The association of adolescents' ethnic identification with their academic attitudes and achievement was examined among a sample of 589 ninth-grade students from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds. Adolescents from all backgrounds chose a variety of ethnic labels to describe themselves, with those from Mexican, Chinese, and immigrant families incorporating more of their families' national origin and cultural background into their chosen ethnic labels. Nevertheless, the strength of adolescents' ethnic identification was more relevant to their academic adjustment than the specific labels that they chose, and it was most important for the extra motivation necessary for ethnic minority students to attain the same level of academic success as their European American peers.