The Influence of Minority Group Cultural Models on Persistence in College

Author(s): Adelbert H. Jenkins, Ernest Harburg, Norman C. Weissberg and Thomas

Donnelly
Source: The Journal of Negro Education , Winter, 2004, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Winter, 2004),
pp. 69-80
Published by: Journal of Negro Education

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3211260

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 The Influence of Minority Groqp Cultural Models on
Persistence in College

Adelbert H. Jenkins, Ernest Harburg, Norman C. Weissberg, and

Thomas Donnelly

In this article rates of attrition and aspects of college performance are compared between
two groups of Black college students in a Northeast urban, commuter college setting. These data
were used as a test of Ogbu's "cultural-ecological" model regarding the effect on educational
achievement of being a "voluntary" or "involuntary" immigrant. Black students whose fathers
were "voluntary immigrants, " that is, those who had not been born in the United States, stayed in
college longer than did Black students whose fathers were native to the United States-
"involuntary immigrants" in Obgu's model. Other selected measures of academic performance
for example, placement tests, were also found to be more predictive for the voluntary immigrant
group. Implications of these results are discussed

In the latter half of the 20th century, America-historically a land of immigrants-has become an
even more pluralistic society due to the influx of people of color of varying ethnic backgrounds.
For example, in California the recent census indicates that non-Hispanic Whites are now a
minority, and it is predicted that during the first half of the 21st century the numbers of those of
non-European backgrounds will exceed those of the hitherto dominant European American
cultural groups (America's Demographic Quilt, 2001; Purdum, 2001). Some people come to the
United States to escape political oppression, but in most cases they come to better the social and
economic prospects for themselves and their families. The general belief is that immigrant or
second generation children will better the family status through educational attainment, and much
emphasis is placed on having their children do well in school in ethnic minority 1 communities.
However, although mostly all parents express the wish that their children do well in school, it
is well known that school achievement varies across ethnic groups (Gibson & Ogbu, 1991). A
number of reasons have been offered to account for this situation. Many scholars and critics cite a
lack of the kinds of cognitive skills in these children necessary to support educational success. For
example, Golden, Birns, Bridger, and Moss (1971) and Golden, Bridger, and Montare (1974) have
suggested that everyday language styles in normal lower-class families contribute to different
cognitive abilities than those of the more successful groups-White and/or middle class. Others,
arguing more broadly, posit that a history of adapting to a color-conscious society has led African

I "Minorities" refers to those persons whose ethnicity puts them into a group with diminished access to power and
resources as compared to the relatively few "culturally dominant" ethnic groups in the society. This generally refers to
most persons of color in the United States-particularly people from or descended from African, Asian, or Hispanic
American countries.

The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 73, No. I (Winter 2004)

