Asian Americans And Pacific Islanders

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Asian Americans andPacific IslandersFa c t s , N o t F i c t i o n : S e t t i n g t h e R e c o r d S t r a i g h tThe Asian / Pacific / American Institute at New York UniversityThe Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy atNew York University

National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in EducationThe National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) was formedthrough a collaboration of the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, the Steinhardt Institute forHigher Education Policy at New York University, and the College Board. Through this research report, the Commissionseeks to improve U.S. education for all students by expanding the way education leaders, federal and state policymakers,and the public understand the complexities, inequities, and strengths of the U.S. educational system. This report isintended to encourage realistic and actionable discussions about how societal distinctions of race, class, ethnicity,language, and other cultural factors are constituted in the day-to-day operations of American schools. We believe thatmore frank and inclusive dialogues will lead to more effective and equitable policies. 2008 The College Board. All rights reserved. College Board, Admitted Student Questionnaire, ASQ, EPS, SAT,Student Search Service, SSS, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. connect to collegesuccess, Admitted Student Questionnaire PLUS, ASQ PLUS, and Recruitment PLUS are trademarks owned by theCollege Board. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of the College Board and National Merit ScholarshipCorporation. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Boardon the Web: www.collegeboard.com.

National CommissionCARE Working GroupJulia To DutkaCo-ChairCGFNS InternationalRobert TeranishiPrincipal InvestigatorNew York UniversityHon. Robert A. UnderwoodCo-ChairPresidentUniversity of GuamJohn Kuo Wei TchenPrincipal InvestigatorNew York UniversitySeon Ah AhnKorean American Family Service CenterElizabeth R. OuYangPolicy ConsultantNew York UniversityEstela Mara BensimonUniversity of Southern CaliforniaHelen ZiaWriter and Editorial ConsultantSunil ChandCollege of DuPageKaren YoshinoSenior ConsultantBlackboard, Inc.Alma R. Clayton-PedersenAssociation of AmericanColleges and UniversitiesJ. D. HokoyamaLeadership Education forAsian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP)S. Mitra KalitaWashington PostYvonne M. LauDePaul UniversityHon. John LiuNew York City Council MemberHon. Mee MouaMinnesota State SenatorMax NiedzwieckiConsultantVivien StewartAsia SocietyDoua ThorSoutheast Asia Resource Action CenterDeborah WeiFolk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School, PACARE Advisory BoardAmy AgbayaniUniversity of Hawai’iPeter KiangUniversity of Massachusetts, BostonSunaina MairaUniversity of California, DavisDon NakanishiUniversity of California, Los AngelesLaurie BehringerResearch AssociateNew York UniversityTu Lien NguyenTechnical AssociateUniversity of California, Los AngelesThuy Linh Nguyen TuContent EditorCornell UniversityCollege Board TeamStephen J. HandelProject LeadSenior Director of Community College Initiatives andStudent Academic AchievementThe College BoardSelena CantorLiaisonDirector, Chinese Language andCulture InitiativesThe College BoardAlan HeapsVice PresidentAdvocacyThe College BoardKim Brown IrvisDesignerArt Director for Corporate ProjectsThe College BoardCaitlin McClureDesignerThe College BoardBouy TeNational Education Associationi

