Systemic bias against Asian-Americans in schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've described a school that selects URMs. That's not anti-AAPI bias.

Fwiw, there a number of AAPI students in FCPS of different backgrounds and some are high achieving and others are average. Don't have all the same concerns.

?? There are plenty of "Asians" that are URMs? It's an entire continent.

[Anonymous]

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?

Yes, it sounds like you are at a bad school. What have you done to make this better? Have you talked with teachers/administration about your observations, and asked if your perspective is right? If it is, maybe you can help them take steps to correct this.

[Anonymous]

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?

Are AAPI kids never being selected, or just not being selected at a proportion equivalent to their representation in the school? So, let's say the school is 50% Asian American, 25% white, and 25% Black. If a panel has 3 kids on it, are there zero AAPI kids, or just one from each group?

If the former, that's an issue. If the latter, I think there are good reasons to include a diverse cross-section of kids in leadership positions. It's good for the under-represented groups to see themselves in leadership roles. Yes, that might make "competition" for the majority group a little more intense, but it's not "systemic bias." It is weighting the good of multiple different groups.

What about considering the kid rather than the group they’re in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've described a school that selects URMs. That's not anti-AAPI bias.

Fwiw, there a number of AAPI students in FCPS of different backgrounds and some are high achieving and others are average. Don't have all the same concerns.

It is biased if the selection is not based on merit.

No it isn’t.

On what factor do you think attention should be focused?

[Anonymous]

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?

Are AAPI kids never being selected, or just not being selected at a proportion equivalent to their representation in the school? So, let's say the school is 50% Asian American, 25% white, and 25% Black. If a panel has 3 kids on it, are there zero AAPI kids, or just one from each group?

If the former, that's an issue. If the latter, I think there are good reasons to include a diverse cross-section of kids in leadership positions. It's good for the under-represented groups to see themselves in leadership roles. Yes, that might make "competition" for the majority group a little more intense, but it's not "systemic bias." It is weighting the good of multiple different groups.

I also have this question. I think it’s reasonable to expect there to be some effort made that leadership opportunities fully represent the student body and that groups representing the school are diverse. However, I think it’s absolutely not okay to exclude AAPI (which is made up of so many different subgroups with diverse experiences and opinions!) from leadership opportunities and especially not okay if the population of the school is majority AAPI.

[Anonymous]

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?

Yes, teachers are mostly white, mostly white women, because no one else is willing to take the job. Minorities don't want their children to go into teaching. People complain that teachers in schools are not representative but if white women didn't go into teaching, then there would be no teachers and no schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've described a school that selects URMs. That's not anti-AAPI bias.

Fwiw, there a number of AAPI students in FCPS of different backgrounds and some are high achieving and others are average. Don't have all the same concerns.

But it's not diverse. Selection should represent the student body, right? If they select one race over another simply because of their race, then it's bias, and it's a cause for concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way this area handles race is very different than how they do it out West. Race is much more explicit here, everything is about race. It's really strange, coming from other parts of the country. Doesn't seem to be better, either. But that's how they roll here.

Lol clearly you’ve never been to Seattle or SF.

Those aren't representative of anywhere besides themselves.

Those are the population centers of the west coast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way this area handles race is very different than how they do it out West. Race is much more explicit here, everything is about race. It's really strange, coming from other parts of the country. Doesn't seem to be better, either. But that's how they roll here.

There they water down the academics because it is mostly Asians advancing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way this area handles race is very different than how they do it out West. Race is much more explicit here, everything is about race. It's really strange, coming from other parts of the country. Doesn't seem to be better, either. But that's how they roll here.

Lol clearly you’ve never been to Seattle or SF.

Those aren't representative of anywhere besides themselves.

Those are the population centers of the west coast.

Uh, Los Angeles?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way this area handles race is very different than how they do it out West. Race is much more explicit here, everything is about race. It's really strange, coming from other parts of the country. Doesn't seem to be better, either. But that's how they roll here.

Lol clearly you’ve never been to Seattle or SF.

The whole state of California has largely implemented what VA was trying to do with VMPI. 9th grader relative, they were teaching parentheses.

[Anonymous]

We're at an Asian majority school, too, and the white mamas make a BIG STINK about how their children are minorities and at a disadvantage compared to all the asian families. No, ladies, your children are still white and still extremely privileged. 100% understand where OP is coming from. White kids in a majority Asian school are NOT the same as black kids in a majority white school and it's pretty gross and extremely racist that the parents at my kids' school make this comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've described a school that selects URMs. That's not anti-AAPI bias.

Fwiw, there a number of AAPI students in FCPS of different backgrounds and some are high achieving and others are average. Don't have all the same concerns.

White people in a majority white country that just happen to be a minority in a school are not underrepresented minorities.

[Anonymous]

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?

Are AAPI kids never being selected, or just not being selected at a proportion equivalent to their representation in the school? So, let's say the school is 50% Asian American, 25% white, and 25% Black. If a panel has 3 kids on it, are there zero AAPI kids, or just one from each group?

If the former, that's an issue. If the latter, I think there are good reasons to include a diverse cross-section of kids in leadership positions. It's good for the under-represented groups to see themselves in leadership roles. Yes, that might make "competition" for the majority group a little more intense, but it's not "systemic bias." It is weighting the good of multiple different groups.

I also have this question. I think it’s reasonable to expect there to be some effort made that leadership opportunities fully represent the student body and that groups representing the school are diverse. However, I think it’s absolutely not okay to exclude AAPI (which is made up of so many different subgroups with diverse experiences and opinions!) from leadership opportunities and especially not okay if the population of the school is majority AAPI.

100% this. My family is Indian, we are very, very different from a Chinese-American family who is very very different from a Vietnamese-American family, etc. Not sure why we have to all be lumped together. I mean, we don't even speak the same language as our Telugu neighbors. It's not a dialect, it's a completely different language with different roots.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely -- white people think all Asians are smart and are going to succeed. My Indian child who is behind in both reading and math gets COMPLETELY ignored in school whereas her white counterparts get extra pull outs. I've complained and am told my child is fine and "stop stressing about your kid getting into TJ". <-- My kid is obviously not going to get into TJ and it's super racist of people to make that assumption.