Copyright C) 2004, Howard University

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Americans to develop "a unique culture," part of which "includes specific and unique cognitive
strategies" that, while useful in some ways, make the child less ready to deal with the standard
school curriculum (Shade, 1991, p. 231). The work of Boykin (1991), Miller-Jones, (1989), and
Willis (1989) is consistent with this perspective. In addition, defective inner-city schools, which
many of these children attend, have been held up as a factor responsible for the lower educational
performance of minority group students (Comer, 1980; Edmonds, 1986).
Educational anthropologist John Ogbu (1991) takes a somewhat different approach. He
argues that while the above critiques may offer a partial understanding of the problem they do not
take into account all the data about group performance. For example, regarding class differences,
while Black children from middle-class backgrounds do better than children from lower-class
backgrounds, as a group, they still are not as successful in school as middle-class White children
(Ogbu, 1991, 2003). Further, immigrant children from quite different cultural and language
backgrounds than the American middle-class standard have been shown to thrive, even in those
city schools that are considered second-rate in their educational advantages (Ogbu, 1991).
Regarding language differences, Ogbu and Matute-Bianchi (1986) cite evidence to the effect that
students of Asian (Chinese and Japanese) and Mexican heritage in California did poorly in school
in the pre- World War II era because of their lack of English language proficiency, but after a
decade the Asian students were doing very well while the academic difficulties of Mexican
Americans persisted. Regarding ingrained cultural styles and behaviors that might hamper
classroom performance, Ogbu and Matute-Bianchi (1986) note further that children of Punjabi
immigrants in California came to excel in school in spite of coming from a culture where
deference to authority, in the way of not speaking up to or even making direct eye contact with
adults, is stressed. However, despite these particular cultural differences, Punjabi children did
better academically over time than "Anglo" children who had been socialized to be somewhat
more behaviorally engaged with the teacher in classroom situations.
Although such issues of differential group achievement are a particular concern in the United
States, the seemingly paradoxical performance of some minority groups is not just an American
phenomenon. The same kinds of variability in performance among minority groups can be found
in countries outside the United States (Gibson & Ogbu, 1991; Ogbu & Matute-Bianchi, 1986). For
example, even though students of West Indian background in Britain were initially found to be
more familiar with English than were those of "East Asian" heritage, the latter came to do better
academically than the former group (Ogbu & Matute-Bianchi, 1986). Instances of a similar
phenomenon have been demonstrated by "language minorities"-groups presumably
disadvantaged because their language was not the official language of the country in which they
reside. So, for example, native Catalan speakers in Spain, and Chinese and Indian speakers in
Malaysia, have been shown to demonstrate superior academic performance compared to the native
speakers of the official language in those countries (Ogbu & Matute-Bianchi, 1986).
Ogbu (1991) argues further that this is not simply a matter of a stronger genetically endowed
group having immigrated to the new society. In some instances, it can be shown that when viewed
in their country of origin, a given group whose language and culture is relatively consistent with
the dominant group do poorly in school. However, when they emigrate, members of this group do
well in the new country where their language and culture are quite different from that of the
dominant group in the host setting. An example is the case of the lower Buraku caste who do
poorly in school in their native home in Japan, but do as well as the dominant Ippan caste when
they come to live in the United States (Ogbu & Matute-Bianchi, 1986). Thus, the issue of
differences in academic performance is not only a matter of the cultural or cognitive features
members of a particular group bring with them, it is also how they address the situation that they
find in the host society. Ogbu (1991) maintains that conventional explanations fail because they
have given insufficient attention to understanding why minorities behave the way they do from the point of view of
the minorities themselves; instead, they have evaluated the behaviors of minorities from the perspective of the
dominant group's perceptions of their own social reality or from the perceptions and interpretations that the
dominant group members have of the social reality of minorities. (p. 6)

70 The Journal of Negro Education

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That is to say, the typical analysis fails to look through the eyes of these minorities, as it were, and
see the active efforts they expend to adapt to their circumstances as they perceive them. In Obgu's
view, in order to get a more accurate picture of factors involved in group performance differences,
one must introduce what he calls a "cultural model."
For Ogbu (1991), cultural model refers to the idea that in a pluralistic society members of
cultural groups come to develop an understanding over time as to what skills are needed to survive
economically and socially in the society. This conception of how it is possible for them to enhance
their status mobility can be seen as a construction or model of their situation. All groups in a
society-dominant and non-dominant-have such a model. One group's model is not to be
considered better than any other model; such models simply exist. They serve the purpose of
situating and rationalizing a group's existence in their sociocultural context. With specific regard
to educating the children of that group: "The cultural model of each group-minority as well as
majority-exists to provide group members with the framework for interpreting educational
events.. .and experiences and to guide behavior in the schooling context" (p. 7). A critical function
of child rearing practices is to develop the skills children will need to survive and prosper in their
sociocultural context.
In many writings on the topic, Ogbu and his collaborators have distinguished between the
cultural models of two kinds of minority groups, "voluntary" and "involuntary" immigrants (e.g.,
Ogbu, 1991; Ogbu & Matute-Bianchi, 1986). They suggest that two kinds of historical forces have
shaped the cultural model of these groups: (a) the "initial terms of incorporation" into their current
society, and (b) the patterning of their adaptive responses to the discriminatory forces imposed
upon them (Ogbu, 1991). The children of these two kinds of minorities are differentially
successful in school because of the different models their subcultures have developed to adapt to
their host societies.
According to Ogbu (1991), voluntary immigrants are those who came into the host society
voluntarily seeking a better life for themselves and their families. They expect to be discriminated
against because they are culturally different, but discrimination does not seem to interfere with
their achievement efforts. With the family's strong urging and encouragement, children often
overcome language barriers and their anxieties about the unfamiliar setting. The data concerning
the performance of these voluntary immigrants indicate that, as a group, they do very well
academically in comparison to their counterparts, the involuntary immigrants. In the latter group
are people who historically have been brought into the society against their will-by colonization,
slavery, or conquest. They resent the economic and political barriers imposed upon and the
undeserved discrimination levied against them. African Americans born in the United States
represent such a group. Over time, African American schoolchildren in the United States,
observing family members and neighbors, see that educational advantage does not help break
through the arbitrary "job ceilings" imposed by the dominant society. In turn, this leads to
lessened effort in school and the development of an "oppositional" expressive style, which further
hampers academic achievement.

