“I Am Who I Am Because of Here!”: School Settings as a Mechanism of Change in Establishing High-Risk Adolescents’ Academic Identities

A growing body of research considers the role of school settings in supporting adolescents’ social-emotional and behavioral development through instructional, social, and organizational practices (Eccles & Roeser, 2009). Recent lines of inquiry have begun to investigate individual aspects of the school setting and their influence in promoting positive academic outcomes and youth development (Shinn & Yoshikawa, 2008). These authors argue that, through an ecological lens, the school environment serves as a mechanism of change in supporting early adolescents’ academic identities. By presenting evidence that the school plays a fundamental role in changing these high-risk, African American youths’ academic perceptions, trajectories and aspirations, which led further to a 92% rate of students’ matriculation to college, we introduce how school setting characteristics support these youths’ conceptualizations of their academic identities. Moreover, this article addresses how our understanding of early adolescents’...