Black and White Students in Several Small Communities

Abstract

Sixty-three Negro pupils from eight classrooms in small Midwest communities were matched with an equal number of white peers on sex, grade, age, and socioeconomic status. The purpose of the study was to determine how black pupils in settings quite different from extensively studied central cities of large metropolitan areas compared on various measures of school and personal adjustment with their white counterparts. Measures included three student perceptual variables (self-esteem, school adjustment, and perceived parental support of school); attitudes toward family and peer groups; vocational interests and aspirations toward the futureall obtained from a sentence completion test; teacher ratings; and sociometric questions related to liking, influence, and expertness. The few differences found favored the Negro pupils. Black boys were significantly higher on the school adjustment index than white boys, and in the eyes of their children, black parents displayed more interest in their sons' schoolwork than did white parents. Analysis by classrooms divided according to the percentage of black pupils showed no differences in school or personal adjustment on the measures used, suggesting that, in the classrooms studied, whether a pupil was in a majority or a minority position as a Negro had little bearing on his feeling of being accepted by his peers. Other findings showed greater differences based on sex rather than race. The implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations for classroom teachers are presented.