Statement of Purpose

This study tests Ogbu's distinction between voluntary and involuntary immigrant minorities
A sample of self-labeled Black college students at a public urban commuter college in the
northeastern United States are divided into two groups: those whose fathers were born outside the
United States, mostly in the Caribbean, and those whose fathers were born in the United States.
Based on the difference in the cultural models that we believe these two groups bring to their
college experience, we hypothesize that their academic success rates will differ. Specifically, we
predict that those Black students whose fathers are not native to the United States (voluntary
immigrants) will have lower dropout rates from and better performance records during their stay at
an urban college than those whose fathers were born in the U.S. (African Americans or
involuntary immigrants).

The Journal of Negro Education 71

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 It is important to note that the primary criterion for academic success here will be their
persistence in college, from admission until three years later. There is much literature on various
institutional and individual factors involved in college persistence (Bean, 1985; Cabrera, Nora, &
Castaneda, 1993; Elkins, Braxton, & James, 2000; Tinto, 1993). The data indicate that rates of
four-year degree completion in college have remained below 50% for well over a decade (Annual
Retention Study, 2000; Graduation Rate Reports, 2001; Tinto, 1993). White students, however,
are more likely to continue pursuing their degrees than are Blacks and Hispanics (Burton &
Ramist, 2001; Graduation Rate Reports, 2001). We will not be so much interested here in the
factors within the educational organization and individuals that affect remaining in college but
rather the influence on persistence of the wider societal context in which colleges and students
exist. In addition to persistence, we will also look at selected aspects of their academic
performance as it bears on this expectation.

METHOD

A longitudinal design was employed with two waves of data collection. Students who were
admitted to a large Northeast, urban public college as first-time freshmen for the Fall 1985 term
were asked (a) to complete a questionnaire during the advising/registration process conducted in
the summer before classes began that September, and (b) to participate in a follow-up telephone
questionnaire in the Summer and early Fall of 1988. After the advising/registration process ended,
the questionnaires were completed in small group sessions. They were collected by trained student
members of the registration staff who also monitored their administration. The follow-up
telephone interviews were conducted by students who were recruited and rigorously trained to
conduct these interviews by one of the authors. These students were paid for their services. The
data presented in this article came from three sources: (a) the initial questionnaire and the follow-
up questionnaire (given 3 years later); (b) college Placement Tests given at time of admission; (c)
Drop/Stay information obtained from the Registrar's Office.

Sample

The subjects in this study were 146 male and female students whose fathers were either
immigrants of African heritage or African Americans born in the United States. Most of the
former group were from the Caribbean and hence were second generation. The subjects in this
sample were part of a much larger data set of students (most of whom were of European American
background) from the entering class in a large Northeast urban public college.
Although usable questionnaires were collected from 1,007 students, college transcripts were
found for only 971 students, because between Summer registration and Fall classes, 3.5% chose
not to attend. Of these 971, 23 were found to be other than first-time freshmen and were dropped
from the sample. Of the 938 remaining, 63 (6.7%) left the college and returned (i.e., "stopped-
out") at least once between their initial enrollment in Fall 1985 and the start of the Fall 1988 term.
Removing these "stopouts" reduced the N for the first wave of data collection to 875. In the
second wave three years later, 753 of these 875 (86.1%) were contacted and re-interviewed.
Of these 753 students, 509 had self-identified as White and 146 as Black, and the next most
frequent identification was Hispanic (48) followed by Other (30) and Asian (20). All the analyses
reported here were calculated on the Black sample only. In this Black sample, there were no
statistically significant differences between the voluntary group and the involuntary group on such
socioeconomic measures as occupational level of head of household or mother's educational level.

