3.2 The Advantages of the Pressure of Asian Stereotypes on Teenagers
Asians in general are known to excel academically but according to AFP (2014) it states that a recent study suggest that Asian children excel not because of their individual intellectual capability but due to the effort they put into studying relentlessly.
Their hard work is due to the dedication to achieve exemplary scores and maintaining their grade point average (GPA). It is untrue that all Asian-Americans are rich, those who aren’t tend to turn to financial aids, which is a scholarship given to needy students with excellent scores to attend college (Wessler 2015), in order to keep the financial aid students have to maintain a certain GPA. To maintain their exemplary grades many Asian-American parents often enroll their children in after school lessons, summer school , classes to prepare them for college and various Saturday or Summer Enrichment Programs (SEP) to help them in their academics; an example is Jason, he didn’t meet the standards at a highly competitive school in Cerritos, his parents enrolled him into various after-school classes, his hard work landed him in Advanced Placement (AP); he also took Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) preparation classes in grade 9 and 10 which inevitably assisted him in attaining his’ 3.6 GPA and graduating in the top 10% of his’ class (Lee 2014). Asian-American students are also expected to strike a balance between their academic excellence and their multiple
In this memo I will be going over Higher Education Debates dealing with the fears of Asian quotas being imposed; as well as going over why there seems to be a trend of Asian-American parents who are more biased towards prestigious colleges. For the first article regarding Asian quotas, I will be summarizing and reflecting upon the six arguments whether it is believed that certain Ivy league schools impose a quota on the Asian-American population or not. As for the piece dealing with Asian American parent preferring Ivy League schools for their children, I will briefly summarize and discuss the cultural reasons why Asian-American parents are highly selective over their college choices for their children. In Ron Unz’s debate, he provides statistical evidence indicating that Ivy league schools place quotas on the Asian-American population
Despite the abundance of equality in America, prejudices still lurk beneath it. Growing up as a first-generation Asian, I encountered many obstacles socially. Though I wasn’t necessarily “bullied,” there still was an apparent barrier between me and the other kids. I simply didn’t fit in, and my appearance played a major role in it-- I just didn’t look like the others.
When filling out surveys or job applications, all Asians must check off the “Asian American” box regardless of national origin or place of birth, forcing a single classification on an extremely diverse group. This aggregated approach to understanding Asian American is not new, it has been present since the us versus them Occident-Orient approach that powered racism against early Asian immigrants. With the increasing presence of second and third generation Asian Americans, it is time to redefine what it means to be Asian American and to discover a new manner of framing the Asian American experience as unified yet diverse. The best approach to emphasize diversity is through stressing the national, socio-economic and gender differences within the Asian American
Another thing that places students of color at a disadvantage in college admissions is the persisting cultural bias in high-stakes testing. “High-stakes” tests are those that are tied to major consequences, such as admission to college, or even high school graduation. Fair education reform advocates have long been citing an extensive record of standardized testing concerns, many of which relate to racial bias and discrimination. As researcher and author Harold Berlak explains in the journal Rethinking Education: Standardized testing perpetuates institutionalized racism and contributes to the achievement gap between whites and minorities. For instance, the deeply embedded stereotype that African Americans perform poorly on standardized tests
Tan noted that in general, Asian Americans perform better on math and science achievement exams than on English ones. The low representation could be the result of Asian American students who use broken or limited English being steered away from writing into math and science. Similarly, in “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María”, stereotypes and popular portrayals of Latina women as domestics or waitresses have partially led to the denial of opportunities for upward mobility among Latinas in the professions. Whether misrepresentations are brought on by the analysis of someone’s appearance or their linguistic abilities, those stereotypes and misjudgments can hinder the potential for growth and success of an individual within their
In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Gladwell discusses how kids from poorer areas start out at the same levels of proficiency as kids from upper class families, but the wealthier kids generally do better than the poorer kids on standardized tests down the road. Gladwell comes to the conclusion that the gap in performance on standardized tests is generally determined by how kids spend their summers. He found that the the poorer kids are left to play with friends in the summer, while the upper class families hire tutors and take their kids to museums. After about ten summers of accumulating advantage, the wealthier kids are more prepared to do well on the infamous college entrance exams. While the wealthier kids have been groomed for these tests since the start of their school careers, the kids from disadvantaged backgrounds are, once
In what ways do Mexican Americans and Asian Americans share similar parenting challenges? One of the biggest dilemmas that they face is the redirection of familistic living. Asian and Mexican Americans have traditionally lived in homes with generational members all under one roof. Family members did not live in separate homes neither did they practice “living the nest” manners as native Americans do. Children are encouraged to live at home until they found a spouse and were ready to marry.