Table of ContentsPreface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vIntroduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Fiction 1: Aapi Students Are “Taking Over” U.S. Higher Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Fact A:The increasing presence of AAPI students parallels similar increases that otherstudent populations have experienced.Fact B:The AAPI student population is concentrated in a small percentage of institutions,giving the false impression of high enrollment in higher education overall.Fact C:AAPIs have a wide range of academic interests including the Social Sciences, Humanities, andEducation as opposed to just Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).Fiction 2: Aapis Are Concentrated Only in Selective Four-Year Universities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Fact A:AAPI students are evenly distributed in two-year and four-year institutions,with the majority attending public institutions.Fact B:AAPIs have a wide range of scores on standardized tests, which afford different levelsof eligibility and competitiveness in selective admissions.Fact C:AAPI enrollment in public two-year community colleges is increasing at a faster ratethan their enrollment in four-year colleges.Fact D:AAPI community college enrollment is increasing fastest in the Midwest and the South.Fiction 3: Aapis Are a Homogenous Racial Group with Uniformity in Educationaland Financial Attainment, Culture, Religion, and Histories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Fact A:AAPIs are an ethnically diverse population.Fact B:AAPI students and their families encompass many different languages and dialects.Fact C:Immigration histories have an effect on the needs and assets of different AAPI communities.Fact D:Economic, social, and cultural capital varies greatly among AAPIs.On The Horizon: Emerging Aapi Issues in U.S. Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Selective College Admissions and Affirmative ActionCultural Competency and MentorshipThe World Is ShrinkingConclusion And Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30A Renewed Public VisionFrom Vision to ActionEndnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Appendix: Data Source and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35iii

PrefaceThe National Commission on Asian American and Pacific IslanderResearch in Education (CARE), consisting of a national commission, anadvisory board, and a research team at New York University, aims toengage realistic and actionable discussions about the mobility and educational opportunities forAAPIs and how distinctions of race, ethnicity, language, and other cultural factors play out in theday-to-day operations of American schools throughout the educational spectrum. In particular,this project provides needed new data on key issues and trends for the access and participation ofAsian Americans and Pacific Islanders in U.S. higher education.This report is founded on the simple premise that edu-competitive and global environment and advance thecational policies and practices must be based on fact,principles of equality and justice.not fiction, if they are to be of value to teachers, students, parents, and society as a whole. The reportIn addition to the collaborative effort of our nationalfocuses on three pervasive and core fictions about thecommission, advisory board, and working group, thereAsian American and Pacific Islander community,are other individuals who played integral roles in thewhich are examined in the context of empirical data. Inproduction of this report. Our thanks to Frank Tang,addition, three issues of emerging importance are pre-New York University; Jamie Lew, Rutgers University-sented to highlight new conversations that are surfac-Newark; Vanessa Leung, Coalition for Asian Americaning among educators on college campuses. Facts, NotChildren and Families; Tara Parker, University ofFiction: Setting the Record Straight serves as a source ofMassachusetts, Boston; and Kamilah Briscoe, New Yorkconsolidated information that will be valuable toUniversity.anyone interested in advocating for fair and better educational practices. In particular, through the frame ofadvocacy and social justice, the report provides educators, policymakers, students and their families, andadvocates with accurate and up-to-date information,enabling them to critically examine the extent to whichtheir schools meet the demands of an increasinglyv

IntroductionIn 1903, at the dawn of the twentieth century, W.E.B. Du Bois openedhis classic work, The Souls of Black Folk, by posing the question, “Howdoes it feel to be a problem?” He then argued, with impassioned andincontrovertible reasoning, that African Americans are viewed as though they are the cause ofracial distress in their own lives and in the society at large. When Du Bois analyzed theconsequences of classifying an entire people as a problem, he identified core suppositions, whichhe described as “dangerous half-truths,” including “that the prime cause of the Negro’s failure torise more quickly is his wrong education in the past; and that his future rise depends primarilyon his own efforts.” 1 In other words, Black people could be defined and dismissed as a problembecause of their poor education, which could be improved only through their individual efforts—as though discrimination, prejudice, poor or no educational opportunities, and other structuralfactors had nothing to do with “the problem.”Today, as we journey through a new century, Asianand stripping citizenship from those who had alreadyAmerican and Pacific Islander students face a similarbecome American citizens.question that comes with a twist: “How does it feel to be The 1924 Immigration Act forbade Asians froma solution?” This question is a corollary to a fundamen-entering the United States and sharply limited entrytal stereotype: the “model minority,” which is how Asianfor Eastern and Southern Europeans.2Americans and Pacific Islanders have come to be defined A total of 120,000 Japanese Americans, 64 percent ofin contemporary America—the “good” minority thatwhom were American-born citizens, were impris-seeks advancement through quiet diligence in study andoned for the duration of World War II as suspectedwork and by not making waves; the minority that other“enemy aliens.”American minorities should seek to emulate.Even after being acknowledged as the “model minorThe term model minority was coined in 1966, at theity,” Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders continuedheight of the Civil Rights Movement. Before describ-to face hardships in U.S. society: in the aftermath of theing this stereotype, it is important to place the term inCold War and conflicts in Vietnam and the Middlea larger historical context. Records show that beforeEast, many Asian American and Pacific Islander ethnicthe 1960s, many Asian Americans and Pacific Island-groups have been castigated as enemies, aliens, spies,ers were treated as undesirable and “unassimilable”and terrorists, and subjected to special reportingaliens, and were sometimes targeted by both vigilanterequirements, incarceration, and deportation.3lynch mobs and federal, state, and local laws. The following are examples of this discrimination:Arguably, the transition to seeing Asian Americansand Pacific Islanders as the “model minority” in 1966 The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 turned Chineseworked not to celebrate Asian Americans and PacificAmericans into the first “illegal aliens,” barringIslanders, but to reinforce how Black Americans werethem from ever becoming naturalized Americans,still “the problem” that Du Bois had so eloquentlyIntroduction 1

