996). The results of the Cook and Ludwig (1998), Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey (1998), and Ferguson (2001) studies showing that the attitudes of black and white students toward school were not very different, lend some credibility to this position. In their work, Fordham and Ogbu (1986) used quotes from eight students at the predominately black Capital High to describe how a "burden of acting white" undermines the academic performance of black students. According to the students, they attempted to downplay or camouflage their ability by using strategies such as humor, being the class clown, involvement in athletics, and/or doing just enough to get by. But students in virtually all racial and ethnic groups confront similar dilemmas with respect to high academic achievement, and they also tend to employ similar strategies. For example, we find strikingly similar narratives in Kinney’s (1993) work on the transition from middle to high school of students formerly labeled "nerds." As Kinney reported, some of the students "were singled out for their superior academic performance" (1993:27). In another study, focusing on student engagement and including 20,000 students in nine high schools, Laurence Steinberg, concluded that: "…the prevailing norm in most adolescent peer groups is one of ‘getting by without showing off’– doing what it takes to avoid getting into trouble in school, but at the same time shunning academic excellence" (Steinberg 1996:161). Cookson and Persell (1985) reported similar findings in their study of elite boarding schools; even among the most privileged adolescents they found students expressing a particular disdain for their peers who study too hard. According to the authors, "Many students are placed in a difficult bind where they must succeed without appearing to try…" (1985:105). We do not mean to suggest that the nature of this experience is identical for all groups; for as described earlier, some issues are peculiar to black students. However, in order to claim that a distinctive "burden of acting white" with respect to achievement exists for black students, we must be able to distinguish between the typical culture of mediocrity found among students from other racial and ethnic groupsfound in many American high schools and a peer culture among blacks that specifically racializes and devalues achievement and achievement-related behaviors. This was not the case in Ford and Harris’s (1996) study for example, nor, it appears, in many others (e.g., Forhdam and Ogbu 1986; Horvat and Lewis 2003). However, in a more recent analysis of NELS and NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) data, Farkas et al. (2002), specifically challenging Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey’s (1998) earlier results, reported finding evidence to support the existence of an oppositional peer culture among black students. In particular, they found that "very good" black females in high minority schools were more likely to be "put down by peers" than other students (2002:149). This does seem to imply a situation peculiar to blacks, but it is unclear why the same is not true for black males. Downey and Ainsworth-Darnell (2002) respond to the Farkas et al. claims with a reanalysis of their own and identify methodological flaws in the Farkas et al. study. They contend that the use of white females as the omitted category in certain analyses skewed the Farkas et al. findings. They charge that Farkas et al. can only claim to have found an oppositional peer culture among high-achieving black females in high-minority, low-achieving, nonurban schools, which turns out to represent a very small number (4%) of blacks in the sample (Downey and Ainsworth-Darnell 2002). In light of this charge and the results of their own reanalysis, which again failed to find support for the existence of an oppositional peer culture among blacks, Downey and Ainsworth-Darnell (2002) conclude that the theory cannot therefore explain the achievement gap between black and white students. The studies reviewed here, though certainly just a small sample of those that examine aspects of the theory of an oppositional peer culture or a "burden of acting white," include both qualitative and quantitative analyses, yet with conflicting results. Apparently, differences in methodological approach do not fully explain these inconsistencies. So how do we account for the contradictory findings regarding these phenomena? Do high achieving black students experience a "burden of acting white"? That is, are black students concerned about excelling academically because of a belief that academic striving and high achievement is antithetical to black cultural authenticity or that it may be perceived as such by others and therefore sanctioned? Are black students making educational choices that reflect a concern with being challenged on their "blackness" or commitment to the race by other blacks? We address these questions in the current article with an analysis of interview and extant data collected in a study examining the underrepresentation of minority and low-income students in rigorous courses and programs in eleven North Carolina public schools. In proposing that a peer culture that racializes and demeans academic achievement results from the values of the black culture, in the way that Fordham and Ogbu and others have, we would expect to find evidence of a "burden of acting white" wherever we find black students, whether high or low achieving, for we assume that people carry their culture with them wherever they go. Thus, for example, where we find low and average -achieving black students we would assume that their performance is due in part to the a result of intentional withholding of effort, and where we find high achieving black students we would assume that their achievement incurs a social cost. Analysis of student interviews at the eleven schools revealed that few of the 53 black respondents had encountered charges of acting white specifically because of high academic achievement. While we do find other references to acting white, they are not specific to achievement. We also find a pattern of animosity among white students at many of the schools that is connected to a perception that high-status groups occupy high academic position in the schools. We note similarities in this pattern to the development of a burden of acting white that have not been appreciated by researchers. In the following sections we describe the study and the participants before presenting the findings and offering an alternative explanation for the process by which a burden of acting white with respect to achievement develops, which may help to shed light on the contradictory research findings. In this study, we define the structural conditions under which a burden of high achievement becomes manifest specifically for black students. In light of the contradictory research findings such an examination seems especially pertinent. DATA AND METHODS In 2000-2001, we undertook a study for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) examining the underrepresentation of minority students in rigorous courses and programs (Advanced Placement [AP] and honors courses, and programs for students identified as academically and intellectually gifted [AIG/AG]) in public schools throughout the state of North Carolina. The diverse group of schools included in the NCDPI study provided an opportunity to address the claims of a burden of acting white hypothesis; however, these data were not collected exclusively or specifically for that