BLACK STUDENTS' SCHOOL SUCCESS AS RELATED TO FICTIVE KINSHIP: A STUDY INTHE WASHINGTON, D.C., PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

This study of Black adolescents' school achievement patterns and academic performance in a high school in Washington, D.C., examines the relationship between Black students' school performance and effort and their immersion or encapsulation in the group's social organization: fictive kinship. The central questions examined in the study are: (1) the nature and configuration of the ecological structure of Black Americans; (2) the nature and functions of the fictive kinship system among Black Americans; and (3) the role of the fictive kinship system in the social adjustment and school performance of Black adolescents. The strength of the study lies in the examination of the various social, cultural, and historical factors structuring Black life and culture in contemporary America and how they affect the school behaviors and achievement of Black children. The study was conducted in a predominantly Black high school in Washington, D.C. Ethnographic research in the Capital Community focused on the question: What, apart from higher scores on measures of school success, differentiates "successful" low-income Black adolescents from their less successful peers? Data was gathered during a twelve-month period of observation and participation in the community through formal and informal discussions, parental interviews, and at sports events, community celebrations, and religious rituals. Data from the latest U.S. Census, D.C. Public School officials, and religious and community leaders further supplemented the school-based, ethnographic data. The findings of this investigation support the general hypothesis that fictive kinship (1) emerged in response to a long-term subordinate-superordinate relationship between Black and white Americans; (2) is not only a symbol of social and cultural identity for Black Americans, but is also a medium of boundary maintenance vis-a-vis white Americans; and (3) negatively sanctions school behaviors and activities which are perceived to be threatening to the survival and perpetuity of the group. These expressive responses on the part of Black Americans are identified and attributed to the structural and cultural history of the group, indicating the emergence of a unique cultural pattern, one which suggests the presence and influence of an oppositional social identity, as well as an oppositional cultural frame, on Black students' school achievement.