Abstract This study is conducted to identify psychosocial factors that negatively affect African American adolescents' academic achievement that rarely affect white students and increase the achievement gap. The paper will address how racial discrimination can influence African American students to disengage and feel misplaced from this setting and how teacher's perception of students affect students' motivation to continue with their education. Then, explain a study that shows how socioeconomic status is a huge factor in school engagement. Next, it will focus on a study conducted on family structure and academic achievement. Afterwards discuss limitations for the studies. Finally, discusses factors that can help improve these conditions within the educational system to decrease the achievement gap and increase African American students' rates in a school. The educational achievement gap in the United States exists in and out of the classroom, and extends from the earliest years  of childhood across the lifespan. Unfortunately, the results from this gap are very different depending on ethnics. Only 14% of African American eighth graders score at or above the proficient level. These results reveal that millions of young people cannot understand or evaluate text, provide relevant details, or support inferences about the written documents they read. On average, African American twelfth-grade students read at the same level as white eighth-grade students. Nationally, African American students in grades K-12 were nearly two times as likely to be suspended from school as white students. The No Child Left Behind Act was established in 2002 to address the achievement gap with the intentions of decreasing the inequalities in academic performance among specific groups of students. Its purpose is to produce a set of properties to help decrease achievement gaps in underperforming schools. This gap of enactment became present when comparing results from: standardized-test scores, grade point averages, dropout rates, and college completion rates among several schools across the nation. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), these scores are collected to determine the crucial point of starting education reform efforts in order to get the student back on track. This form of measurement is often used to characterize the poor performance of African American and Hispanic students compared to the success of their White peers or the atrocious academic disparity among low-income students and individuals who are financially stable. It has been disputed that there are "structural and educational  barricades in today's society educational system that have led to the destruction of African American academic developments, however it became beneficial for white students. Minorities tend to have lower academic engagement because of various negative social psychological factors they are exposed to in predominant white schools like classroom discrimination, social economic statuses, and racial stereotypes that white student don't have to go through, therefore these factors will not interfere with their achievements. Generally, psychological factors like: environment, race, gender, identity, self-esteem, and culture all play a significant role in determining a student's experience in a school setting, which also determines if that student's future will be affected confidently or destructively as a black or white student . Therefore, given these disparities, African American adolescents' academic performances have declined rapidly due to constant stipulations of destructive social psychological theories that they've faced over time that White adolescents don't have to deal with. The purpose of the present study is to examine multiple factors that can negatively affect African American adolescents' school experiences that doesn't necessarily affect white adolescents. Literature Review Racial Interactions and Achievement Racial identity is an individual's sense of having their identity defined by belonging to a particular race or ethnic group. Racial identity plays a significant role in determining an individual's personality because it contributes to self-actualization, a step to being comfortable in one's own skin and developing a collective identity with peers of the same background (Steinberg, pg277). It's also important in how that individual dwells on race, describes him/herself and creates interpretations on what it means to be a member of a specific race. Developing a positive racial identity enables adolescences to feel connected to society and gain awareness of their history that increases their likelihood of achieving a sense of industry and self-reflection. Whereas developing a negative identity can lead to low achievements and disengagement of the educational development. When it comes to the upbringing of White adolescents, racial discrimination is rarely an issue in their development d