Systemic bias against Asian-Americans in schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until you get to MS and HS when teacher choose award recipients. You'll see how few Asian American students especially East Asian students get awards for anything other than grades.

This is not the case where my kids go. Their school is about 60% white and 30% Asian, and Asian students win most of the awards (except athletics!)

Our school that has a high percentage of Asians got rid of academic awards for this very reason a few years. Because all the winners were Asian and they didn't want that. They instead started "soft" awards of kids chosen by teachers. Every single one was white or another non-Asian minority.

Yes this.

My kids highly rated public school at graduation had speeches by a couple kids in the student gov’t (white), had all kids joining the military or military school stand for applause (mostly white), and another stand and applause for a sports team that went to states (mostly white and black). All were worthy of their applause and recognition.

National Merit Scholar finalists and winner, were not recognized at all. Not even a name read or head nod.

And the concept of class rank and valedictorian was eliminated years ago.

Forgot to add- there was a Spanish speaking person that read the names of Hispanic students with perfect pronunciation. Traditional Asian names were pretty butchered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until you get to MS and HS when teacher choose award recipients. You'll see how few Asian American students especially East Asian students get awards for anything other than grades.

This is not the case where my kids go. Their school is about 60% white and 30% Asian, and Asian students win most of the awards (except athletics!)

Our school that has a high percentage of Asians got rid of academic awards for this very reason a few years. Because all the winners were Asian and they didn't want that. They instead started "soft" awards of kids chosen by teachers. Every single one was white or another non-Asian minority.

+1 at the HS ceremony, majority of "teacher favorite" awards were non Asian. Majority of scholarships awarded by outside organizations were Asian.

They recognized kids who got straight As in the past 2 years, which was a long list and had more diverse kids. They did not recognize kids who got straight As all 4 years, which would've been a much smaller list, and probably mostly Asian.

They do whatever they can to NOT recognize the academic achievements of Asian students in the school.

[Anonymous]

You might have been at the same graduation. I also noticed that about the AAPI graduates and no effort being made to pronounce the names correctly and the lack of recognition of National Merit Semifinalists/Finalists and Presidential Scholar Finalists and even musical achievements.

It seemed purposely planned not to have recognition of AAPI graduates which was upsetting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard teachers make stereotypical comments about Asian American students in social settings and sporting events many times. I have also had parents say things to me and about me (an American born person of Indian heritage) that are based on stereotypes. It’s very hurtful and I didn’t experience this in the midwest probably because thwre were fewer Asian American students in my area and people were not concerned about “cultural” changed. This area is tough.

Poli Sci 101

I'm not sure what it's like on the West Coast or Midwest but here the Asian community basically make supremacist arguments such as school academic clubs should all have Asian student leaders etc. We have large population of very poor Salvadoran students yet have to listen to complaints about the "negative" Asian stereotypes which almost all involve positive traits such as being assumed to be smart or able to answer a math question.

You hit the nail on the head - the Latino kids I see in my Marshall HS pyramid are mostly FARMS from the nearby apartment buildings. Their parents are not educated immigrants working the white collar jobs. Their cleaning our houses, in construction, restaurant industry, etc. Yes, not all Asian immigrants are highly educated, but lets face it, most are because we don't share a border with Asia. So please stop whining discrimination at every turn and just TALK to the teacher . Also, maybe try encouraging your kids to go into elementary and teaching profession if you want to see more diversity in your teachers.

Seriously, it’s so frustrating. Cry me a river the teacher assumes your Asian kid is smart and academically advanced. My very brown skinned Latino son read at a 2nd/3rd grade level when he entered K and was NOT put in the highest reading group with Asian students because the teacher assumed he couldn’t read. I emailed the teacher in November after a parent at Kumon asked about the differentiated homework from the highest reading group assuming my kid was in the group since my child was at a higher Kumon reading level than her child.

