Effects of Schools’ Racial Composition on the Self-Concept of Black and White Students¹

An investigation of self-esteem and self-concept of ability of black and white students attending integrated and segregated schools was undertaken. A total of 696 students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades from six parochial elementary schools (two all-black, three integrated, and one all-white) in similar socioeconomic sections of Chicago was administered the Cooper smith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI), the How I See Myself Rating Scale, and Brookover’s self-concept of ability measure (SCA). A multivariate analysis of variance performed on the test-battery scores yielded significant differences for type of school on the self-esteem measure and the rating scale, and for grade on both the SCA measure and the peer and school subscales of CSEI, but did not yield significant differences for any of the interactions.