(Center) Jeaneille Vinas (13), soon to be an 8th grader at JW Fair Middle School, takes a practice high school exit exam put together by her math teacher Rudy Duran during summer school at San Jose State University on July 30, 2007. (Joanne Ho-Young Lee / Mercury News)A LOOK AT SUBGROUPS BELIES STEREOTYPE OF BRAINY OVER-ACHIEVER
08/03/2007
By Lisa M. Krieger
San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, California, USA)
Asian-American students are often viewed as brainy, affluent and over-achieving. But a new government report concludes that several Asian groups are not well-prepared - academically or financially - to succeed in college.
Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian students typically do well in school, fulfilling the "model minority" stereotype, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' research arm.
Many of their families have saved money for college and do not depend on their children's help at home.
But others - Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asians of Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, Thai and Burmese descent - do not enroll in the rigorous math and reading classes needed to climb the ladder of collegiate success, the report found.
Moreover, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander youths who make it to college are more likely to need outside financial support, often living at home and working to help their families, the report said.
For instance, 68 percent of Chinese students reported that they could afford college without working, compared with only 36 percent of Vietnamese. Almost half of all Vietnamese college students said they helped their families with tutoring, translating and household chores.
While 42 percent of Korean families saved $20,000 or more for college, only 8 percent of Southeast Asian families had.
"The report confirms the need to avoid making national generalizations about Asian-American achievements in education and conflating all Asian-American subgroups as if all Asian-Americans are homogeneous," said L. Ling-chi Wang, chairman of the University of California-Berkeley's ethnic studies department.
Deborah Reed of the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California agreed with the findings, saying that when taken as a whole "Asians and Pacific Islanders tend to have relatively high levels of education and income and relatively low poverty rates."
But, she said, "when we look at Southeast Asians from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos - the refugee-sending countries - we find lower family income, lower education and higher poverty."
To be sure, Asian-American and Pacific Islanders are, on average, better educated than the average American. Almost half have a four-year college degree, compared with one-third of whites, 17 percent of African-Americans and 12 percent of Latinos.
And the academic strength of even the most disadvantaged groups grows over time, Reed said. "When we look at the second generation, we see increasing progress."
The study, conducted from July 2006 through July 2007, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and two large national education databases. Researchers also visited eight colleges with high numbers of Asian students, including Cupertino's DeAnza College.
Many of the differences were attributed to the number of years that an ethnic group had been in the United States - or whether immigrants had arrived to escape war and persecution or seek high-tech jobs.
The report, released July 27 before the education committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, found wide differences in:
Adult education. A high percentage of adult Asian Indians (68 percent) and Chinese (53 percent) had at least a college degree. In contrast, only 25 percent of Vietnamese, 17 percent of Pacific Islanders and 13 percent of other Indochinese - Cambodians, Laotians and Hmong - had a college degree.
English fluency. More than 90 percent of Filipinos, Indians and Japanese identified themselves as fluent in English. Only 70 percent of Koreans, 62 percent of Vietnamese and 60 percent of the other Indochinese groups identified themselves as fluent.
Funding. About 80 percent of Vietnamese students reported that their parents paid none of their tuition. And large percentages of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander groups lived at home.
In contrast, many Chinese, Indian and Korean undergraduates reported that they worked to gain job experience or earn spending money.
Simply put, poverty creates barriers to education, whether one is Asian-American, Latino or African-American, said Paul Fong, a political science professor at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose.
"There's an achievement gap among Filipino-Americans, Cambodian-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans - the haves and have-nots," said Fong, noting that it can be difficult to dream about higher education when one is worried about earning money to pay the bills.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
For a copy of the report, see
www.gao.gov/new.items/d07925.pdf.
Mercury News Staff Writer Kim Vo contributed to this report.
Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5565.
Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian students typically do well in school, fulfilling the "model minority" stereotype, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' research arm.
Many of their families have saved money for college and do not depend on their children's help at home.
But others - Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asians of Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, Thai and Burmese descent - do not enroll in the rigorous math and reading classes needed to climb the ladder of collegiate success, the report found.
Moreover, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander youths who make it to college are more likely to need outside financial support, often living at home and working to help their families, the report said.
For instance, 68 percent of Chinese students reported that they could afford college without working, compared with only 36 percent of Vietnamese. Almost half of all Vietnamese college students said they helped their families with tutoring, translating and household chores.
While 42 percent of Korean families saved $20,000 or more for college, only 8 percent of Southeast Asian families had.
"The report confirms the need to avoid making national generalizations about Asian-American achievements in education and conflating all Asian-American subgroups as if all Asian-Americans are homogeneous," said L. Ling-chi Wang, chairman of the University of California-Berkeley's ethnic studies department.