The teacher called me the next day and said she stopped testing my child at the beginning of the school year once he met the k standards because she assumed he didn’t know more. She tested him that day before calling me in the afternoon and said things like -I was blown away how elk he could read, how amazing, etc

So he finally got placed in the high reading group and was given harder work. My son told me who was in the group and one Asian student wasn’t even that advanced (he was at kumon too so I knew what level he was at). The teacher wrote on report card comments about how well he played soccer. Not kidding. It was several lines about his soccer skills and then added -he is a reader. But nothing about how advanced he was.

The stereotype of Asians being advanced works in their favor for the entirety of their school career, which allows them to often times automatically be placed in higher academic groups and be given harder/extra work.

You really have no clue about anything do you? Your post is full of the vitriol that creates bias and discrimination against Asian-Americans students. My child by virtue of looking Asian is assumed not to speak English well or be able to write and is actually placed in a lower reading group despite being able to read chapter books by K. If I speak out about anything I am immediately slapped down even when the teacher is wrong because Asians are not supposed to complain and we are supposed to have advantages. Does not matter whether you are FARMS because no one will believe you. We haven't even gotten to bullying of the little Asians and don't forget about sports where your child is assumed to stink at it because of how they look. They are passed over as classroom leaders by teachers and instead are seen as the kids who do all the work. I think it's horrible what happened to your child but don't you dare take this as another opportunity to put us down by claiming everything is so much better for Asian Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might have been at the same graduation. I also noticed that about the AAPI graduates and no effort being made to pronounce the names correctly and the lack of recognition of National Merit Semifinalists/Finalists and Presidential Scholar Finalists and even musical achievements.

It seemed purposely planned not to have recognition of AAPI graduates which was upsetting.

Another sad part is that because the schools are so against recognizing Asian American students' academic achievement, non Asian kids who are also very high achievers don't get the recognition either.

There were some non Asian kids who got straight As all four years, but because the school didn't want to recognize the much higher achievement of straight As all 4 years, that meant those non Asian kids were also cheated out of that recognition. All because they don't want to recognize so many Asian students as being high achieving.

yes, there is systemic bias against Asian American students.

[Anonymous]

Chloe Kim received a lot of hate when she won her gold at the Olympics. Drove her to tears:

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31182888/olympic-gold-medalist-chloe-kim-shares-experience-anti-asian-hate

People don't mind it when Asian Americans stay in their lane as silent worker bees, but a surprising number of Americans don't like to see Asian American success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You might have been at the same graduation. I also noticed that about the AAPI graduates and no effort being made to pronounce the names correctly and the lack of recognition of National Merit Semifinalists/Finalists and Presidential Scholar Finalists and even musical achievements.

It seemed purposely planned not to have recognition of AAPI graduates which was upsetting.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect teachers and administrators to be able to pronounce all these unusual names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You might have been at the same graduation. I also noticed that about the AAPI graduates and no effort being made to pronounce the names correctly and the lack of recognition of National Merit Semifinalists/Finalists and Presidential Scholar Finalists and even musical achievements.

It seemed purposely planned not to have recognition of AAPI graduates which was upsetting.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect teachers and administrators to be able to pronounce all these unusual names.

Yes it is reasonable to expect the person reading names at graduations to get it right. If you were moderating a panel or introducing a speaker and you didn’t know how to pronounce a name, I assume you would check first and write it down phonetically in your notes so you didn’t look like an ass

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You might have been at the same graduation. I also noticed that about the AAPI graduates and no effort being made to pronounce the names correctly and the lack of recognition of National Merit Semifinalists/Finalists and Presidential Scholar Finalists and even musical achievements.

It seemed purposely planned not to have recognition of AAPI graduates which was upsetting.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect teachers and administrators to be able to pronounce all these unusual names.