Variables

The variable of persistence (retention or staying in college) was measured by the number of
consecutive semesters, excluding summers, a student remained registered at the college from

72 The Journal of Negro Education

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his/her initial semester in the Fall 1985 term through the Spring 1988 semester-six semesters or
three years. Those students who were not registered for a term or more but did return in later
semesters were not included in our sample.
Admission criteria and scores on such tests used for this study were: (a) high school average
(HSA) which was provided by student records; (b) City University of New York (CUNY)
mathematics assessment test; (c) CUNY reading comprehension test; (d) CUNY writing
assessment test; and (e) college grade point average (GPA) computed for each student at the time
of leaving college or at the end of six semesters. The CUNY tests were not "standardized" in the
technical sense but were in use for many years and thus were the "standard" tests administered to
all entering students. Father's birthplace was obtained by the student's selection from a list of
geographic areas or regions of the world, such as West Indies (Haiti, Dominican Republic,
Jamaica); United States; Canada; and so forth. For all analyses reported, the Pearson Chi Square
test is used which tests whether the variables involved are independent.

RESULTS

Cultural Background and Persistence

The first analysis of academic performance compares the persistence rates of Black students
whose fathers had three different origins of birth: American, Caribbean, and Other (non-
Caribbean) areas. The Caribbean group included the various West Indies locales, Haiti, and the
Dominican Republic. The criterion for persistence was remaining in college for six full semesters
as opposed to dropping out before the end of the sixth semester. Table I shows that there is a
significant difference in college persistence between Black students whose fathers were born
outside of the United States (about 60%) and those Black students whose fathers were born in the
United States (36%).
Those in the former group were more likely to remain in college through six semesters. (This
was true also when mother's birthplace was the independent variable.) When the analysis was
performed with the Caribbean group separated into "Haiti/Dominican Republic" and "Other West
Indies" groups, the results were still significant in the same direction. There were gender
differences in this finding. Males in this sample showed this attrition effect to a degree
approaching the p < .05 level. The result did not achieve significance for the females although the
results were in the same direction.

TABLE I
Percent Retention (After 3 Years) of Black Urban College Students
by Immigrant and African American Background'

AFRICAN

COLLEGE CAREER IMMIGRANTS AMERICAN TOTAL

CARIBBEAN OTHER

Stayed 59%) (46) 62% (13) 36% (17) 52% (76)

Dropped 41% (32) 38% (8) 64% (30) 48% (70)

100% (78) 100% (21) 100% (47) 100% (146)

a Categorized by father's birth place

p < .03

The Journal of Negro Education 73

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 Cultural Background and GPA

In the second analysis of academic performance, the college grade point average (GPA) of
Black students whose fathers were not born in the United States was compared with those of U
paternal heritage (Table 2). It is noteworthy that the GPA levels did not differ significan
between the two groups (data not shown reveal no difference in means and medians of G
frequency curve scores); however, GPA did predict, as expected, persistence in college for bot
groups. In each group those with GPAs above the median clearly tended to remain in coll
85.4% for Blacks of immigrant parentage, and 76.5% for African Americans.

TABLE 2
Percent by Quartiles of College Grade Point Average
of Black Urban College Students by Immigrant and African American Backgrou
IMMIGRANTS AFRICAN

GRADE POINT AVERAGEb (CARIBBEAN/OTHER) AMERICAN TOTAL

< 1.33 21% (20) 35% (20) 26% (35)
1.33-1.96 27% (26) 17% (7) 24% (33)
1.97-2.50 26% (24) 24% (10) 25% (34)
2.51 + 26% (24) 24% (10) 25% (34)
Totals 100% (94) 100% (42) 100%C (136)
a Categorized by father's birth place

b> 1.96 = median; this is less than a C grade.

