What Makes a Successful Black Student on a Predominantly White Campus?

Abstract

Traditional ability measures have not been particularly good predictors of the performance or persistence of minority students who attend predominantly white colleges and universities. In order to understand why some minority students fare better than others, it is necessary to attempt to understand how students perceive their academic experience. Perception of academic experience can be assessed in terms of the biographical characteristics of students, students’ social knowledge, measures of campus climate, or in terms of students’ beliefs about academic performance. In this qualitative study, 43 black undergraduate students were asked to describe the bases of academic success and why some black students attending a predominantly white university are more successful than others. Their responses indicate the importance of including beliefs about how one is perceived by others (e.g., faculty and student peers) in taxonomies of achievement-related beliefs. The participants in this study assessed their performance not only in terms of their own personal characteristics but also in terms of the supportiveness of the faculty and students with whom they work.