Yes it is reasonable to expect the person reading names at graduations to get it right. If you were moderating a panel or introducing a speaker and you didn’t know how to pronounce a name, I assume you would check first and write it down phonetically in your notes so you didn’t look like an ass

No one will change their behavior if there are no consequences.
That's life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until you get to MS and HS when teacher choose award recipients. You'll see how few Asian American students especially East Asian students get awards for anything other than grades.

This is not the case where my kids go. Their school is about 60% white and 30% Asian, and Asian students win most of the awards (except athletics!)

Our school that has a high percentage of Asians got rid of academic awards for this very reason a few years. Because all the winners were Asian and they didn't want that. They instead started "soft" awards of kids chosen by teachers. Every single one was white or another non-Asian minority.

+1 at the HS ceremony, majority of "teacher favorite" awards were non Asian. Majority of scholarships awarded by outside organizations were Asian.

They recognized kids who got straight As in the past 2 years, which was a long list and had more diverse kids. They did not recognize kids who got straight As all 4 years, which would've been a much smaller list, and probably mostly Asian.

They do whatever they can to NOT recognize the academic achievements of Asian students in the school.

I do not see this at our HS in FCPS that is about 25-30% Asian. Class officers are often Asian; multiple faculty awards at graduation went to Asian students; the principal sent a news blast about the mostly-Asian team that won It’s Academic, etc.

I am thinking our school isn’t that different from other local schools with a lot of Asian kids and maybe some of the claims here are coming from people in other areas or exaggerated by people with an anti-public school agenda.

[Anonymous]

I’m at a private school with asian child and it’s the same situation. It’s not one person trying to take down publics but rather many people telling their school’s truth. At our peer schools, as soon as the schools become 30-40% Asian, they fall out of favor and quickly lose white applicants. And then the school takes more asian students or if they have an upper school they take even international students to survive, and everyone stays away because “it’s the asian school.”

In my personal experience, the kids at my child’s k-8 who are white are chosen more for teacher-selected leadership positions, allowed more leeway for bad behavior, and given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to academics. The Asian kids-
especially the girls- are expected to be good little soldiers and not rock the boat. When my daughter’s white bully was having a hard time socially and lashing out at other kids, she was given special sessions with the school counselors and the teacher chastised the girls she bullied when they mandated mediation sessions. When my daughter had reported the bullying, the teacher admonished her to focus on herself, try to work out her problems with the bully and not just run to adults, not be a tattle tale, etc. The lowest point that told me my daughter would always be invisible to the people in power was last winter. Multiple administrators and teachers who had known our family since kindergarten asked if my DD was playing violin in the talent show.

She’s been at the school for 5 years. She does not play any instrument. She gets signed out regularly for travel events for her sport so it’s known in writing how she spends massive chunks of her time. At that point I realized that they sincerely believed she was one of the other Asian girls in the grade. And probably had for a while.

Read “Race on the top” which is a really illuminating book about how this situation comes to be and the tensions between Asian and whites parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a school with a significant percentage of Asian-American students but mostly white teachers. We've noticed over the past year that when teachers have a choice to choose students for leadership positions such as for panels, if they have a request from an outside entity for students to speak with, student hosts for assemblies, or for leaders for class project they are not selecting AAPI students. It's really striking and when parents first brought this up to us I was skeptical but then we saw it happen again and again. They will choose students from other minority groups who comprise only a small percentage of students at the school so it is not all white students who are being chosen.

We moved to the area from California where we were at a school with a similar percentage of AAPI students and did not see this issue. What is going on? Is it just gross stereotyping that AAPI students are not good leaders or speakers? Are we just at a terrible school?

You are overthinking this. I’m so tired of these flimsy, racist threads.

It's a popular topic with right-wing astroturfers. They feel they can sew grievance among AAPI voters with these false narratives.

Maybe so, but your bias is also showing. These right wingers have a point, beyond sowing discord, in that Asian students have shown to been, in some cases, to have been denied or socially engineered out of contention for placement at top schools. See the lower scores on “personality tests” at Harvard as an example.