c Each group had 5 "0" scores on GPA and were re

n.s.; p = .28

Placement Tests

Using the college placement tests given to all freshman students upon matriculation into the
college, we found differences in prediction of retention for the voluntary immigrant and the
involuntary immigrant African American groups. Table 3 data for Black students of voluntary
immigrant background show that scores on the tests of Reading and Writing predicted persistence
for at least six semesters (p < .03 and p < .01, respectively). Performance on the Math placement
test and the students' HSA was in the direction of our expectation that those with better
performance would more often persist in college, but it fell short of significance at ap < .05 level.
For the voluntary immigrant group, strong performance on these four academic indicators tended
to be indicative of persistence. For the involuntary immigrant group, however, there was n
relationship between performance on the Reading or Math tests or HSA and college persistence.
Only the CUNY Writing test predicted retention for the involuntary immigrant African American
group.
In addition, differences between the two Black groups were found with respect to attitudinal
(as opposed to strictly performance) variables, on two items from the follow-up questionnaire
(data not shown). When asked (a) whether they sometimes felt that they needed to leave college at
least temporarily to "get their head together" and (b) whether they sometimes felt they "didn't
belong at [this] College," those from the voluntary immigrant parent group who acknowledged
feeling more self-confidence showed significantly greater persistence than those who expressed
less confidence. But these two items were not significantly predictive of the persistence behavior

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 TABLE 3
Percent of Immigrant and African American Studentsa Retained in College
by Placement Test Scores and High School Averageb
IMMIGRANT

PLACEMENT TESTS (CARIBBEAN/OTHER) AFRICAN AMERICAN

(N= 99) (N= 47)

Below median Above median Below median Above median
CUNY Reading
Drop 51% 30% 69% 57%
Stay 49% 70% 31% 43%
p =.03 n.s.
CUNY Writing
Drop 53% 27% 71% 42%
Stay 47% 73% 29% 58%
p=.Ol p=.Ol
C UNY Math
Drop 48% 33% 62% 67%
Stay 52% 67% 38% 33%
p =.14 n.s.
High School
Average
Drop 49% 33% 59% 69%
Stay 51% 67% 41% 31%
p=.11 n.s.
a Categorized by father's

b All tests of significan

of African American stud

DISCUSSION

The results of this study indicate that Black students whose fathers were voluntary
immigrants to the United States showed more persistence in college than those whose fathers were
in the involuntary immigrant group. This effect was particularly strong among the males in this
sample. The fact that there were no differences between the groups in their academic classroom
performance (GPA) suggests that there were not important differences in overall academic ability
between the two groups. Furthermore, looking more closely at the data we find that academic
factors associated with performance on placement tests for college reading ability and aspects of
academic self-confidence were predictive of staying in college for the voluntary immigrant group
but not for the African American group. (This is more significant for the men than the women.)
Something other than ability seems to account for the differential persistence in college.
These results seem congruent with Obgu's distinction between historically voluntary and
involuntary immigrant minorities. The Black voluntary immigrant group as measured by paternal
birthplace had stronger academic performance as indicated by persistence in college. When they
dropped out, they tended to do so because they had to acknowledge their sense of not being in the
right place and they had to come to terms with their lack of readiness for college as measured by
entrance exams. The fact that Black students from involuntary immigrant backgrounds dropped
out regardless of their preparedness is consistent with a subtly different attitude toward school on
their part. From Obgu's point of view, there is a need to evaluate their educational situation from
their point of view, one that is informed by the appropriate "cultural model."

