Adolescents' perceptions of the learning goals emphasized at school have also been found to relate to their levels of school engagement. Anderman (1999) found that, within a sample of mostly Black and White students from Michigan, students who perceived their 6th grade classrooms as placing greater emphasis on mastery goals had higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect toward school that year than those who perceived their classrooms as placing less emphasis on mastery goals. Further, students who perceived their classrooms as placing greater emphasis on performance goals expressed higher levels of negative affect toward school. This relationship was found even in the presence of controls for prior levels of affect toward school and other important variables.