Deborah Reed of the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California agreed with the findings, saying that when taken as a whole "Asians and Pacific Islanders tend to have relatively high levels of education and income and relatively low poverty rates."
But, she said, "when we look at Southeast Asians from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos - the refugee-sending countries - we find lower family income, lower education and higher poverty."
To be sure, Asian-American and Pacific Islanders are, on average, better educated than the average American. Almost half have a four-year college degree, compared with one-third of whites, 17 percent of African-Americans and 12 percent of Latinos.
And the academic strength of even the most disadvantaged groups grows over time, Reed said. "When we look at the second generation, we see increasing progress."
The study, conducted from July 2006 through July 2007, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and two large national education databases. Researchers also visited eight colleges with high numbers of Asian students, including Cupertino's DeAnza College.
Many of the differences were attributed to the number of years that an ethnic group had been in the United States - or whether immigrants had arrived to escape war and persecution or seek high-tech jobs.
The report, released July 27 before the education committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, found wide differences in:
Adult education. A high percentage of adult Asian Indians (68 percent) and Chinese (53 percent) had at least a college degree. In contrast, only 25 percent of Vietnamese, 17 percent of Pacific Islanders and 13 percent of other Indochinese - Cambodians, Laotians and Hmong - had a college degree.
English fluency. More than 90 percent of Filipinos, Indians and Japanese identified themselves as fluent in English. Only 70 percent of Koreans, 62 percent of Vietnamese and 60 percent of the other Indochinese groups identified themselves as fluent.
Funding. About 80 percent of Vietnamese students reported that their parents paid none of their tuition. And large percentages of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander groups lived at home.
In contrast, many Chinese, Indian and Korean undergraduates reported that they worked to gain job experience or earn spending money.
Simply put, poverty creates barriers to education, whether one is Asian-American, Latino or African-American, said Paul Fong, a political science professor at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose.
"There's an achievement gap among Filipino-Americans, Cambodian-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans - the haves and have-nots," said Fong, noting that it can be difficult to dream about higher education when one is worried about earning money to pay the bills.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
For a copy of the report, see
www.gao.gov/new.items/d07925.pdf.
Mercury News Staff Writer Kim Vo contributed to this report.
Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5565.
10 comments:
Your research might not base on how each country prosperity contributes to its citizen. Compare Cambodians we suffered a lot from civil war that Hanoi, American, and Chinese created in our country. We didn't go to school for 6 years from 1975 to 1981. When we got to America in 1981, we just came out from the dark era under Khmer Rouge regime. We suffered mentally and physically, not like Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. They're not suffering like us. They came to this country with a lot of money and goal, but not Cambodian refugees. All of us are pocketless. Of course only a small percentage of Cambodian came during that period went to school comparing with other minority groups. But we're proud of it.
No doubt, the academic gap has ALOT to do with the country of origin. Imagine coming from a country where "intellectuals" are murdered base on their occupation and appearance. I'm not using it as an excuse (I've earned by Bachelor degree), but reality is reality.
It's o.k. That is just a report.
American's report says what it shows. So we still suffer from KR's regime. So we don't have a higher education at this time and so we are poor and are struggling out everyday, but to sit around, do nothing and get upset at a report is another matter.
Stay focus, don't go crazy and losing your mind.
We all should be smart enough to know by now that many people from all different races have severe illnesses and negative life events. An example: September 11th Event, A Holly War which spread across and almost all over the world or from a natural disasters like great flood or Earhquake and like ourself suffering from a horrible political regime of Khmer Rouge. Others people are just planly suffering from depression of having bad relationship with loved one and having mental disorders at some point.
Stay resilient, be persistent and plan our way to cope with bad thing. Chin up and be proud.
Take our kids to school everyday. Find better reason to inspire our youngsters about having better-higher education, about having the right friends and most of all, about feeling good about themself.
Did we fail at some point to let our kids know that we are solid rock behind their future success? and did we forget to take good care of yourself? and your spouses?
Oops..... this may be one or two troubles behind such failure and misery.
Think well. Do find better way and a healthy way to live ur lives. They are as important as any other sucessful and rich people's story.
None of us can be sucessful or be able to get out of a poverty, if we are to fight with our kids and our spouse non stop and everyday. How about if you are getting sick? Worse, yet getting into trouble with the Law?
Anyone can change poverty, low education and many more.
How about us? and why not?
