ATHENS, Ga.

A University of Georgia education researcher hopes a new, four-year study of the experiences of African-American adolescents in a predominantly Black Atlanta suburb will help explain the reasons behind a persistent achievement gap between African-American and White students.

"Adolescence is a period of time when young people are attempting to gain an integrated sense of self," said Jerome Morris, an associate professor of social foundations of education in the College of Education and a research fellow at UGA's Institute for Behavioral Research (IBR). "For African-American youth, this process can be further complicated by race, gender and class status."

Morris has received a $505,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation to investigate issues of identity formation and negotiation in a project beginning in January 2006 called, "African-American Adolescents in a Black Suburb in the U.S. South: A Social Study of Schooling, Identity, and Achievement."

Morris will explore the role of class status and context as mitigating factors to improve the educational experiences of African-American students. Unlike previous studies that have looked at African-Americans in either urban, low-income areas or predominately White and affluent areas, this one focuses on African-American adolescents in a predominately Black middle-class suburb.

"This study attempts to find out what might be different in the more middle-class Black suburbs and schools and how that might influence African-American adolescents' understanding of school achievement and identity," explained Morris.

Based in DeKalb County — considered "the heart of Black Mecca" because of its burgeoning predominantly Black population — Morris' study will employ sociological and anthropological research methods to follow adolescents over a four-year span as well as evaluate the school district and county.

"By studying the school district, it will help us to understand how district policies and practices shape African-American schooling and will allow us to see the factors that surround academic engagement and promote students' success, shape identity formation and inform teachers' perceptions of African-American students," said Morris.