Achievement Gap &
Intra-racial Dynamics

This research project builds on the extensive body of research on the educational experiences of African American students in the United States, incorporating disaggregated data on immigrant and non-immigrant Black students — a distinction that mainstream educational research has historically collapsed.

The project explores immigration and internal migration trends, socialization patterns, educational experiences, and academic achievement of recent immigrant and non-immigrant African American students. The initial phase of this study, focused on the Midwest, suggests that gaps in socialization patterns — and concomitantly, historical literacies — may account for a sub-cultural dynamic often characterized both by unity and tension among Black student populations.

The AGIRD project grows directly from Dr. Odugu's observation that the Black student population in the United States is not monolithic. African immigrants, Caribbean students, multi-generational African Americans, and internal migrants bring different historical memories, different relationships to language and schooling, and different frameworks for understanding their own civic and academic identity. These differences are often invisible in aggregate achievement gap data, and AGIRD seeks to make them legible.

This study represents a meaningful extension of INARELS' core concern — the relationship between historical literacies, language, and social engagement — into the diaspora context, asking how African historical memory and linguistic inheritance travel across geographies and generations, and what effects they produce in educational settings far from the original research sites.

AGIRD operates at the intersection of education sociology, diaspora studies, and INARELS' broader program of research on historical literacies and social identity.

• RQ1 How do immigration status, generational distance from Africa, and internal migration history shape the socialization patterns and historical literacies of Black students in American schools?
• RQ2 In what ways do intra-racial sub-cultural dynamics — including tensions and solidarities between immigrant and non-immigrant Black students — shape academic engagement and achievement outcomes?
• RQ3 How does historical literacy — specifically, knowledge of and relationship to African and African American history — mediate social identity and academic identity formation among Black students?
• RQ4 What are the implications of disaggregating Black student achievement data by immigration status and generational background for educational policy and school practice?

Publications informing the theoretical and empirical foundations of AGIRD.

To cite data from this project, contact the lead researcher or refer to the Member Portal citation guidelines.

Fieldwork documentation from school sites and community settings in the Midwest, USA. Full image archive accessible to approved members.

The initial phase of this project is grounded in the Midwest United States, reflecting Dr. Odugu's base at Lake Forest College in Illinois. This region offers a rich mix of African immigrant communities, multi-generational African American populations, and Caribbean diaspora communities — making it an appropriate starting point for examining intra-racial dynamics in educational settings.