Effects Of Afterschool On Minorities : High School Hmong Students

One’s identity has the ability to play a central role in one’s schooling experience and in return, affect the way they perceive the world around them. Growing up in an Asian household located in a predominately Asian American neighborhood located in the San Gabriel Valley, I always identified myself strongly to my race and took pride in being a first generation Asian American child. Race has definitely affected my schooling experience in many different ways, both positively and negatively. In addition, there were a variety of other aspects such as stereotypical gender roles and socioeconomic class status which factored into the way I learned in the U.S. education system. In this paper, I will examine how race, class, and gender played a big role throughout my schooling experience.

Asians are one of fastest growing minority groups in America today. During this century, various factors at home and abroad have caused people from Asia to immigrate to the United States for better or for worse. Due to these factors, Americans and American teachers, in particular, need to educate themselves and become aware of the Asian American students’ needs in terms of success and happiness. Before beginning my research, I felt I had an easy subject: studying Asian Americans in relation to their education in public schools. How simple! Everyone knows they are smart, hard working, driven to succeed in spite of their nerdish, geeky, non-athletic, broken-English stereotype. Of course they are

The average 8th & 12th grade non-Asian Pacific Islander minority student’s math & reading scores lagged 20 to 30 points or approx. two grade levels behind their white counterparts, unchanged from 1992 (Aud, Hussar, Kena, Bianco, Frohlich, Kemp, & Tahan, 2011).

Today, we know integration has a positive effect on almost every aspect of schooling that matters. We also know integration matters for all students. Both minorities and whites are disadvantaged by attending racially isolated schools, although in somewhat different ways. Predominantly minority schools as a whole had inadequate and unfair educational opportunities. First, these schools tend to serve predominantly poor students. Due to poor situations at home and by the student's friends and sometimes relatives these schools routinely had lower rates of achievement than students in mostly average income schools. This holds true regardless of a student's race or socioeconomic status. More importantly, predominantly poor and minority schools find it extremely difficult to attract and retain high-quality

Ever since the establishment of equal education in the United States, there has been a disparity in academic success between children of different races. The education of African American children has become a prime example of this. As discussed in the historical text, A Letter to My Nephew, which was written during the time of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s, African Americans were not given equal opportunities to succeed educationally and could do little to change their futures for the better. They had to work much harder than whites to receive even a portion of the recognition and success that whites achieved (Baldwin 1). Although many today believe America has overcome this problem, it still remains a pressing issue in many aspects of society, arguably the most important being education. The racial achievement gap, an important term to familiarize with when discussing this topic, refers to the disparity in educational performance between students of different races (National Education Association 1). As of now, although the education achievement gap has been narrowing, there still remains a large disparity between African Americans and their racial counterparts. According to a study by Roland G. Freyer and Steven D. Levitt, professors at Harvard University and W.E.B Du Bois Institute, respectively, African American students enter kindergarten already significantly behind children of other races, and their test scores continue to drop

1. How does John Ogbu explain the achievement gaps between voluntary and involuntary groups in American schools?

How the model minority stereotype can negatively impact the overall educational experience for the Asian American students is not adequately explored at this time (Museus, 2008). Though some studies have looked at performance outcomes, such as GPA comparisons between Asian subgroups and other racial

In American education, there is overwhelming evidence that there is an achievement gap between groups of students. In other words, there are measurable differences in the educations and test scores of different groups of students. Some gaps exist between groups or differing gender or socioeconomic status, but the largest gaps exist between groups of different races. America has always been a country with an influx of different cultures through immigration. In schools, these cultures still remain separated. The most noticeable separation is probably that of White and African American students. Although the achievement gap between White and Black students is easily seen there are other clear gaps in the education of Latino and Asian American

Throughout American history, the United States has been a cauldron where different diversities mix and mingle. In this hot pot of diversity, all of the ingredients (ethnicities) will not always conform to one and other; this could possibly lead to discrimination. This paper will be primarily focus on the discrimination towards Asian American youth of the 21st century and how it affects their academics. The research question guiding this investigation is “To what extent does the stereotyping of Asian American high school students as the model minority impact their performance on standardized tests such as ACT?” The focus will lead towards the stereotyping of Asian American students such as smart, math geniuses, or good at

Upon their arrival, Hmong faced “multiple social, cultural, educational, economic, and institutional barriers and challenges” (Hmong National Development, 2004; Lee, Jung, Su, Tran, & Bahrassa, 2009, p. 559). As the Hmong settled down in the United States, they found that education was vital for their children’s future (Lee & Green, 2008). A study conducted by Reder (1982) found that “73% [of Hmong adults]

This article explains and discusses how good Asian students do in high academic levels. At the same time, refutes four different myths about Asian American academic achievements. The article has a brief introduction including some background information before focusing, explaining and discusses the four myths: Asian American has superior academic achievement; Asian-American students are born smart; Asian-American students are trouble-free kids, and Asian-American students are good at

The findings of this study strongly support the hypothesis that a large majority of children of color do not possess access to the same educational resources as White or Asian children. Likewise, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano stresses the importance of America reforming its current system, “… America couldn 't lead the world in innovation and remain being competitive if we didn 't have an internationally competitive education system.” The long term economic impact of having citizens who are no longer able to compete on a global scale would be devastating. One source contributing to the inequality in the present day educational system stems from poor education policies enacted in the early eighties. While education policies during the seventies began to give students of color the opportunity to receive an equal and expanding education, cuts to several federal assistance programs in urban and rural areas under the Regan Administration erased much of the progress that had been made (18). As a result of the cuts made by President Regan, states were unable to properly fund urban and rural schools which resulted in many having poor teaching and learning environments (20). Unfortunately, discrepancies as a result of the federal cuts under President Regan are still prevalent thirty years later. However, many experts, such as Hammond and McShane, have devoted their professional careers to finding solutions to end the inequality in

The Pew report on Asian Americans is one physical manifestation of the Asian model minority myth- the belief that all Asians are educated, wealthy, assimilable, and submissive. The model minority myth which was actualized during the World War II has since evolved to be more than a stereotype. For many Asian Americans, it has become a tangible barrier, barring disadvantaged Asian Americans equal access to social programs and educational opportunities. The myth has grown to become so influential, so pervasive that it has manifested itself in the discourses on legal policies such as affirmative action and in the rhetoric of the pseudo statistical Pew report. Racism is far from being over; it has taken on new form-praise and laudation- to justify rejection of aid to underprivileged people. The Asian model minority myth has stripped Asian Americans of their diversity and homogenized them as a privileged, educated community. As a result, Asians have

Lor (2010) examined the impact of minority teachers, especially Hmong teachers, have on student achievement. Lor (2010) provided a background of Hmong teachers, as well as, a history of the Hmong culture dated back during the Vietnam war. Lor’s (2010) research methods consist of interview questions pertaining to participants’ life experiences, school experiences, college years, teaching practices and philosophies. In conclusion, participants’ teaching practices comprise of inspiring students’ learning and achievement beyond the classroom.

This program started in summer of 2014. It is an educational opportunity for the public to learn how to read, write, and speak in the language of Hmong. Once the course is done, he or she will be able to communicate and understand what is being said. This help breaks the language barrier between the elders and youth.