No kidding: Struggling Asians go unnoticed

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

So after reading this article via the Chicago Tribune and reading quotes like:

Some educators have begun to call disadvantaged Asians an invisible minority, unseen because their low test scores are masked when lumped with higher achieving counterparts.

A 2002 U.S. Department of Education study—one of the rare national reports examining Asians by ethnicity—found that Southeast Asians, including Cambodians, Laotians and Hmong have reading and math scores comparable with Latino and African-American students.
I just have to wonder how much longer it's going to take for the education community as a whole - and the communities that they live in - to realize this and start doing more about it rather than complaining that there just isn't the funding.

I know educators, I know the curriculm they teach, the sessions they go to - and while I can't say I know everyone and everyplace, from everything I hear and see - they focus much more on integrating African American culture and history and looking at the division between white and black students - leaving out Asian Americans.

Don't get me wrong - they SHOULD be doing all those things - they NEED to be doing all those things - but schools and the communities that house them also have a responsibility to provide the necessary resources to all students and to focus on the divide for all students, not just the division between white and black.