Ethnic identity and academic achievement: A study of 5th grade Spanish-English bilingual Latinos

In the United States, Latino students have the highest high school dropout rate of any minority group and rank lowest in academic achievement measures beginning as early as elementary school (August & Hakuta, 1997; Gandara, 1995; Garcia, 2001; Goldenberg, 1996; NAEP, 2000). Latinos also comprise the fastest growing group of students in the public school system (Rittenhouse, 1998; U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Many educational scholars report that identity formation, specifically ethnic identity formation, plays an important role in the educational achievement of minority and language minority youth. However, in this body of research the inquiry around ethnic identity has focused mainly on adolescents and young adults (Pegg & Plybon, 2005).; This study investigated how pre-adolescent bilingual Latino students in Boston and Chicago expressed aspects of their ethnic identity, namely ethnic identification, sense of belonging and attitudes toward their ethnic group. The role of context and heritage language use in the development of ethnic identity for these pre-adolescent bilinguals was examined.{09}Finally, this study examined the relationship between ethnic identity and academic outcomes for these students.; When asked about aspects of their lives related to their ethnicity, student responses reflected the context of their everyday experiences. They spoke most often about their families. Similarly, Spanish language use functioned as an important ethnic symbol and as an activity that connected these students to their families. Findings from this study point to heritage language use as an internal psychological dimension of ethnicity---one that may be related to an internal affective aspect of ethnic identity.; The social and linguistic contexts in which students lived and went to school influenced expressions of ethnic identity. Students in the larger, more ethnically heterogeneous neighborhood in Boston expressed more awareness of their ethnicity than did students in the smaller, Mexican-enclave community in Chicago. Further, though studies with older students suggest a relationship between ethnic identity and academic achievement, there were no differences in the academic achievement measure related to expressions of ethnic identity for students in this study.