Asian-American students outperform other racial or ethnic groups in math and science
Asian-American students outperform other racial or ethnic groups in math and science courses, according to a new study of 367 10th grade students in the Philadelphia area.
The study, published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, claims to be “the first study to examine math and science attitudes and achievement at the intersection of gender and ethnicity across four major ethnic groups,” including whites, Asian-Americans, Latinos and African-Americans.
“Asian-American male adolescents consistently demonstrated the highest achievement compared to other adolescents, mirroring the ‘model minority’ stereotype,” the researchers wrote. “In contrast, the underachievement of Latino and African-American males is a persistent and troubling trend.”
Despite surveys indicating that Asian-Americans perform better in math and science, Professor Nicole Else-Quest of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the lead author of the study, doesn’t want the data to further the “model minority” perception about Asian-Americans.