The Journal of Negro Education 75

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 Rowe, Vazsonyi, and Flannery (1994) have challenged the idea that there are ethnic
differences in developmental influences on academic achievement. They analyzed covariances on
a large pooled data set between variables taken to be influences and those that are developmental
outcomes. They concluded that there are no differences across ethnic groups in presumed
background factors such as emotional and cognitive factors in the home, attitudes toward school
experienced in both home and peer contexts, and a number of other factors that could conceivably
affect achievement. Their data included people of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian backgrounds.
Although Rowe and colleagues cite Ogbu in their review, this work seems to miss Obgu's point.
The fact is that there are differences in performance across groups and there is clearly
discrimination against minority groups. Their study does not seem to address directly differences
in achievement between two sets of minorities (across ethnic background) as a function of their
presumed differences in perception of how discrimination affects them. Further, Rowe et al. does
not take into account the fact that this effect is not just an American phenomenon but, according to
Ogbu (1991), can be seen in various other cultures around the world. Rowe (2001), who favors
"nature" in the age-old "nature/nurture" controversy, would probably look for a genetic factor in
the performance of immigrant minorities. As noted earlier, Ogbu (1991) argues that this notion is
weakened by the fact that some immigrants come to a host country from backgrounds of low
academic achievement but excel in the new setting. Furthermore, in this present study, there was
no difference in ability as measured by college GPA between the Black voluntary immigrant and
the involuntary immigrant African American groups.
The relative weakness of some of the traditional academic predictors for African Americans
is congruent with a cultural model which provides them with more doubt about the usefulness of
schooling as a mechanism for achieving status mobility in this society. They come from
communities where they are exposed to the traditional messages about the usefulness of education,
frequently transmitted to them by parents and relatives. At the same time, they are aware of the
daily evidence documented in their neighborhoods of the differential rewards for educational
achievement meted out according to race. That is, they see that Black and White people with the
same degree of education do not have equal occupational status and some of the most "successful"
people gain their riches outside the traditional systems. That the "immigrant minorities" in this
sample, those whose parents were from the Caribbean and elsewhere, persisted in college is
consistent with Obgu's idea that in the first- and second-generation students, at least, are still
committed to the belief that hard work within the educational structure will pay off. The
tendencies for members of this group to rationalize and be somewhat disregarding of the continual
experiences of prejudice and discrimination enables them to stay focused on their academic goals.
It is important to note the caution here that distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary
immigrant minorities is an analytic tool "to assist in ordering a multitude of observations and
facts" (Ogbu & Matute-Bianchi, 1986, p. 130). While there were significant differences between
groups in this study, they were often not extremely large. Therefore, many individuals in this
sample whose fathers were of Caribbean background as well as those whose fathers were
American-born did not act like voluntary or involuntary immigrant minorities as conceptualized
here. It is always inappropriate to treat any given individual according to expectations generated
by knowledge of his or her membership in a particular ethnic group. The degree to which White
Americans tend to do this by differentiating in their hiring practices between "hardworking" West
Indian Blacks and "unreliable" African Americans without any other individual knowledge about
applicants-a kind of "multicultural racism"-is discussed by Malcolm Gladwell (1996).
Of course, the continuing goal of a democratic society is for social and political change at a
macro-social level. Specifically, the greatest impact on negative academic attitudes of involuntary
immigrant minorities can be made by changing the broader opportunity structure so that effort in
school is rewarded in the larger society. However, even the school can be a setting for attitude
change and enhancement of performance as well. What is called for is fashioning teacher-student
interactions and students' experiences with one another in the classroom in ways that
communicate the expectation and belief in the value of the student's putting forth high academic

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effort (Kagan, 1986). The Stanford psychologist Claude Steele (1992, 1997) has written about the
"academic disidentification" among able Black students that results in subpar performance. He
notes how his own career was made possible by having a research mentor who told him that he
expected a specific level of research output and then interacted with him in ways that supported
this expectation. He indicates that this was crucial in helping him ward off any tendency he
experienced to succumb to "stereotype threat," the person's belief that (s)he can't achieve at the
highest levels in "White" academic subjects.