argued against. As the December 1966 article in U.S.vidual student, systemic issues—such as what getsNews & World Report put bluntly: “At a time whentaught, how resources are allocated, and who gets leftAmericans are awash in worry over the plight of racialbehind—become secondary.minorities, one such minority is winning wealth andrespect by dint of its own hard work—not from a welfare check.”4Even after being acknowledged as the“model minority,” Asian Americans andPacific Islanders continued to face hardshipsin U.S. society.When the “problem” and “solution” fallentirely on the individual student, systemicissues—such as what gets taught, howLumping All-Into-One. Such generalizations of theresources are allocated, and who gets left“problem” or “solution” defy reason. Under the “modelbehind—become secondary.minority solution,” Asian Americans and PacificIslanders are all lumped together as if they have thesame traits: that they are all high-performing achiev-How Does It Feel to Be a Solution? For students anders. Indeed, there are exceptional Asian Americans andparents, educators, and policymakers who strugglePacific Islanders who are extremely accomplished, andwith the widening disparities in K–12 preparation andthey are a source of pride and inspiration. But it ishigher education in a demanding global society, it issimply not true that they are typical. Moreover, thistempting to look for simplistic models of success. Forreport will show how there is no such thing as an Asianmany educators, as well as for the public at large, AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander composite, especiallyAmerican and Pacific Islander students have oftenwhen there are more differences than similaritiesbecome that simplistic model—the high-achievingbetween the many peoples designated by the federallyminority, who proves that with hard work any studentdefined categories of “Asian American” and/or “Pacificcan accomplish anything, and those who don’t haveIslander.” While there are varied and historical reasonsonly themselves to blame. For example, as recently asfor reporting this group under one umbrella in certainMay 2006, a New York Times column entitled “Theinstances, it is critical for educators and policymakersModel Students” declared that “stellar academicto recognize that individuals who comprise this groupachievement has an Asian face” and that others wouldoccupy positions along the full range of the socioeco-be “fools” not to learn from these “perfect” students.5nomic spectrum, from the poor and underprivileged toUsing Asian Americans in this argument becomes athe affluent and highly skilled. There is no simpleway of critiquing other groups without having to men-description that can characterize Asian American andtion the “bad students” directly. Just as the responsibil-Pacific Islander students or communities as a whole.ity for inequality shifted to African Americans whenthey became “the problem,” the responsibility for educational success shifts away from the schools andtoward the individual student when Asian Americansand Pacific Islanders are called “the solution.” Whenthe “problem” and “solution” fall entirely on the indi-2 Introduction

