THE SECRET TO THOSE HIGH ASIAN TEST SCORES: AFFLUENT, WELL EDUCATED DADDIES, MOMMIES, TOO

Gerald W. Bracey

A principal I know from Brooklyn once joked that when he was a kid, all of the students knew that Jewish kids had a "smart gene." Now, he said, the students in this same Brooklyn neighborhood know with equal certainty that the smart gene resides in Asian brains. Indeed, the performance of Asian-American students on tests has been the subject of much admiration and why-can’t-the-rest-of-you-be-like-this commentary. And why not? In a 1992 international study of mathematics, Asian kids in this country even outscored students in the top two nations, Taiwan and Korea.

Now comes a report from Educational Testing Service that reveals some more mundane reasons for high Asian-American test scores: contrary to the stereotyped images, Asian families are not huddled in tiny apartments in various "Chinatown" slums. Asian students live in the suburbs with parents who are considerably more affluent and better educated than the nation as a whole. If we put them all into a single district, in terms of education and income, it would look a lot like Fairfax County, Grosse Pointe or Cherry Creek.

In the year of the study, the median family income for Asians in this country was $41,251. For the nation as a whole, the average family that year took in $32,142. The difference is the more remarkable when one considers that the figure for Asians includes Cambodians (income, $18,126), Laotians ($23,101), and Hmongs ($14,327). Vietnamese, though, had an average income better than the national average, $33,909.

When we look at the educational attainments of our Asian immigrants, the figures are staggering. Some 87% of South Asian (India, Pakistan, etc.) fathers had at least a college education and 70% of South Asian mothers were also holders of at least a baccalaureate. Nationally, 31% of the population are alumni of some institution of higher education. The people coming here from Asia are not just those beckoned by the inscription on the Statue of Liberty’s base.

The figures for other groups, while not matching the South Asians, are also impressive: Japanese fathers with college degrees, 53%, mothers 42%; Korean fathers, 53%, mothers, 43%; Chinese fathers, 40%, mothers, 29%; Filipino fathers, 38%, mothers 41% (Filipinos are the largest Asian immigrant group, by the way); Southeast Asian fathers, 32%. Only mothers emanating from Southeast Asia fall well below the national average, 12%.

From these figures alone, someone could argue that this proves that Asians have a smart gene. But South Asians, with 87% college degrees and Filipinos with 38% are not among the groups generally presented when people speak of high scoring Asian students. What is happening here is selection: well educated Asians are immigrating to (being recruited by?) the United States.

Every study that has ever looked at the relationship between parental educational level or parental income and their kids’ test scores has found a simple correlation: more money equals higher test scores; more education equals higher test scores. This income-education-test-score ladder shows up on the test results of Asian students. For the best educated, wealthiest group, South Asians, 79% of their offspring score above the 50th percentile in reading, 84% above the 50th percentile in math (nationally, by definition, 50% of students score above the 50th percentile, 50% below).

The percentages decline with declining income and education until, for the least educated, least affluent group, Southeast Asians, students are actually below average: Some 43% of Southeast Asian students scored above the 50th percentile in math, only 32% in reading. Little wonder, then, that only 65% of Southeast Asians aspire to earn a college degree compared to 95% of South Asians and 90% of most other groups. Actually, the scores for Southeast Asians are somewhat inflated because the report also notes that in high schools with high concentrations of Southeast Asians, the dropout rates hover around 50% (that sound is the crash of another stereotype). The really low scorers have left, taking their low scores with them.

It would appear that in addition to welcoming the world’s tired, poor, huddled masses, we have also been aggressively selecting educated, skilled immigrants from the Asian continent. The ETS report was designed to dispel the notion that "Asian" is a meaningful label for such diverse cultures as Japan, Vietnam and India. It has the incidental merit of sending the "smart gene" up in a puff of affluence and schooling.

Gerald W. Bracey is an independent educational researcher in Alexandria, VA and author of the annual "Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education (Phi Delta Kappan, October) and of Setting the Record Straight: Responses to Misconceptions About Public Education in the United States.