Limitations and Future Research

First, there appears to be an issue with respect to representativeness in this study: Is the
sample representative of the 1985 entering freshman class? The answer is that the sample clearly
is not representative of the entering class. Three categories of student were deliberately excluded.
As noted above, those who did not self-identify as either Black or White were removed from- the
data set. Also excluded were those students who were admitted to one of the special programs for
"adult" students and those whose test scores led to a placement in the English as a Second
Language (ESL) program. Apart from such specific exclusions, two categories of student wer
excluded and thus undersampled: those who were admitted through a program for the
economically and educationally disadvantaged, and those who applied for admission late in the
process. We would suggest that such exclusions serve to strengthen the validity of the results,
because the sample of Black students that was finally obtained more strongly met the traditiona
academic criteria than did the sample of excluded students. This provided a more stringent test of
our hypotheses.
Second, these data were collected from 1985 to 1988 and it could be argued that this sample
is not comparable to more recent cohorts. This concern cannot be answered unequivocally.
However, a comparison of the 1985 cohort (from which the sample for this study was drawn) with
the 1998 cohort on the dimensions of (a) retention rates and (b) the percentage of freshmen with
high school grade point averages below 80 provides relevant data. With regard to retention, 64%
of those in our overall sample were retained after two years as compared to 65% in the 1998
cohort. With respect to high school averages, 41% of the 1985 cohort had grade point averages
below 80 and 32% of the 1998 cohort had high school grade-point averages of less than 80. These
differences between cohorts are modest and there is no a priori reason to believe that the processe
that produce these outcomes are different in different cohorts. However, obviously only additiona
research can answer this question. With respect to our concern here with the Ogbu model, even
more Black immigrants have entered into American urban areas in the ensuing years. Socia
conditions would not seem to have changed in ways to mitigate the motivational advantage that
the offspring of immigrant minorities bring to the educational situation. Hence, we believe that
conditions for Obgu's cultural model continue to persist, but this assumption, of course, must be
examined more specifically in future research.
Third, more of the lack of persistence in college and more of the comparison differences with
the Black immigrant group were due to African American males than females. These gender
differences should be fully explored in future research. In addition, it could be argued that coming
from dual- or single-parent households affected the results. There is no particular reason to think
that the single parent household is more characteristic of either of these two groups. Class and
caste conditions have strained native African American families (Hacker, 1992), but the
circumstances of immigration also put strains on the nuclear family structure.
Next, the number of Black subjects of American birth were sparse in our sample, largely due
to reasons of exclusion. Future research should involve several years of admission cohorts. This
would (a) increase the number of subjects and (b) test both the validity and reliability of the major
findings in this study. Finally, Ogbu tends to infer the attitudes from observable group differences
that characterize voluntary and involuntary immigrant minorities. What is called for now are direct
psychological measures of the attitudes discussed in his cultural model. Lee's work (1994) in
The Journal of Negro Education 77

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which she interviews various groups of Asian American youth is one example of where to begin.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study are congruent with Obgu's (1991) cultural distinction between
voluntary and involuntary immigrant minorities. It is worth noting that such a differentiation
applies to Blacks as well as to other cultural groups. It has been typical in American history to
think of Blacks as a single "racial" group. While Blacks who have come to America are to a
greater or lesser degree an African heritage people, they vary widely in cultural background. This
variety is manifest in those families whose ancestors have been in the United States longer than
most White people, to those relatively recent arrivals from other parts of the world, notably the
Caribbean and Africa itself. The within-group cultural differences among Asian Americans and
Hispanic Americans is also something that American society is increasingly having to
acknowledge. For example, different attitudes toward school performance surface among Asian
American youth. Not all Asian students manifest "model minority" achievement (Lee, 1994). The
data in the present study indicate not only that such diversity exists within the African American
community, but that some of the dynamics of this diversity contribute to educational
underachievement not measured by standardized academic tests. College administrators are
becoming sensitive to some of the broad factors in the academic environment that provide hurdles
for potentially able students (Tinto, 1993). To add to this challenge, America is becoming a
genuinely multicultural society. Academic settings will also need to be tailored to pay particular
attention to the unobtrusive yet important cultural perspectives that some of these students bring to
the campus, which may be affecting their ability to profit from a university education.

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The Journal of Negro Education 79

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AUTHORS

ADELBERT H. JENKINS is Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at New York

University; deI.ienkins(gnyu.edu. His research interests include humanistic psycholog
approaches to African Americans, the sense of individuality in different cultural contexts, and
teleologic philosophical issues in clinical psychology.

ERNEST HARBURG is a Senior Research Scientist (emeritus) in the Departments of

Epidemiology and Psychology at University of Michigan; erniegd~yipharburg.com. His
interests include hypertension in Blacks and Whites, suppressed anger, and familial transmission
of alcohol use.

NORMAN C. WEISSBERG is a Professor (emeritus), Psychology Department, Brooklyn College,

City University of New York; normanweabrooklyn.cunv.edu. His research interests include
college level academic performance and student retention, disaster mental health, and
posttraumatic stress disorder.

THOMAS DONNELLY is a Research Associate at Rutgers University-Camden;

thomasdonnelly(oaatt.net. His research interests include learning disabil
memory, and moral development in children and adolescents.

80 The Journal of Negro Education

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