purpose. Thus there are several limitations, which we address below. Sampling Schools Using extant data collected annually by the state’s Department of Public Instruction from all public schools in North Carolina, we first established the extent of minority underrepresentation in rigorous courses and programs statewide using a measure we call a Disparity Index (DI). The disparity index calculates the ratio of the percentage of minority students in advanced courses and programs relative to the percentage of minority students enrolled in the school. The lowest possible value of the DI is zero, a case where there is no minority participation in the advanced course or program in question. A DI score of one (1) represents parity and scores higher than one indicate overrepresentation of minorities. We have not previously seen any study that included systematic attention to a comparison of the presence of minority students in a school’s rigorous courses and programs in relation to their presence in the general student body of the school. Using data from NCDPI databases, we determined that Biology, Calculus, English, and History were the AP courses most high schools offered (each course was offered by between 45 and 66 percent of the high schools in the state) (see Table 1). Honors Biology, History and English were offered by the greatest number of high schools (see Table 2). We used these courses for our analyses of disparity in the high schools. The schools in Tables 1 and 2 are organized from lowest to highest disparity across the variety of courses offered. SecondNext, in cooperation with NCDPI staff, we designed a survey to assess the programs and courses available at each public school in the state, criteria for enrollment, and processes for identification, data which is not available in the NCDPI database. The surveys gathered data on gifted programs from elementary and middle schools across the state and on advanced curricular offerings from the state’s high schools. The elementary/middle school survey also collected information on enrollment by race and gender in the gifted program. We mailed surveys to principals at all of the state’s public schools along with self-addressed stamped envelopes and a letter from the NCDPI describing the study and its purpose. We received 866 (47%) completed elementary and middle school surveys and 231 (52%) completed high school surveys. We included in our analysis a variable we called a disparity index (DI) to measure the extent of underrespresentation of minority students in a given school’s advanced courses (AP and Honors) and high ability programs (AIG/AG).Using data from NCDPI databases, we determined that Biology, Calculus, English, and History were the AP courses high schools were most likely to offer (each course was offered by between 45 and 66 percent of the high schools in the state) (see Table 1). Honors Biology, History and English were offered by the greatest number of high schools (see Table 2).The disparity index calculates the ratio of the percentage of minority students in advanced courses and programs to the percentage of minority students enrolled in the school. The lowest possible value of the DI is zero, a case where there is no minority participation in the advanced course or program in question. A DI score of one (1) represents parity and scores higher than one indicate overrepresentation of minorities. We have not previously seen any study that included systematic attention to a comparison of the presence of minority students in a school’s rigorous courses and programs in relation to their presence in the general student body of the school.INSERT TABLE 1 HERE INSERT TABLE 2 HERE We selected a sample of schools from a universe of schools on which we had done a quantitative study. We selected eleven schools (6 high schools, 2 middle schools, and 3 elementary schools) with high and low DI scores to explore in greater detail the issues involved in student placement decisions (see Table 1). We selected schools that would also give us a mix of high and low minority populations; SES and urbanicity were secondary considerations (Table 3). We followed similar procedures to select the two middle and three elementary schools. We selected one school with a high minority population (≥ 60%) and high minority gifted enrollment (≥ 75%); one with a high minority population (≥ 60%) and low minority gifted enrollment (≤ 25%); and a third with a low minority population (≤ 20%) and high minority gifted enrollment (≥ 75%) (Table 1). We were most interested in schools with the high/high and high/low configurations. We excluded schools with a low minority population and low minority gifted enrollment from the study. We followed a similar procedure for the two middle schools selected (Table 2). A team of three or four black female interviewers spent one day at each school conducting interviews with principals, counselors, teachers, and students to learn more about the course selection and placement process at the various schools. INSERT TABLE 3 HERE The Schools Banaker, East, Avery and Franklin hHigh Schools schools had high DI scores, ranging from .73 to 1.90 for at least two of the four AP courses (Table 1) in 1999-2000 (the year before we conducted the interviews), with scores reaching parity or above in just two cases, in AP Biology at Avery and AP Calculus at Franklin. Avery is the only school in this group showing a reverse trend for honors courses; Banaker, East and Franklin showed high DI scores for honors courses as well. The other two high schools, Clearview and Dalton, have low DI scores for all AP courses offered. No black students were enrolled in either AP biology or AP Calculus at Dalton in 1999-2000, and none were enrolled in AP Calculus at Clearview during that time. Neither school showed representation of black students in the other AP courses at a rate above 30 percent of black students’ presence in the school population. At Clearview, however, black students were somewhat better represented in honors courses, with DI scores of .45 and .50 in the English and History courses, respectively. Dalton had low DI scores for honors courses as well, with black students represented in those courses at less than one-third of their presence in the school population. Among the five elementary and middle schools, Bblack students were underrepresented in gifted programs at a rate less than half of their presence in the general student body at four schools (see Table 1) in the sample. Only at Kilborn Middle School did the DI score reach parity for black representation in the gifted program during 2000-2001. Kilborn is a fairly rural school with a majority white student body; African Americans make up ten percent of the student body and eleven percent of the gifted program. According to school personnel, anyone scoring at the 98th or 99th percentile on the state’s end of grade (EOG) test is "auto-in" to the gifted program. Kilborn also offers accelerated courses in math and language arts at each grade (6, 7 and 8). The classes, which include the pre-Algebra and Algebra sequence and "AP" classes, are open to any student scoring at or above the 90th percentile on the EOG test. Both gifted and non gifted students may enroll in the accelerated classes. Georgetown is a magnet elementary school serving a majority black population from the surrounding low-income neighborhood and a small population of white students from other neighborhoods who are attracted by the school’s arts program. White students, just eleven percent of Georgetown’s population, comprised 56 percent of the gifted