It’s sad that the same folks who claim to want broad representation in schools have no issue suppressing advanced level Asian students because they don’t fear any repercussions or see Asians as some model minority who would “make it anyway” if they didn’t get in to the academically rigorous school of their choice or whatever. I mean it just seems like social engineering on so many levers, like doing away with race neutral standardized testing for entry, which really is the best predictor of a student’s ability.

I think it's ridiculous to lump "Asian students" together as a monolith. Asia is so huge and diverse that, even in the U.S., the experience of various Asian groups is going to have so many variables that their treatment is going to vary wildly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until you get to MS and HS when teacher choose award recipients. You'll see how few Asian American students especially East Asian students get awards for anything other than grades.

This is not the case where my kids go. Their school is about 60% white and 30% Asian, and Asian students win most of the awards (except athletics!)

Our school that has a high percentage of Asians got rid of academic awards for this very reason a few years. Because all the winners were Asian and they didn't want that. They instead started "soft" awards of kids chosen by teachers. Every single one was white or another non-Asian minority.

+1 at the HS ceremony, majority of "teacher favorite" awards were non Asian. Majority of scholarships awarded by outside organizations were Asian.

They recognized kids who got straight As in the past 2 years, which was a long list and had more diverse kids. They did not recognize kids who got straight As all 4 years, which would've been a much smaller list, and probably mostly Asian.

They do whatever they can to NOT recognize the academic achievements of Asian students in the school.

I do not see this at our HS in FCPS that is about 25-30% Asian. Class officers are often Asian; multiple faculty awards at graduation went to Asian students; the principal sent a news blast about the mostly-Asian team that won It’s Academic, etc.

I am thinking our school isn’t that different from other local schools with a lot of Asian kids and maybe some of the claims here are coming from people in other areas or exaggerated by people with an anti-public school agenda.

PP here. We are not in FCPS. And it's not an exaggeration. Your experience is yours; and mine is mine.

I support public schools whole heartedly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You might have been at the same graduation. I also noticed that about the AAPI graduates and no effort being made to pronounce the names correctly and the lack of recognition of National Merit Semifinalists/Finalists and Presidential Scholar Finalists and even musical achievements.

It seemed purposely planned not to have recognition of AAPI graduates which was upsetting.

I don't think it is reasonable to expect teachers and administrators to be able to pronounce all these unusual names.

I think a lot of the complaints in this thread are overwrought, but I think it's very reasonable to expect a kid's name to be pronounced correctly at graduation. At my kids' school, we have a lot of kids whose families come from all over the world, including a lot of Asian kids. The administrator who announces the names starts practicing for graduation in (I think) March. They have the graduating seniors provide a phonetic spelling of their names to help make sure he gets it right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until you get to MS and HS when teacher choose award recipients. You'll see how few Asian American students especially East Asian students get awards for anything other than grades.

This is not the case where my kids go. Their school is about 60% white and 30% Asian, and Asian students win most of the awards (except athletics!)

Our school that has a high percentage of Asians got rid of academic awards for this very reason a few years. Because all the winners were Asian and they didn't want that. They instead started "soft" awards of kids chosen by teachers. Every single one was white or another non-Asian minority.

Yes this.

My kids highly rated public school at graduation had speeches by a couple kids in the student gov’t (white), had all kids joining the military or military school stand for applause (mostly white), and another stand and applause for a sports team that went to states (mostly white and black). All were worthy of their applause and recognition.

National Merit Scholar finalists and winner, were not recognized at all. Not even a name read or head nod.

And the concept of class rank and valedictorian was eliminated years ago.

Forgot to add- there was a Spanish speaking person that read the names of Hispanic students with perfect pronunciation. Traditional Asian names were pretty butchered.

Huh? Do you expect a single person of Asian ethnicity to be able to pronounce the Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Laos, and Vietnamese names?