Asian-American students, on most academic measures, come out on top—whether it's standardized test scores, graduation rates, college-going, or college-degree completion.
But educators and advocates know that the performance of Asian-American students is a far more complex story, albeit less acknowledged, or even ignored, in education and policy discussions about closing achievement gaps. The oft-cited data for Asians, of course, lumps a large and diverse group of students into a single category that looks uniformly successful.
But officials in the U.S. Department of Education are obviously thinking about this issue. They recently issued a call to the education field soliciting information about "practices and policies regarding existing education data systems that disaggregate data on Asian-American student subgroups."
In other words, the Ed. Dept. is looking to find out whether any schools, districts, state education agencies, and colleges or universities are taking a finer-grained look at Asian students in a way that reveals a far more diverse and nuanced achievement picture. They've extended the period for people and organizations to respond to this request until mid-August.
Advocacy groups in New York City earlier this year published a report that put a spotlight on the assumption that Asian-heritage kids are universally successful in school, leading countless numbers of these students who struggle to be overlooked.
It will be a while before we find out what the Ed. Dept. finds, so, in the meantime, what can all of you tell us about disaggregation practices for Asian-heritage kids? Who is leading the way on taking a nuanced look at these students?
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.