program. Information from a number of sources indicated that Georgetown did not routinely provide parents with written information on the gifted program. For example, the 2000-2001 school handbook included no mention of the program, although the website did offer a description of the program. Since the majority of the black students at the school came from low-income backgrounds, they may have had less access to the information than the better off white students. At Inkwell Elementary, although blacks were underrepresented in the gifted program, Hispanics were not. Therefore, in the original analysis which included blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, the DI score for Inkwell Elementary was .72. The presence of minorities other than blacks did not make a significant difference in DI scores at any of the other schools. The student body at Jackson Middle School was 50 percent black in 2000-2001 but blacks comprised just 9 percent of the gifted program. Finally, school administrators at Holt Elementary, which was 72 percent black in 2000-2001, reported on the survey that there were no black students in the gifted program. However, three months later, by the time of the interviews, one black student was participating in the program. One of our adult respondents, a black female counselor, informed us that the student was placed in the program after the school learned it had been selected to participate in the study. The counselor also reported that although the school had a brochure on the gifted program, it was not distributed to everyone. For example, she noticed it was not distributed at the school’s open house. This may explain why the black students we interviewed reported that their parents did not know about the gifted program until they told them about it. INSERT TABLE 2 HERESampling Informants We relied on the schools to identify students. In a letter to the school, we requested that consent forms be distributed to a mix of high- and low-achieving, white and minority students. Generally, the group of students interviewed at each school did represent a racial mix (see Table 4). However, the achievement, and in two cases, the grade level, mix at the schools was more limited. For example, all student participants at Kilborn Middle were eighth graders, and twelve of the fourteen participants at Franklin High were eleventh graders. INSERT TABLE 4 HERE Additionally, tOur respondents also tended to be higher achieving students, particularly the white students. Among the 56 white students, only six reported earning grades less than C and only one earned grades below D, and 73 percent were reported that they were academically gifted (see Table 4). The group of black respondents was more diverse, with a mix of high-achieving and average students. a larger Less than half of this group (43%) reported gifted identificationproportion of non gifted students (see Table 4). Overall, there were few low-achieving students among the group; thus we miss the opportunity to learn much about the experience of this group. However, because we are interested in whether high achievement incurs a social cost for black students and whether average and high-achieving black students are intentionally withholding effort, the sample presents an excellent opportunity to address these issues. The schools may have distributed consent forms to the higher achieving students (possibly to have only their "good" students participate), or higher achieving students may have been more likely than others to agree to participate in the study. However, the higher achieving sample, while not ideal, does offer some advantages, because the issue is whether high achieving black students are feeling social pressure to underachieve. What we invariably miss, though, is the opportunity to talk to the real low achievers, who supposedly are engaging in the peer sanctioning. INSERT TABLE 4 HERE Interviews We interviewed only those students with signed consent forms on the day of our visit, a total of between three and sixteen at each school. School staff self-selected into the study based on their availability on the day of our visit. At each school, we interviewed at least one principal or assistant principal, one or two counselors, and at least three teachers. With participant consent, interviews were audiotape recorded. We spoke with school personnel about the selection of courses and programs offered by the school, student placement and course selection processes, student attitudes toward particular courses and achievement, perceptions of and expectations for students, and efforts to increase the participation of minority and low-income students in rigorous courses and programs. Students were asked a standard set of questions addressing issues about their grades, academic placement, which courses they take, how they make those choices, attitudes toward school, learning, achievement, their peers and teachers, and other related aspects of the school experience. The interviews were semi-structured, leaving room for the exploration of other issues and for the order and exact content of questions to vary across interviews. There were no standard questions asked about "acting white" specifically because this was not the focus of the original investigation. However, we did ask a standard set of questions about the respondents’, their friends’, and other students’ reactions to high- and low-achieving students and placement in rigorous courses and programs. We also collected information from students on parent education and occupation; however, some of it seems unreliable (see Table 5). Many respondents, especially the younger students, were not sure what type of work their parents did (e.g., "She works at the mill.") or how far they went in school. The NCDPI study did not contain individual-level SES data. INSERT TABLE 5 HERE This article is based on analysis of the interview data, primarily student interviews. We conducted interviews with 125 students in grades one through twelve, 57 teachers, 15 administrators, and 18 counselors. At the elementary level, we interviewed 40 students, of which 13 were black and 3 biracial (see Table 4). We interviewed 24 middle school students and 61 high school students, of which 9 and 31, respectively, were black. Animosity grows and over time and develops from a general concern about arrogance among elementary age students to a more focused concern about academic inequities between status groups among adolescents. Data analysis In the analysis of the interviews for the report to the NCDPI, we noted patterns in the interviews of black respondents’ that had implications for the "burden of acting white" hypothesis. Given the popularity and strength of that theory and our own interest and previous work on the topic, we felt compelled to undertake a more focused analysis of the data. We used two methods of textual analysis, manual and computer-based. Based on the themes we identified in the analysis for the NCDPI report, we began by rereading (with two new research assistants) hard copies of the student interview transcripts guided by the following questions such as: How do students talk about being smart or high achieving, being seen as such, and being in gifted or other high ability courses? Are there differences or similarities among students across the three school levels? Is there a difference between the ways in which black and white students talk about being smart, being seen as smart, and being in gifted and other high ability courses? Again, the "burden of acting white" asserts that black students perceive high