This is a Minority Research Initiation (MRI) Planning Grant proposal. The proposed research will seek to determine the causes of underachievement in black high school students and to describe the process by which these causes interact. The subject is of considerable national interest and it is hoped that information gained from this research will help to solve the problem(s) of underachievement in black students. The planning grant will provide support to assist a well-trained minority investigator in the planning and preparation of a competitive research proposal for submission to the MRI research initiation component. These planning activities will include an exhaustive review of the literature, development of instruments for data analysis, and characterization of databases established from national studies and randomly selected sampling.
