Abstract/Concrete Attitudes

Race, ethnic, and social class differences in adolescents' educational performance persist, despite decades of efforts to reform school practices. In the United States, students from black, Latin American, and Native American backgrounds are less likely to do well in school compared to their white or Asian American peers of comparable socioeconomic backgrounds. Similarly, poor and working-class youth tend to perform worse and leave school earlier than those from more prosperous families. Even though educational outcomes generally reflect a society's patterns of stratification, racial and class differences in outcomes are somewhat perplexing given disadvantaged youths' almost universal endorsement of education for individual and group advancement. The concept of dual educational attitudes, composed of abstract and concrete dimensions, offers insights for understanding both the phenomenon of poorer ...