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The author argues that sustained school success requires identification with school; that societal pressures on blacks and women can frustrate this identification; and that in school domains where these groups are negatively stereotyped, those who have become domain identified face the further barrier of stereotype threat, the threat that others' judgments or their own actions will negatively stereotype them in the domain. This threat depresses the standardized test performance of high-achieving women and African Americans and causes disidentification with school, but practices that reduce this threat can reduce these negative effects.