Study: Asian Students Uncounted, Underserved

From Education Week

By Jaclyn Zubrzycki

A Bangladeshi girl who spends her out-of-school time translating court documents for her parents’ immigration hearings. A group of Chinese high school boys in Flushing, Queens, whose teachers can’t figure out why they’re so disengaged in class. A Vietnamese boy who speaks almost no English and is the only Asian student at his low-performing school. And a Korean-American girl at the top of her class at the prestigious Bronx High School for Science. Those are among New York City’s Asian students, and their needs and backgrounds are profoundly diverse, according to a new report from the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families.
Released today by the New York City-based advocacy group, the report highlights the discrepancy between the public perception of Asian-heritage students as universally high-achieving and the reality: In New York City, 95 percent of Asian-American and Pacific-American students, referred to in the report as APA students, do not attend the city’s most-selective schools and face the same challenges as many other low-income, immigrant, and minority students around the city. The report calls for the New York City school district to improve its data reporting and the support and resources it offers those students, their families, and the educators who work with them.