John Ogbu has studied minority education from a comparative perspective for more than 30 years. The study reported in this book - jointly sponsored by the community and the school district in Shaker Heights, 0hio - focuses on the academic performance of Black American students. Not only do these students perform less well than White students at every social class level, but also less well than immigrant minority students, including Black immigrant students. Furthermore, both middle-class Black students in suburban school districts as well as poor Black students in inner-city schools are not doing well. Ogbu's analysis draws on data from observations, formal and informal interviews, and statistical and other data. He offers strong empirical evidence to support the cross-class existence of the problem. Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb is an important book for a wide range of researchers, professionals, and students, particularly in the areas of Black education, minority education, comparative and international education, sociology of education, educational anthropology, educational policy, teacher education, and applied anthropology.

I Black Academic Achievement and Its Explanations

Ch. 1. Black-White Academic Achievement Gap
Ch. 2. Academic Disengagement in Shaker Heights
Ch. 3. Explaining the Academic Gap; Conventional and Alternative Explanations

II Societal and School Factors

Ch. 4. Race Relations
Ch. 5. Pygmalion in History, Society, and School
Ch. 6. Leveling
Ch. 7. Counselors, Teachers, and Discipline

III Community Forces

Ch. 8. Opportunity Structure: Schooling and Getting Ahead
Ch. 9. Collective Identity, Culture, and Language
Ch. 10. Peer Pressures
Ch. 11. The Family
Ch. 12. Community Forces and Academic Disengagement: A Summary of Findings
Ch. 13. Policy Implications