In school, they are supposedly most proficient at math and science which are the top subjects in need of strong minds today. However, if a closer look is given, it can easily be seen that these students are not as high achieving as one would think. Cambodians score much lower on tests than Vietnamese students, but they are all lumped into the same group. “Such a stereotype may appear to be beneficial, and is certainly helpful in many ways to Asian Americans in terms of opportunity, it also disguises institutional racism and systematic discrimination” (Spradlin, 2011, p. 103). Cultural tendencies can also serve to be barriers.
Socioeconomic obstacles impede the academic achievement of students. “Hispanics have poverty rates that are two to nearly three times higher than whites; and 40 percent of their population is foreign born” (“Hispanics: Special Education and English Language Learners”). Living in poverty affects educational attainment. There is a gap in the educational outcomes because of socioeconomic status (SES). Moreover, the American Psychological Association (APA) states, “large gaps remain when minority education attainment is compared to that of Caucasian Americans”.
“The intent behind closing these gaps is to break the connection between race or family income and achievement while at the same time continuing to improve the performance of the top students. ”(28) Gaps between race and wealth have always been issues in schools. Historically, children living in poverty are more likely to score lower on tests than those
The Latino population in the United States is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the country and in 2014 a new record of Latino population was set of 55.4 million, an increase of 1.2 million of the year prior (Krogstad and Lopez, 2015). Since the population of Latinos increased so did the rate of Latinos attending college. One of the major problems we have related to higher education in America is that the Latino male community possesses the lowest high school graduation rate and also the lowest college enrollment of any subgroup (Sáenz and Ponjuán, 2012). Latino males endure many different challenges before heading off to college and while attending college such as being home sick, not fitting in, being discriminated against, experiencing
Asian students perform as well as white students in reading and better than white students in math. Reformers ignore these gains and castigate the public schools for the persistence of the gap. Closing the racial achievement gap has been a major goal of education policy makers for at least the past decade. There has been some progress, but it has been slow and uneven. It isn’t surprising that it’s hard to narrow or close the gap if all groups are improving.
Many Hmong college students are first generation college student (Xiong 2). Since majority of first generation Hmong college students’ parents do not speak English, the students are to help themselves through their college route. Therefore, first generation Hmong college students mostly are not educated concerning the following components: applying for college financial aid, completing basic admissions procedures, and making connections between career goals and educational requirements (Vargas, 2004). Like many students who have English as a second language, first generation Hmong college students also face hardships in comprehending lessons.
However, with diversity comes inequalities that people of color face throughout their lives. A particular issue in the United States, specifically in education, is unequal opportunities and treatment in regard to race. Research shows that students from single-parent black families had a high chance of dropping out and participating in illicit behavior (Hallinan 54). While the issue of race is a complicated issue to breach for
Academic Stress: Academic stress among students have long been researched on, and researchers have identified stressors as too many assignments, competitions with other students, failures and poor relationships with other students or lecturers (Fairbrother & Warn, 2003). Academic stressors include the student 's perception of the extensive knowledge base required and the perception of an inadequate time to develop it (Carveth et al, 1996). Students report experiencing academic stress at predictable times each semester with the greatest sources of academic stress resulting from taking and studying for exams, grade competition, and the large amount of content to master in a small amount of time (Abouserie, 1994). When stress is perceived negatively