Ordinary Khmers
Yes, a report is just a report and is not meant to judge any particular ethnic group. As the other commentators mentioned, the recent history of Indochina has a lot to do with this and there surely is a correlation. Being part of a larger Cambodian family in the U. S. I found that the parents that came from Cambodia put their first emphasis on earning a livelihood rather than on good education, knowing full well that only material security will afford you the opportunity to obtain a good education for their children. However, the children may be so involved with helping grandparents, parents and siblings, that they simply don't see any other way to continue in their life, plus they also want to participate in our materialistic consumerism. Sometimes it takes more than one generation to bridge that gap from laying a foundation for a decent life to a more affluent life. But don't anybody despair if they don't make it to a higher education. As the report says only one third of white Americans get a college education, in other words, you still fit in the American mainstream. Your parents fled oppression and poverty to give you a decent life here. And, let's face it, in most cases they accomplished just that. And that is something to be proud of. Maybe you will have the opportunity to give your children that higher education.
I totally agree that it will take many generations to establish good foundation in life for the majority of the people. Just look at the Chinese, Japanese etc... how long have they been in America? Oh boy, some of their parents can't even speak the native language. Like the chinese, they have been here for more than a hundred years...
At least the report tells us where we are missing out. It's good to know the reasons we are behind or slow growing.
Some of us that are caring enough to get out this poverty or being stuck in low education, will pick up better and move faster.
Welcome to human race! All should be good. Enjoy and mean it!
Think about how they classify students who are South East Asian. They label Cambodians under the Asian category and expect us to compete with the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese students. This is blatantly a bad system for Cambodians who are at disadvantaged from the other Asian upper classmen.
This report has given us some useful ideas on how well our fellow Cambodians fare in their adopted country (USA) to-date. It's a disappointing statistics for us from the first world perspective, but we should see this as an encouraging milestone of our endurance and courage from a life in the killing fields of Cambodia to a life in the Western society.
The Cambodian community has only made its presence felt in the US in recent time (after 1979) while other communities have already prospered for quite a long time there. We need to learn from their success and avoid their past failures and mistakes.
Although this may not be considered a politically-correct statement, no other communities can fairly compete with the white population even if their academic achievements are more impressive than their white counterpart. The white community has solid network and powerful corporations that will ensure that their own kind will be well looked after. Imagine that both my white friend and I have exactly the same degree. If we are to compete for the same job, whom are they going to pick? This is not meant to discourage my fellow overseas Cambodians, but to enable them to see the whole picture and become street smart in this highly competitive world - the survival of the fittest.
Trust does weight more than anything when it comes to giving out a job by Bosses out side of our home land.
Skill, they can train, but not trust. So it also depend on who you know. Don't feel bad, if you don't get the job that you want or think that you deserve. It's still someone else's place and country pretty much. Beside, you don't want to be labled as an ugly step brother or sister by knocking them down. If you know what we mean. You are competing with other people and there are a Sea of their people around you. Will you be happy, if you win? or If you loose, why do you have to feel so bad? or Don't you know that how it work? Find sunny spot some place else. A supporting role might be more rewarding than the top dog's job and most people know they need a back up door way or plan B and even plan C:)
American President knows he won't be Mr. President forever, but did they all die miserably? just because they won't be President anymore?
Love watching, Mr. Clinton & Mr.Tony Blair.
What do they do today? How would they cope with life without being Mr. President? or being Mr.PM? They seem to be all just fine. Look to us, they have more respect today as much as yesterday.
Consider this:
You are traveling a far a way trip. Your car is about to run out of a gas in the middle of nowhere ? or in the middle of desert?
Well:
A. you got leggs
b. you probably have some back up gasoline in the back of you car.
c. you probably have some emergency food in your travel bag.
d. Do you have water bottles in back of your car also?
e. Got lighter?
f. Got a knife or gun?
g. got extra clothings? or tent?
h. How about some first aids kit?
( this one is pretty important)
I. Know how to read the sun? or having a navegater?
J. How strong are you? will you panic quickly or stay calm?
K. Nowaday, an excellent cell phone can bring a choper from a rescue team in matter of a minutes.
Think of it in term of getting help to get you a job or new life. Who will you go to? and what would you use to be as helpful and as effective as an excellent cell phone when you need help in the middle of nowhere?
Please tell you self everyday that you own the wealth of wisdom to help yourself and in anywhere situation you may be.
This writting is dedicated to our wonderful business Professor. He gave this comfort feeling to us and you may have it as your comfort as well.
Ordinary Khmers
By the way, Did you see African American organized their schools, churchs, shops, magazines, singers, actors, musicians, modeling personel and anything and anything that would enable them to be an independent people in The US? They are also looking for their employements within the US's Government's offices. Why? No man is above Law in America and the closer they are to the law the better. They are smart and what is his name that is about to run for the highest office in the US from African Race?
OK
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