The Problem with the “Model Minority.” s have shown that teachers, counselors, and disproportionately higher rates of grade retention,administrators in schools from kindergarten throughabsenteeism, and overrepresentation in specialhigher education are so deeply convinced that their education.9“model minority” students will excel on their own thatthey simply do not recognize how Asian American andIn reality, there are significant numbers of Asian Amer-Pacific Islander students contend with the same issuesican and Pacific Islander students who struggle withthat other communities face.poverty, who are English-language learners increasinglylikely to leave school with rudimentary language skills, An Invisible Crisis: The Educational Needs of Asianwho are at risk of dropping out, joining gangs, andPacific American Youth points out how these studentsremaining on the margins of society, and who are sub-are often placed in the wrong grade level, placed injected to violence and discrimination on account ofthe wrong bilingual classroom, or misplaced inrace, class, gender, ethnicity, or language. In otherspecial education—and that their schools are failingwords, the facts tell a dramatically different story. In thisthem.report we identify three dominant fictions that perme-6 Diversity Among Asian American High Schoolate higher education, are critical for future research, andStudents concludes that the focus on the modelthat contribute to misperceptions about Asian Ameri-minority’s “success” has resulted in a lack of studiescans and Pacific Islanders. Our conclusions call on edu-that address low achievement among Asian Americancators to implement policies and practices that are basedstudents, has prevented counselors, teachers andon the realities of students’ lives—an approach that willpolicymakers from understanding the difficultiessurely serve in the advancement of all.and problems of these students, and has, ultimately,“led to official neglect of programs and services forAsian American students.”7 A Dream Denied: Educational Experiences ofSoutheast Asian American Youth documents howpolicies and statistics routinely lump Southeast Asianstudents in with all Asian Americans and PacificIslanders, masking the high levels of poverty andacademic barriers in these communities. Similarly,Pacific Islander students have very different educational backgrounds and experiences than many AsianAmerican students, yet studies on individual subpopulations and disaggregated data are almostnonexistent.8 Left Behind: The Status of Hawai’ian Students inHawai’i Public Schools is one of those rare studies,detailing how Hawai’ian students are the most underprivileged group in Hawai’ian schools, with theIntroduction 3

Fiction #1:AAPI students are “taking over” U.S. higher education.American popular culture is full of claims that Asian American and Pacific Islander students are overrunning collegecampuses with high enrollment. Asian American and Pacific Islander students are perceived to be so ubiquitous inhigher education that regrettable quips like “UCLA really stands for ‘United Caucasians Lost Among Asians’” and“MIT means ‘Made in Taiwan’” are all-too familiar in higher education circles, slighting both the institutions and thestudents that attend them. Others characterize Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as the “alien student invaders,”as suggested by the title of an article in UC Berkeley’s alumni association magazine, California, “Facing the AsianInvasion.”10 Indeed, the “Too Many? Not Enough?” graphic was the feature of a 2007 New York Times “Education Life”supplement titled: “The Asian Campus: At 41 percent Asian, Berkeley could be the new face of merit-based admissions. The problem for everybody else: lots less room at elite colleges.”11Such impressions exaggerate the presence of Asian American and Pacific Islander participation in U.S. higher education. It also focuses the perspective narrowly on one sector of higher education, not acknowledging the range of highereducation in America. Moreover, it remains unclear whether statistics on AAPI participation in U.S. higher educationinclude foreign students from Asia. By reporting these racial categories and including international students, we useinflated numbers that exaggerate the achievement of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The circumstances ofrepresentation are critically examined in this section to gain a more accurate and broader understanding about theactual participation rates of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in U.S. higher education.4 Fiction #1

FACT A:The increasing presence of AAPI students parallels similarincreases that other student populations have experienced.Contrary to the fiction that Asian American and Pacific Islander students are taki

New York City Council Member Hon. Mee Moua Minnesota State Senator Max Niedzwiecki Consultant Vivien Stewart Asia Society Doua Thor Southeast Asia Resource Action Center Deborah Wei Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School, PA CARE Advisory Board Amy Agbayani University of Hawai’i Peter Kiang University of Massachusetts, Boston Sunaina Maira

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