This paper is an ethnographic study of African American male students at an urban high school and an examination of the quality of education received by those students. The study population was composed of 115 African American males in the high school class of 1989 observed from January, 1987, through the December following their expected graduation date in 1989. The study used qualitative research strategies including participant observation; in-depth and semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, staff, and community residents; analytical memoranda; an analysis of official and unofficial documents; and an analysis of field notes. The study explored the status of African American males in Michigan, the history of the urban high school studied, teacher student relationships, parent school relations, career planning, testing issues, student insights and skepticism, academic outcomes, peer pressure and materialism, and the drug subculture. Data suggest that educational outcomes had declined dramatically in the past two decades, relationships between students and teachers were highly formal and distant, parents and teachers were detached from the life of the school, and the culture of the teenagers, particularly the drug subculture, had assumed ascendancy. Included are 19 references. (JB)