achievement to be at odds with authentic blackness and that this tension creates a dilemma for the group that contributes to academic underachievement. Thus, we were interested in learning more about the achievement orientation and social experiences of black students across these eleven schools.Is there a gender difference? Is a racial or gender difference present among the youngest students? Each research assistant and one of the authors read the transcripts and coded interviews on factors such as perceptions of students in particular courses and programs, self-perceptions, friends’ encouragement and support for academic endeavors, friend and peer response to achievement, and reasons students give for taking particular classes. Coders individually summarized each interview on these factors and highlighted the corresponding dialogue. Next, coders summarized the set of interviews by race and school level and included quotes that best illustrated each interpretative point. The three coders were in agreement in almost all interpretations and generally chose the same quotes to illustrate particular points. We then identified the dominant patterns across the interviews. What types of comments were repeated across interviews? Which respondents made which comments? What do the respondents have in common? Another level of analysis was done using the qualitative software program ATLAS.ti, which allows for easier organization and use of textual data files. It was particularly useful for the comparative analyses that we undertook. For example, once coded we could simultaneously search all 125 transcripts for the term "acting white" or "smart," identify which respondent at which school used the term and how, and include counts of the usage in one or more interviews if we chose to do so. This program also allowed us easy access to quotes linked to particular codes and to identify exceptions to the patterns we identified. In short, we could easily identify the interviews which did not contain a particular theme and then try to understand why. The goal of this analysis, though, is to capture the achievement and related social experiences of students, their understanding of those experiences, and the context in which they occured in an effort to illustrate the process by which a "burden of acting white" may develop. Presentation of results Analysis of student interviews at the eleven schools revealed that few of the 53 black respondents had encountered charges of acting white specifically because of high academic achievement. While we do find other references to acting white, they are not specific to achievement. We also find a pattern of animosity among white students at many of the schools that is connected to a perception that high-status groups occupy high academic position in the schools. We note similarities in this pattern to the development of a burden of acting white that have not been appreciated by researchers. First, wWe first present our results regarding the achievement orientation of black students to address the question of the existence of a "burden of acting white" among black students. We present the results by school level because this affords a meaningful distinction for understanding the development of a "burden of acting white" as students go through school. We include white students in the analysis to address the question of black-white differences in achievement orientation. We then describe a problem of animosity that exists for both blacks and whites in specific schooling contexts, which helps us to better understand how a "burden of acting white" appears to develop for students. present the findings related to the theme of animosity to show how such a burden might originate and argue that differences in values related to group culture do not explain the burden of acting white. We propose an alternative understanding of this phenomenon to shed light on the contradictory research findings on the topic, and the development, more generally, of an oppositional peer culture among blacks. ACHIEVEMENT ORIENTATION AMONG BLACK STUDENTS Young Black Students’ Achievement Orientation Both black and white students at the elementary level desired high achievement and to be perceived as "smart" by others. As we learned from these respondents, participating in the gifted program was one of the best ways to achieve that goal. Of the thirteen black elementary school respondents, only four were in the gifted program, two at Holt and one at each of the other schools. With the exception of one black first grade student, every respondent, gifted or not, was aware of the gifted program and had a sense of its significance. Furthermore, contrary to the notion that doing well in school causes psychic distress for black students (Fordham and Ogbu 1986; Horvat and Lewis 2003; McWhorter 2003), none of the thirteen black elementary school students interviewed reported peer problems related to high achievement. Instead they reported they received only support for their achievements from friends and peers, as long as they did not brag, a point to which we return later. Participation in the gifted program was highly valued among the young students. Just one black student, a fifth grader at Inkwell, was not particularly interested in participating in the gifted program. When we asked Mikalya whether she wanted to participate in the program, she answered: "Yes, but it doesn’t really matter." The only explanation she gave for this was that she did not want to leave her class to go to another teacher for the special program. That two of the friends Mikalya mentioned hanging out with at school were in the gifted program, though, suggests that she did not view achievement negatively. Moreover, as Mikalya proudly informed us, she, and two of her other friends, were on the school’s honor roll. All of the other black respondents who did not participate in gifted programs expressed a desire to do so, and those who perceived themselves as smart thought they belonged in the program. Most thought that the program would be fun, but more importantly, they saw participation in the gifted program as confirmation of one’s intelligence. Ria, a black sixth grader at Holt (DI=0.00), told us she wanted to participate in the program because "they [are], uhm, like, advanced math students who are, like, smart and I feel that I should be in it because I think I’m smart." Mae, another black student at Holt, made similar comments and seemed perplexed by her exclusion from the gifted program. She imagined her teacher would describe her as an "intelligent, smart student that works very hard [and] that tries to do her best." Mae explained why she wanted to be in the gifted program: Mae told us that she made 3’s and 4’s on the end of grade (EOG) test, which is one of the instruments schools use to screen for possible giftedness. Kyra, a black third grade student at Inkwell, expressed a similar desire to participate in her school’s gifted program. Interviewer: Are you in the AG program? Interviewer: …Have you ever been tested for AG? Do you know? Kyra: No I haven’t. But I need to be, I want to be tested. Because I really wanna be in AG. It sounds pretty cool. The comments of these students undermine theany argument that the underrepresentation of black students in gifted programs at the elementary level in North Carolina is explained by negative attitudes toward school or achievement or fear of being perceived as acting white by other black students. The black students in this sample study were no less achievement oriented than the white students we interviewed who