Research Article

Explaining Asian Americans’ academic advantage over whites

Amy Hsin and Yu Xie
PNAS June 10, 2014 111 (23) 8416-8421; first published May 5, 2014; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1406402111

  1. Contributed by Yu Xie, April 8, 2014 (sent for review December 13, 2013; reviewed by Arthur Sakamoto and Jennifer Lee)

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Figures

  • Fig. 1.
    Fig. 1.

    Asian–white gap in academic achievement. From kindergarten to eighth grade, academic achievement is measured by teacher ratings of student performance in math, reading, and general knowledge/science. Starting in ninth grade, academic performance is measures by GPA. All measures were standardized. Blue dots are point estimates of the Asian–white gap from unadjusted, school fixed effect regressions. Red lines indicate estimates that are smoothed using local polynomial functions. Kindergarten to eighth grade estimates use the ECLS-K (n = 1,368 whites and 244 Asian Americans). Ninth grade to 12th grade estimates use the ELS (n = 2,878 whites and 745 Asians).

  • Fig. 2.
    Fig. 2.

    Asian–white gap in cognitive ability. Cognitive ability is measured by IRT test scores for reading and math. All measures were standardized. Blue dots are point estimates of the Asian–white gap from unadjusted, school fixed effect regressions. Red lines indicate estimates that are smoothed using local polynomial functions. Kindergarten to eighth grade estimates use the ECLS-K (n = 1,368 whites and 244 Asian Americans). Only 10th grade measures of academic effort are available for the ELS (n = 2,878 whites and 745 Asians).

  • Fig. 3.
    Fig. 3.

    Asian–white gap in academic effort. From kindergarten to fifth grade, academic effort is measured by teacher ratings of students’ attentiveness, task persistence, and eagerness to learn. In 10th grade, effort is measured by teachers’ ratings of students’ attentiveness and work ethic. All measures were standardized. Blue dots are point estimates of the Asian–white gap from unadjusted, school fixed effect regressions. Red lines indicate estimates that are smoothed using local polynomial functions. Kindergarten to eighth grade estimates use the ECLS-K (n = 1,368 whites and 244 Asian Americans). Only 10th grade measures of academic effort are available for the ELS (n = 2,878 whites and 745 Asians).

  • Fig. 4.
    Fig. 4.

    Asian–white gaps by Asian ethnic groups. Within-school, unadjusted gaps between Asian ethnic groups and whites are presented. Cognitive ability and academic effort are measured in 10th grade. Academic achievement is measured as average GPA from 9th to 12th grade. F-tests indicate variations in achievement were not significant (P = 0.294); variations in cognitive ability were significant (P = 0.000); variations in academic effort were marginally significant (P = 0.086). Sample sizes from ELS are 315 East Asians, 99 Filipinos, 201 Southeast Asians, 130 South Asians, and 2,878 whites. Dependent variables are standardized.

  • Fig. 5.
    Fig. 5.

    Percentage of explained achievement gap attributable to advantages in cognitive ability and academic effort. Figure presents the upper and lower bounds for the percentage of the Asian–white achievement gap that can be attributed to differences in cognitive ability and academic effort, net of socio-demographic controls. Detailed results presented in Table S3. The sample size is 1,612 for the ECLSK and 3,623 for the ELS.

  • Fig. 6.
    Fig. 6.

    Asian–white differences in cultural orientation toward achievement, ELS 10th grade. Estimates are from school fixed-effect regressions controlling for socio-demographic factors. “Born with ability” measures students’ agreement that they “need to be born with ability to be good at math.” “Can learn math” measures students’ agreement that they can “learn to be good at math.” “Parents’ expectation” measures the extent to which students feel parents expected them to succeed. Higher values indicate greater agreement. All measures were standardized. 95% confidence bands are plotted.

  • Fig. 7.
    Fig. 7.

    Asian–white differences in subjective well-being and time use. Estimates are from school fixed-effect regressions controlling for socio-demographic factors. “Feel good” measures students’ agreement that “I feel good about myself.” “Time with friends” measures how often students spend time with friends. “Close with mom” and “close with dad” measure the degree to which students feel satisfied with their communication with each parent. Higher values indicate more positive values. Measures were standardized. 95% confidence bands are plotted. Sample size is 1,600 for ECLS-K; 3,751 for ELS; and 5,888 for Add Health.

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Explaining Asian Americans' academic advantage
Amy Hsin, Yu Xie
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2014, 111 (23) 8416-8421; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1406402111
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 111 (23)
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