AGI Topics

AGI Positive Youth Peer Cultures Projects

In 2008, the AGI launched a new forum series called “Raps on the Gap”. The goal of these forums is to engage students, faculty and other members of the Harvard community in responding personally to the achievement gap challenge. At each event, focused, cross-disciplinary presentations by guest speakers are followed by facilitated audience discussions.

The AGI “Love-to-Read” survey project was inspired by a participant in the AGI Parent Leadership Network, seeking reading suggestions for his children. Using survey responses from students at Harvard and other universities, the AGI will compile annotated booklists from which teachers, parents, and children can select books that respondents report helped inspire their passion for reading. A particular emphasis is to identify works that help adolescents better understand issues of racial, gender, and social class identity. During the next phase of the project, a much larger number of students at Harvard and other universities will be invited to complete the survey.

Adolescents desire few things more than social acceptance. However, as individuals, they have quite limited power to reset rules by which social acceptance is granted. Schools participating in "The Conspiracy to Succeed" project invite students and adults to combine their power in an effort to reset the rules – both formal rules and informal social norms – that affect behaviors at school and help to determine success not only in school, but for a lifetime. Two dozen schools from several states have registered to join the conspiracy at the kickoff in September 2009. Some of the most impressive examples of activities and progress from participating schools will be featured at the AGI annual conference at Harvard University in June 2010. Contact us at agi@harvard.edu for more information.

Video Presentations on Positive Youth Peer Cultures

Title	Presenter(s)	Date	Realplayer format	PowerPoint
Fitting in matters: markers of in-group belonging and academic outcomes academic outcomes	Daphna Oyserman	June 2007	video	powerpoint
Hip-Hop and self-esteem	Ronald Ferguson	June 2007	video	powerpoint
Acting White: Realities, Myths & Challenges	Ronald Ferguson, Roland Fryer	March 2006	video
An Empirical Analysis of ‘Acting White’	Roland Fryer	June 2006	video
Closing the Nation's Racial Achievement Gaps I	Prudence Carter, Ronald Ferguson, Mica Pollock	May 2005	video
Helping High School Dropouts Make Sense of their Lives and Transition into Productive Adulthood.	Robert Clark	June 2007	video
Hip Hop Music and School Success	Steve Perry, J-Live	February 2008	video
How enriched images of possible selves enhance school engagement: evidence from an experiment	Daphna Oyserman	June 2007	video	powerpoint
How Instruction and Peer Culture Affect Student Engagement in Several Domains: Evidence from the Tripod Project	Ron Ferguson	June 2007	video	powerpoint
Last Year’s Conference and How We’re Building On What We Learned	Ronald Ferguson	June 2007	video	powerpoint
Messages in the Music: How Rap Lyrics both Encourage and Discourage School Engagement.	Travis L. Gosa	June 2007	video
MOVING STORIES: Educational Pathways of Immigrant Youth	Carola Suarez-Orozco	June 2006	video
Oppositional Cultures among White Students: The Quest for Popularity and Normative Hegemony in America	Michael Bishop	June 2006	video	powerpoint
Race, Politics and Sex: Understanding the Attitudes and Behaviors of African American Youth	Cathy Cohen	June 2007	video	powerpoint
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Home Intellectual Lifestyles	Ronald Ferguson	June 2006	video	powerpoint
Racial and SES Differences in School Behavior, Engagement and Time on Homework	Ronald Ferguson	June 2006	video	powerpoint