were mostly gifted students. These data support previous studies showing that elementary age black students desire achievement and perceive themselves as intelligent (Entwisle and Alexander 1989; Tyson 2002). The students did not appear to experience much self-consciousness about being seen as smart at this early stage, and they generally reported receiving support from their friends for their achievements. Among those few black students we interviewed who were participating in their school’s gifted program we heard only excitement and pride. Robert, a fifth grader at Georgetown, thought he "hit the big time." Interviewer: Do you think you belong in the AG class? Robert: Ahumm. Interviewer: How come? Robert: Umm… it is only for intelligent persons. Because I’m a intelligent person…. Interviewer: What did you think when you first found out that you were recommended for Robert: My… well my mom and dad were really excited. Interviewer: Okay! What did you think? Robert: I thought, "Wow I hit the big time." Interviewer: What do you mean by that? Robert: I must be really smart to be taken in here. Not only was Robert excited by his achievement, so, too, he told us, were his parents. None of the black students we interviewed suggested that academic achievement might cause problems for them among their peers, families, or in their neighborhoods. When we asked respondents how their family and people at church reacted to the news of their being in a gifted program, two of the students reported that people were proud or happy for them; the other student reported that no one asked him about it. Kris, the only black student participating in the gifted program at Holt, and his parents, were as excited as Robert and his parents about participating in the program. Kris told us that his parents were happy for him because they "knew he wanted to be in AG for a long time and they took it like [he] just one a million dollars or something." The comments of these students are not consistent with theories that posit that black students learn ambivalence toward academic achievement in their communities (Fordham and Ogbu 1986). There is no hint of ambivalence in the gifted students’ words and no indications that any family, friends or peers were displeased about the student’s accomplishment. None of the thirteen black or three biracial (with one black parent) elementary school students interviewed ever mentioned the term "acting white" in any context (although one white student at Georgetown did mention that black students accused her of "trying to act black" when she used slang) or gave indications of attitudes oppositional to school achievement. Rather than opposition to achievement, we found that the younger black students in this study held positive attitudes toward school and achievement. We did not find a relationship between Tthe level of racial disparity in achievement and academic placement in a school and did not appear to affect the young black children’s understandings of smartness or privilege. as it seemed to do among older students. We believe, as others have suggested, that race may not yet be as salient a category for grade school children (Spencer 1984; Tyson 2002). For example, the elementary school students rarely identified people or patterns by race, even when probed for descriptions. Interviewer: If I looked at the group of students that was in your AIG class, describe Henry, a white student at Georgetown (DI=.51), describes students by various characteristics, but does not mention race. It may be that all of the students named are also white, therefore, as scholars of race have noted, race is invisible in this context, whiteness is the norm, a taken for granted characteristic, not seen or named (Dyer 1997). Yet because the black elementary school students described students in similar ways, without referencing race, we believe that the invisibility of race among the younger students also has to do with maturity. This is not to say that the young students did not "see" race, for we know from their teachers that they did. For instance, a few teachers interviewed at Georgetown mentioned that students, even as early as kindergarten, recognized that many of the "smart" children were white, and the teachers expressed concerns about the impact this pattern had on the self-esteem of minority children. Young students may have recognized the patterns of achievement by race, but they were less likely than their older counterparts to acknowledge or articulate concerns or beliefs about the patterns to strangers. Perhaps the young students were old enough to know that racialized speech could get them into trouble, yet not sophisticated enough to know how to "do" race appropriately (Van Ausdale and Feagin 2001). Black Pre-adolescents’ Achievement Orientation Among the 24 middle school respondents at Kilborn and Jackson, there is a pattern similar to that among the younger students. Both black (n=9) and white students (n=12) continued to express a desire to participate in the gifted program, but that desire now was tempered by concern about taking on too much work. Four of the black middle school students interviewed participated in gifted programs (three at Jackson), and among those who did not, some were enrolled in advanced courses such as pre-Algebra (7th grade) and Algebra (8th grade). While the gifted program in elementary school was perceived as "fun" and "challenging," in middle school, students were more likely to perceive the program as involving extra and more difficult work. With classes now getting more difficult and schedules including more extracurricular activities, students were slightly less interested in taking on the additional work. Shandra, a black seventh grade student at Jackson (DI=.18), gave the following response when asked if she ever wanted to be in the gifted class: "Well, not really because I’m lazy and you have to do more projects and stuff, but besides the projects, yes." Shandra expressed no objection to participating in the gifted program on grounds other than the expectation of additional work. Reporting grades of A’s and B’s and enrolled in the seventh grade pre-algebra class, Shandra did not appear to reject to academic achievement. When asked if she knew what it would take to be in the gifted program, another non gifted black student at Jackson, Evelyn, responded: Evelyn explained that the gifted identification process "kind of confuses" her: Evelyn also mentioned that she knew some students who had not passed the test but were asked by the gifted teacher if they wanted to be in program "and they said yes, so now they’re in it." Both Shandra and Evelyn expressed some ambivalence about participating in the gifted program at their middle school, but not for reasons related to fear of the social consequences of excelling academically. As Evelyn pointed out, she had (as had Shandra) done well enough to be placed in the pre-Algebra class, and her grades were just as good as her peers. Two other black girls at Jackson who were not identified as gifted were unequivocal in their desire to participate in the gifted program in middle school. There were two gifted female respondents at Jackson identified as gifted, one seventh and one eighth grader. For one student, isolation from peers of similar background in the accelerated classes was a concern. We asked Crystal, the only minority student in her eighth grade gifted class, if she hangs out with students in the class outside of class. She said, "Only a couple," explaining that she doesn’t "get along" with some of them "at all." She called these