This study explored relationships to help explain why black students in inner city high schools so frequently report relatively high academic self-concepts although their academic achievement was low. Questionnaires were administered to a random sample in each comprehensive high schools in the San Francisco High School District (total n = 779). Black students were found to have considerably lower achievement scores and grades than the other ethnic groups. However, no significant differences were found in the students' reports of academic self-concept in the lower categories. Students receiving high grades in schools and ethnic groups with high achievement norms were compared to students receiving high grades in low achievement norm contexts. The findings show that high grades are internalized more in high achievement contexts. On the other hand, students with low grades in high achievement contexts were found to internalize more. If it is assumed that self-concept is an indirect measure of internalization, these findings would indicate that higher achieving students generally internalize more than lower achieving students. Findings also indicate that teachers, in an attempt to be nice to the students, fail to challenge lower achieving students to do better work. These factors allowed the students to delude themselves in reference to their academic work. (Author/JM)