Asian students are outsmarting their American counterparts in education as the latter have “settled into mediocrity”. This pet peeve of American president Barrack Obama is one of the factors guiding his grand plans to overhaul the education system in the US.
If any more proof was required to drive home the point to the average American, here it is. A report on the high school class of 2009, based on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores released by the College Board on Tuesday, has revealed that Indian, Chinese and other Asian students are better than their white, American Indian, African American and Hispanic counterparts in mathematics and writing.
More than 1.5 million college-bound students in America took the SAT, the largest group ever to take the test. Asian American students showed the most striking gains in the college entrance exam scores that range from 200 to 800. The results are significant because the standardised test gauges the achievement of America’s top high-school students.
In maths, Asians averaged 587 compared to 536 secured by whites, 493 by American Indians, 461 by Hispanics and 426 by African Americans. Asians scored 72 points better this year than the general population and their average maths score climbed six points compared to the 2008 results.
In writing, Asians averaged 520. The comparative figure was 517 for whites, 469 for American Indians, 448 for Hispanics and 421 for blacks.
In critical reading, which tests comprehension, white students fared better with an average of 528.
The comparative figures for Asian students were 516, 486 for American Indians, 455 for Hispanics and 429 for African-Americans.
The College Board report also showed girls outshone boys on average by 13 points on the writing test, but scored 35 points lower in maths and 5 points lower in critical reading.
The familiar racial gaps in the scores, however, have not surprised US academics.
Northwestern University professor Shalini Shankar, who has authored Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class and Success in Silicon Valley, told DNA that Asian American parents are not shy about goading their children to succeed.
“Asian American upper middle-class parents are much more likely to send their children to SAT prep classes which help improve their scores,” Shankar said.
“In 1965, the US began to recruit professional migrants from Asia, and this self-selected group didn’t come as refugees or agricultural workers. Indian and Chinese immigrants who are surgeons and scientists want their children to replicate their own success, and to that degree they do push them.”
The report backs up the fact that there is a dramatic correlation between students’ average scores and the highest educational attainment of their parents. Students whose parents didn’t graduate from school averaged 420 in critical reading, 139 points lower than students whose parents had a graduate degree, who averaged 559.
The US media believes the data is sure to figure in the debate over Obama’s education agenda and potential changes to the federal `No Child Left Behind’ law, which is up for renewal in Congress.