students "the other group…the preps" and added that "some can be snotty at times." According to Crystal the preps are "rich people," "white," and "they, like, live in the Winston neighborhood." Crystal’s narrative indicates that she perceived many of the other gifted students to be very different from her, but she did not seem to allow it to bother her enough to opt out of the class. The seventh grader was one of two minority students in her gifted classes and she reported that she liked her classmates. We interviewed two black boys at Jackson, Marc, participating in the gifted program, and Les, not participating. The latter, a seventh grader, reported dropping out of the gifted program "because, like, some of the things I couldn’t get it" so he decided to "start back on general - on the basics." He also opted to take general math instead of pre-Algebra when he had the chance. However, his grades were not as good as most of the other black participants’ grades (his included Cs and an F). On the other hand, Marc, a seventh grader, reported that in the sixth grade he requested, on his own initiative, to be tested again for gifted placement (he had not qualified in elementary school). Interviewer: So who recommended you in sixth grade to take the test again? Marc insisted that his decision was not influenced by anyone, not even his parents. According to Marc, he took the tests (IQ and achievement) to hold himself "to a higher standard." At the same time, though, he opted not to take any honors courses. The course choice decisions black students are making here appear to have more to do with their perceptions of the workload and their perceptions of their own weaknesses and capabilities (for example Marc’s lowest grade, a D, was in math, which could explain his hesitance to take the advanced math class). Nothing in these young people’s statements allude to ambivalence about achievement or fear of peer sanctioning for the same. At Kilborn we interviewed one black student, Pelham. Pelham came into Kilborn as a gifted student and continued to take advanced courses, including the pre-Algebra/Algebra sequence and the available AP classes (for which he would earn high school credits), and boasted a GPA of 3.8. Pelham may not represent the general experience of the small black population at Kilborn, but his narrative is not very different from the black students at Jackson. For instance, he reported that his friends had no reaction to his being in the gifted program in elementary or middle school, or his taking honors classes. Yet, as one of only two black students in his gifted classes, Pelham reported feeling "a little bit odd" when the topic of one class was slavery; he felt as thought everyone was looking at him. He also reported having similar experiences in the gifted program in elementary school. In middle school, though, Pelham described an incident in his language arts gifted class in which they were enacting a scene from the Civil War and some of the white students, as a joke, made a flag "with three Ks on it." Pelham was not amused, and he told the students as much. Pelham’s comments represent one of the few instances in which middle school students discussed issues of race, but in each case, the topic was raised by the interviewer rather than the respondent. Like the elementary school students, middle school students did not identify students according to race when they were asked to describe people. However, with the older group we introduced the topic of race late in the interview, usually in inquiring how different groups got along at the school. Among the black middle school students, Crystal, Marc and Pelham were the only ones who discussed race, and Marc was the only non high school student among the respondents to mention "acting white." The students’se findings narratives indicate that although students they may not raise the topic of race, they are aware of it. For example, if we had not specifically asked about race, Crystal would may not have told us that she was the only minority student in her gifted class or that the preps were white. Does this mean that race was not salient to these youngsters? Given how Pelham described his experience and that he even remembered feeling awkward when the topic was slavery in the gifted program in elementary school, we doubt that, but it does suggest that we may have missed something by not directly asking younger students about race. Again, Marc was the only student to refer to issues related to acting white, but he was careful to say that the term was only used with respect to the language students used or activities in which they engaged, excluding school. He acknowledged being the target of some teasing from other black students, but was quick to add that it was not related to his being in the gifted program. The discussion is worth quoting at length. Interviewer: Okay. So do black students tease you sometimes? Marc: Sometimes. Interviewer: What about AG? It is unlikely that Marc’s experience was unique. Because none of the seven other black respondents at Jackson, those identified as gifted and those not, reported any social (as opposed to academic) fear or ambivalence with respect to advanced classes or achievement, we are inclined to believe Marc’s assessment that the things that are associated with acting white at Jackson have little to do with achievement per se. Thus, in the middle schools, again we find no evidencethere is little support for regarding a "burden of acting white" with respect to achievement among black students. Two points are becoming clear in middle school: there is evidence that (1) previous achievement and self-perceptions of ability affect are connected to students’ course choice decisions, (where available); and (2) racial isolation in advanced classes begins to be a problem for black students. Black Adolescents’ Achievement Orientation In addition to regular academic courses, each high school in this study offers AP, honors, and dual enrollment courses (see Tables 1 and 2). Banaker High School, which was 88 percent black at the time of the study, also offered an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. A few schools also offered college prep classes. Most schools offered an average of six AP courses per year, but Avery offered just three and Banaker offered ten. All six high schools offered AP English along with at least two of the following: AP Biology, AP History, AP Calculus. At least one AP course of the four at Banaker, East, Avery, and Franklin approached parity in minority representation (DI score ≥ .90). At Banaker, although underrepresented in each course under investigation relative to their enrollment in the school, blacks nonetheless comprised a majority in each course. At Clearview and Dalton, DI scores did not exceed .28 in any AP course (Table 1). At Dalton, with a forty percent black population at the time of the study, black students comprised less than ten percent of each AP course, and two of the courses had no black students. DI scores for the honors courses at Dalton also were low, .15 and .31 (Table 2). The situation was only slightly better at Clearview, where blacks comprised 60 percent of the student body but less than 20 percent of the three AP courses offered; however, blacks fared better in the honors courses (Table 2). The black high school students in this study, similar to their younger counterparts, desired high achievement. Respondents believed in the achievement ideology; they expressed a sense that doing well in school has important consequences for later outcomes, including getting into