FORGOTTEN HISTORY - EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL ANTECEDENTS OF HIGH ACHIEVEMENT AMONG ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED-STATES

Recent studies of ethnic minority group education in the United States include comparative analyses between the growing cohort of Asian-Amer icans and the ethnic minorities of longer standing. The educational re cord of Asian-Americans, especially that of recent immigrants, tends t o be markedly superior to the patterns of poor school adjustment, low achievement, and high dropout rates among American Indians, blacks, an d Hispanics. A current view in the literature posits a causal link bet ween group cultural traits and the apparent paradox of Asian success a nd ethnic minority failure patterns. But a historical view shows that many Asian immigrants have received in their home countries a rigorous education tending to focus on science, technology, and related areas. In the United States they are a select group whose succeeding generat ions replicate their parents' upwardly mobile educational and economic patterns that surpass those of all other ethnic groups, even whites. Asian immigrant successes are largely a product of institutional and s ocial treatments but so are other structural effects, including their relatively few study and occupational choices, an occupational ceiling , as well as the social problems, poor economic mobility, and problema tic educational experiences of many from certain Asian ethnic groups. Historical, structural factors and cultural politics are key to a comp arative understanding of the diversity and commonality of ethnic group experiences in the United States.