Papers on Positive Youth Peer Cultures

Title & Abstract	Author(s)	Date
A Neo-Darwinian Rational-Choice Theory of Academic Engagement Norms: The Struggle for Popularity and Normative Hegemony in Secondary Schools
	John H. Bishop, Michael M. Bishop	2006	paper
An Empirical Analysis of 'Acting White'
There is a debate among social scientists regarding the existence of a peer externality commonly referred to as ‘acting white.’ Using a newly available data set (the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health), which allows one to construct an objective measure of a student’s popularity, we demonstrate that there are large racial differences in the relationship between popularity and academic achievement; our (albeit narrow)definition of ‘acting white.’ The effect is intensified among high achievers and in schools with more interracial contact, but non-existent among students in predominantly black schools or private schools. The patterns in the data appear most consistent with a twoaudience signaling model in which investments in education are thought to be indicative of an individual’s opportunity costs of peer group loyalty. Other models we consider, such as self-sabotage among black youth or the presence of an oppositional culture, all contradict the data in important ways. “Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.” Senator Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address	Roland G. Fryer, Paul Torelli	May 1, 2005	paper
Are We Barking Up the Wrong Tree? Rethinking Oppositional Culture Explanations for the Black/White Achievement Gap
The Black/White achievement gap is a central concern among educational researchers, policy makers, and the general public. One popular explanation for this gap is the oppositional culture argument. For the past 20 years, researchers have attempted to pinpoint the extent to which African American peer groups devalue educational achievement and ridicule their high achieving peers for “acting white” (Fordham and Ogbu 1986). To date, there is no conclusive evidence that such negative peer pressure is prevalent among Black students or unique to their peer groups. At best, we can say that some small segment of the Black student population experiences race-specific negative peer pressure. In light of this research, the author advocates moving beyond traditional cultural explanations for the Black/White achievement gap. Instead, he argues that more attention be given to the structural, institutional, and symbolic disadvantages that shape the racialized educational terrain that Black students navigate.	John B. Diamond	June 2006	paper
Hip-Hop Folk Theories of Social Mobility Without Formal Education: “Drugs, Basketball, & Hip-Hop”
Despite concerns that hip-hop is having a negative impact on the educational achievement of black youth, little is known about achievement-related messages in this youth culture. To investigate, I employ John Ogbu’s “I-R-S” cultural ecological model of student achievement. Using Ogbu’s “oppositional culture” framework, qualitative content analysis is conducted on a large random sample of hip-hop lyrics (n=3,030). My focus is on what lyrics say about social mobility and education (“Instrumental Beliefs”), appropriate and experienced relationships with schools and other societal institutions (“Relational Beliefs”), and issues of race-gender identity and achievement (“Symbolic Beliefs”).<br /> <br /> In this dissertation chapter, I delve deeper into oppositional instrumental themes in the music by exploring hip-hop’s folk theories of social mobility. I examine what rap lyrics say about “making it” in life, the opportunity structure, definitions of success, role modeling, community and parental influences, and general work norms. I find that hip-hop’s dominant folk theory of mobility holds that black youth have only three viable routes to success: drugs, sports, and hip-hop. This narrow vision of the opportunity structure reinforces claims that education does not lead to success in the adult labor market, and that academic achievement is not necessary for getting ahead in life. I argue that these stories of mobility without formal schooling help normalize and legitimize academic disengagement and anti-school norms. While rap lyrics tend to mock working hard at school or regular 9-to-5 jobs, there is a strong work ethic that encourages success in the three spheres through hard work, dedication, and sacrifice.<br />	Travis L. Gosa, Johns Hopkins University	June 05, 2007	paper
Hip-Hop’s Counter-Narrative & Pro-Schooling Messages
The purpose of this chapter is to explore hip-hop’s pro-schooling messages, when and where they can be located in the historical development of hip-hop, and how these voices of dissent challenge aspects of hip-hop’s oppositional “I-R-S” discourse. In doing so, I examine the growing divisions within the hip-hop community(ies). I address increasing concerns that hip-hop is becoming more negative by exploring how achievement-related judgments have changed in the music.<br /> I find that earlier “old school” lyrics appearing before 1994 contain powerful messages about the importance of education and the consequences of dropout. In what I call hip-hop’s pro-schooling parables, these now “old-school” lyrics warn against academic disengagement and leaving school to pursue the street life. While I caution against romanticizing hip-hop before the mid-1990s, I attempt to show how hip-hop’s “gangster turn” has altered the overall tone and achievement-related messages in the music.