Conflicting Images? Being Black and a Model High School Student

School participants in two desegregated urban high schools, Lincoln and Nor‐wood East, shared virtually the same image of the good or “mode1” student. But student peer cultures differed significantly between the sites with regards to the acceptability of this and other images for African Americans. Within these contrasting school contexts, six high‐achieving black juniors formed and then performed identities as model students, as black persons, and as other selves. They responded in unique ways to what they perceived to be conflicting images of who they ought to be.