a "good college" and getting a "good job." The desire to do well was unmistakable among black adolescents; however, what that meant varied for individuals. For some black students, doing well meant taking higher level courses to improve college options and/or grade point averages. James: Almost every, every class that was honors that I could take, I took. Interviewer: And how did that come to be? James: Well it started out with I just wanted to achieve, wanted to excel, I want to go to college. I wanted to go to Chapel Hill, so I knew that I had to achieve, so I ~~~ Interviewer: When your mom and dad were helping you pick out classes and you Tyler: I wanted to stay ahead academically, you know, having a, have an edge on ~~~ Interviewer: O.K., and in, now that you’ve been in high school why did you choose to take the Tamela: Well I’m, I mean, I like challenges. You know what I’m sayin? I don’t like to For other students, not quite confident that they could do well in accelerated classes, the desire to do well meant selecting easier courses. Interviewer: And I understand you’ve got some choice in terms of what kinds of classes you Paul: They’re easier. (laughs) … Interviewer: ...OK. And you’re not in the honors program— Paul: No ma’am. Interviewer: Because... Paul: It’s easier. Interviewer: Do you like being in those college prep classes? Paul: Yes ma’am. Interviewer: Why? What do you like about it? Interviewer: Now where do the black kids fit into this group (achievement), into this group that you Interviewer: How come? Pauline: I don’t know. Maybe they feel they can’t do it or something. The people that I’m Interviewer: And why do you think they feel that way? Interviewer: What do teachers tell you about honors classes? Pauline: That they’re real hard, it’s more work, it’s more challenging and it’s weighted There appears tomay be a "cooling-out" process operating for some students such that; by the time they reach high school many are resigned to their earlier academic placement, believing that they are not capable of advanced work and that they belong in lower level classes (Karabel 1972). According to Entwisle and Hayduck (1978), children have "fairly stable self-images by the end of 3rd grade." For the students in this study, and across the state more generally, that timing coincides with gifted identification, as most testing occurred in the third grade. Being identified as gifted served as a powerful indicator of intelligence for students. Once labeled, gifted students believed they were smarter than the average student and required more "challenging" curricula material than regular courses offered. As other researchers have noted, these labels are usually relatively static (Entwisle and Alexander 1989). The self-assessments of the following students are similar to that of other gifted respondents. Interviewer: Do you think that you belong in the honors classes? Shawn: Yes. Interviewer: How come? Shawn: Because I’m smart enough to handle all the classes I have. I just feel like I want a ~~~ Students who had not been gifted identified were less likely to seek to an academic "challenge." For instance, students who had not previously been identified as academically gifted were significantly less likely to be enrolled in AP courses than other students. These students expressed greater self-doubt and less confidence in their ability than gifted students. Pauline: Sometime I felt like I did, and sometimes I felt like I didn’t. And I guess at Interviewer: Why have you selected the course of study that you have here at Clearview High? Interviewer: In what ways? Ronnie: OK, I took carpentry. In carpentry I build stuff. I was hoping maybe if stuff Among the 31 black high school respondents, only four of the fourteen non-gifted students had ever taken an AP course, compared to eleven of the seventeen gifted students (29% and 65%, respectively). While all of the gifted students had taken at least one honors course, the same was not true for non-gifted students. Five of the fourteen non gifted blacks never had taken any advanced courses. The interviews revealed nothing to suggest that reluctance to enroll in advanced courses among these black students was connected to an oppositional peer culture. Rather, reluctance was connected to students’ self-perceptions of ability, informed to a large degree by the schools’ labeling of giftedness. None of the black students at Avery, Franklin, Banaker, East or Clearview reported problems with black peers related to high achievement. In fact, generally, they reported receiving support for academic accomplishments and striving, especially among friends, just as the black females in Horvat and Lewis’s (2003) study did. One AP/IB teacher at Banaker reported that her regular instruction students "looked up to" the IB students because they "appreciated" the fact that those courses were tough and "admired" the students who were able to meet the challenges of the program. Respondents at the predominantly black Banaker, in particular, dismissed any suggestion that high achieving black students were ostracized by their peers: We pressed our black respondents on the question of peer and friend response to achievement to be sure that we were not missing some part of their experience. Some of our respondents found our questions about this somewhat amusing, because it simply was not an issue among their friends and peers. Zora: No. Interviewer: Not at all? Nobody ever says anything? Zora: No. (Laughs) Interviewer: OK, how about— Zora: Because a lot of them take them too. So, I mean, we don't talk about it. Interviewer: Right. OK, how about students just around the school, not necessarily the Zora: Naw. (Little laugh) Interviewer: Nothing? Why do you keep laughing? Zora: It’s just funny, I mean, we don't talk about that. (Avery High, junior) Interviewer: How do your friends—how do your friends react to your being in college Paul: We never talk about it. Interviewer: OK. And how do you feel about them being, you know, those who are in Paul: We never talk about it. (Avery; junior) Comments from school personnel supported the students’ reports. A n new assistant principal at Avery said commented that she had not seen as much peer pressure to underperform among minority students at this school as she had seen at her previous schoolelsewhere. At these five high schools, the interviews revealed no evidence of peer sanctions for high achievement among black students. In fact, the black students welcomed public recognition of their achievement; some even sought it. Whitney, a black senior at Avery, reported taking honors classes solely for the purpose of meeting the requirements of the North Carolina Scholars Program so that she could "get recognition at graduation plus a seal on your diploma that you took all these classes." We heard similar comments: Interviewer: And what is that? We did discover, though, that black high school students were teased about achievement or being smart, but in most cases it was perceived to be in jest (except at Dalton). Thus, being made fun of for high achievement did not always constitute a problem for the black students. This experience was similar to those shared by white adolescents. For example, a white AP student at Avery described for us her friends’ reaction to her taking multiple AP courses: Comments from other white students indicate that academic striving is not considered the norm among white adolescents. Thus, contrary to the belief that white students generally have superior standards for achievement and excel academically, which the "burden of acting white" and