John U. Ogbu and anthropology of education: Implications for school performance and education refor

Current statistical reports indicate that America is dealing with a persistent high school dropout crisis several decades in the making. Studies have shown that adults lacking a high school diploma are more likely to experience poverty and/or become incarcerated. American and Latino populations represent approximately fifty percent of dropout students compared to other ethnicities. Why do some ethnic minorities experience better school performance than others?;The focus of this thesis was to explore how educational anthropology has contributed to the explanation of variability in minority students' school performance, and to discuss the implications for educational policy reform. Through review of John U. Ogbu's extensive publications over the past 30 years, including description, discussion, and evaluation of his cultural ecological framework, I was able to explore how Ogbu and other educational anthropologists have contributed to the explanation of the variability in minority student performance.;I concluded that Ogbu's cultural ecological model was more encompassing and most explanatory than other theories on the variability of minority students' performance. Regardless of the limitations of Ogbu's cultural ecological model, it remains a guiding principle useful to research on minority students' school performance. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a direct link between educational anthropology and educational policy reform.