Accepting a Scholarly Identity

This study examined identification with school among middle school students and its relationship with academic crowd membership, a public expression of one’s academic orientation. Of the 127 Grade 6 to 8 students in the sample, 55 reported participation in a gifted program; 44% of these gifted students did not claim affiliation with the academic crowd. There was a positive correlation between identification with school and the importance placed on membership for students in the academic crowd, both gifted and nongifted. The California Bully Victimization Scale was used to determine that no group was more likely to have been victimized. Cluster analysis of crowd memberships indicated that gifted students not in the academic crowd had few other crowd memberships, suggesting that middle school may be an important time to encourage a willingness to be viewed by peers as academically oriented through promoting identification with school.