oppositional peer culture hypotheses imply, the experiences of our white respondents illustrate that high achieving whites face similar ridicule and ostracism from their peers because of their achievement behavior that black students do, and at times also have difficulty coping with that situation. One of the most acrimonious accounts of an experience of ridicule among whites was reported by Hannah, a senior at Clearview. Hannah: I don’t know. There are a couple of girls [who] really just don’t like us because [of] who we are, like, sports and smart and stuff. And like, I’ve had people, like, Interviewer: Do you think a lot of people see you that way? Hannah: No, because I’m wild. Interviewer: Wild, how? Hannah: I don’t try to act, it’s like I still want to be Hannah, I don’t try to be like arrogant and everything in front of everybody else, like I’ll be the first one to declare, "I’m going to write on this desk," or "I’m stupid," I don’t try that arrogance….. Hannah, who described herself as one of the "normal" people but admitted that other people might see her as "preppy," spent much of the interview lamenting how she had fallen short of her quest to be number one in her class and had to settle for number ten. With statements such as, "I never had to study…I always got hundreds and that’s all I cared about," it was not hard to see why other students might find her arrogant, even as she attempted to downplay that by acting "wild" in school. Interestingly, Hannah’s strategy was similar to that ascribed to the black students in the Fordham and Ogbu (1986) article. Although it is not clear that Hannah intentionally acts "wild," to camouflage her achievement, she does admit that that behavior deflects attention from her achievement striving and reminds people that she is not "perfect." Hannah is well aware that arrogance will not win her any friends. Across the six high schools, we would have expected to find more anti-achievement attitudes and evidence of peer-sanctioning of high achievement among the 31 black respondents than we did among the younger respondents. However, we found very little of this. Only at one high school, Dalton, was there any mention of "acting white" and peer problems related to high achievement for black students. We discuss the process by which this problem may have developed in the next section. BREEDING ANIMOSITY Hannah was not the only high achieving student concerned with appearing arrogant to her peers and being disliked because of it. In our interview with Mae, a black third grader at Holt, she hesitated before calling herself intelligent because, she said, "I don’t like to brag on myself much." Mae had learned that bragging on yourself around your friends could make them angry. She described an incident in which a friend was in that situation. Interviewer: So why do you think the other kids got angry? Mae: Because they don’t like to hear the other kids brag on so much and the Mae’s comments informs us that being smart is valued, but it is precisely because of its value that the uneven distribution, particularly through the designation of giftedness, becomes a problem among friends or peers; for everyone wants to be "smart." Jealousy and other problems of animosity are most likely to arise among students when those fortunate enough to possess or have access to the desired "personal quality" that merits the rewards of the system are perceived to be arrogant (Sen 2000). When we asked Tiffany, a white gifted student at Inkwell, what her friends thought of her being in the gifted program, she said, "They’re fine with it," and that "some of them don’t even know." She added: "I’m not real big on sharing it with anybody or bragging about it…" When we inquired about her friends and observed that she seemed to have friends in every grade, Tiffany told us that she does not get along with some students "because they think they’re better than everybody else…" Tiffany was clearly aware that there are negative consequences to bragging and appearing arrogant, as she herself disliked other students who displayed such behavior. We asked Kevin, a white gifted student at Holt about how students who were not in the gifted program reacted to his being in the program, he responded, "They’re sort of jealous." He told us they said things to him such as: "You need to do normal work. You need to stay in class," which he, understandably, interpreted as jealousy. Kris, the only black gifted student at Holt, also reported that other students reacted to his being in the gifted program with jealousy, though he did not explain how. While other people’s jealousy may be harmless if ignored, it is sometimes hard to ignore and can lead to feelings of guilt. Josh, a white fifth grader in the gifted program at Holt, expressed some guilt as well as anxiety about his achievement and the consequences for his relationships: As Josh’s statement indicates, concerns about alienation and ostracism due to high academic achievement are not peculiar to black students. If smart or high achieving students appear conceited or arrogant, envy or jealousy can turn to animosity as others express their hurt feelings. However, in the absence of conceit and arrogance, smart and high-achieving students are usually admired and supported by friends and peers, like Tiffany. Horvat and Lee’s (2003) work with high achieving black females substantiates this view. Hurt results in the face of boastfulness or arrogance because the value of high achievement and being smart is not lost on students; they are well aware of the advantages that accrue to the smart and high achieving. For younger students the advantages include having family members be proud of you (and consequently reward you), winning awards, and leaving the classroom for special instruction. Adolescents also recognize these advantages, but the consequences for adult outcomes are becoming increasingly important. These students understand what researchers know: track location has implications for college access, and subsequently, better occupational opportunities (Lucas 1999). For older students the stakes are higher, thus the animosity, apparently, becomes more intense. We found tThe theme of arrogance to bewas more pronounced among adolescents, and to included distinctions based on race and social class, which were missing in the narratives of elementary age students. Black students were more likely to reference racial distinctions than whites. Among whites, discussions focused on wealth or social class. At Jackson Middle, where the DI score was .18 and the income gap between whites and blacks was largest among the counties, there was evidence of some race-based animosity among blacks, as well as social class-based animosity among whites. Recall the comments of the black students at Jackson, particularly Marc’s comment that blacks at his school think that blacks who act white "don’t care about everybody else that’s black" or Crystal’s comments about the "snotty" white prep girls in her gifted class. Marc, like Crystal, also mentioned "preps" in the interview when asked about the different groups at his school. His description of them: "people that put themselves higher than—that think they’re better than everybody else" again highlights the concern with arrogance. It is not entirely clear that these comments are specifically related to achievement distinctions among the students, but given that the "preps" tend to be in the accelerated classes, they very well may be. Other black students at Jackson also made reference to the arrogance of others, e.g., "Girls that are jealous of o |