<br /> In addition to exploring these old school parables, I examine hip-hop’s current countermovement. Armed with autobiographic life lessons, witty insults, hip-hop infused cinema, and logic, these voices of dissent warn about the destructive ideas about achievement and authenticity that are now commonplace in hip-hop. Diverging from pack, these artists warn that eschewing education, selling drugs, and acting like a thug is unwise. Sometimes calling themselves “underground” or “real hip-hop,” these lyricists believe that hip-hop has been hijacked by major label artists and music executives willing to ignore the consequences of selling “lies” to young listeners. Often, these newer artists are teaming up with emcees from the 1980s to reform hip-hop from within. While some high profile artists are vocally opposing the destructive themes in the music, there are reasons to believe that positive messengers are not resonating with black youth.	Travis L. Gosa, Johns Hopkins University	June 05, 2007	paper
Moving Stories: The Educational Pathways of Immigrant Youth
	Carola Suárez-Orozco Marcelo Suárez-Orozco	Feb 2007	paper
New Evidence on Why Black High Schoolers Get Accused of “Acting White”
This research brief draws on new data to identify the behaviors that predict whether a student gets accused of acting white. It challenges the widespread perception that working hard to do well in school is a central reason that black high school students level the accusation at one another. Fordham and Ogbu (1986) is the most seminal source in the research literature for the (mis)perception that this brief challenges. Indeed, most readers of this brief will be familiar with the Fordham and Ogbu thesis, including some of the refinements that the authors offered in later work. However, research is not the only source of the idea. People give personal testimonies, attesting that high achieving black students are often more likely than their low-achieving peers to be the target of the “acting white” accusation. While some recent studies have suggested more complex explanations than mere rejection of high achievement (e.g., Carter, 2005; Tyson, Darity and Castelino, 2005; Horvat and O’Connor, eds., 2006; Fryer, 2005; Fryer and Austen-Smith, 2005), the idea that resentment or rejection of high achievement is the core motivation for the acting white accusation has remained strong without the type of evidence presented in this brief.	Ronald F. Ferguson	September 2006	paper
Pathway to Successful Young Adulthood
The Pathway to Successful Young Adulthood assembles a wealth of fi ndings from research, practice, theory, and policy about what it takes to improve the lives of children, youth and families, particularly those living in tough neighborhoods. By laying out a comprehensive, coherent array of actions, the Pathway informs efforts to improve community conditions within supportive policy and funding contexts. The Pathways framework does not promote a single formula or program. Rather, our emphasis is on acting strategically across disciplines, systems, and jurisdictions to increase the number of young people who make a successful transition to young adulthood. The Pathway provides a starting point to guide choices made by community coalitions, services providers, researchers, funders, and policymakers to achieve desired outcomes for young people and their families.	Lisbeth B. Schorr, Vicky Marchand	August 6, 2007	paper
Performing Well, But Feeling Bad (Nora Broege, Ann Owens, and Barbara Schneider)
This study examines how adolescents' classroom experiences vary by race or ethnicity using data from a subsample of over 800 adolescents from the Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development. Responses to the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), a time diary method in which respondents report their in-the-moment emotional experiences, indicate that a bimodality trend in subjective experiences in the classroom exists: Asian American and White students perform the best yet feel the worst; and Hispanic and African American students perform the worst, yet feel the best. Results suggest that subjective experiences in the classroom are an important but less explored resource in the development of students' academic goals.	Nora Broege, Ann Owens, Barbara Schneider	April 2006	paper
The Construction of Oppositional Culture in Hip-Hop Music: An In-depth Case Analysis of Kanye West and Tupac Shakur
Given the prominent, yet controversial theory of oppositional culture used to explain the poor academic achievement of black youth and recent concerns that hip-hop is leading black youth to adopt anti-school attitudes, we examine the construction of oppositional culture in hip-hop music. Through a qualitative case study of song lyrics (n=250) from two of hip-hop’s most influential artists—“conscious” rapper Kanye West and “gangster” rapper Tupac Shakur, we find oppositional culture in both artists’ lyrics. However, our analysis reveals important differences in how the two artists describe the role of schooling in adult success, relationships with teachers and schools, and how education is related to authentic black male identity. Our findings suggest a need for reexamining the notion that oppositional culture means school resistance.	Travis L. Gosa, Hollie Young, Johns Hopkins University	June 05, 2007	paper