{"id":14461,"date":"2018-12-01T01:46:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T01:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=14461"},"modified":"2018-12-02T01:48:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-02T01:48:54","slug":"test-prep-is-a-rite-of-passage-for-many-asian-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/test-prep-is-a-rite-of-passage-for-many-asian-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Test prep is a rite of passage for many Asian-Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julie J. Park<\/a>, University of Maryland<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When ACT released its latest test scores this past October, the results showed<\/a> that average scores took a dip for every racial group in the United States except one \u2013 Asian-Americans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A similar situation played out with the SAT. Asian-Americans experienced a gain over the prior year<\/a> \u2013 42 points on a 1600-point scale \u2013 whereas other groups had more modest gains, no gains, or lost ground.<\/p>\n

The issue of Asian-Americans\u2019 high test scores featured prominently in a pending legal case<\/a> in which a group called Students for Fair Admissions \u2013 led by an activist<\/a> who opposes the consideration of race in college admissions \u2013 alleges that Asian-Americans are discriminated against in Harvard College\u2019s admission process.<\/p>\n

As a researcher<\/a> who specializes in the study of Asian-Americans and higher education<\/a>, I see three factors that help explain this trend around test scores. <\/p>\n

1. Many Asian-American students are socialized into test prep<\/h2>\n

As I document in my book, \u201cRace on Campus,\u201d<\/a> many Asian-American students get frequent messages from an early age about the importance of doing well on tests. Test prep businesses may post an \u201chonor roll\u201d that features local youth and their elite college destinations. Relatives may stress that good test scores matter.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Many Asian-American students are socialized from an early age to score high on college entrance exams.<\/span>
\n Tom Wang<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These messages are powerful, as explained in the book \u201cThe Asian American Achievement Paradox<\/a>.\u201d They set up high expectations for Asian-American students. Test prep becomes a way of meeting those expectations.<\/p>\n

In many ways, these messages reflect the influence of East Asia, where college admission is decided on a single high-stakes test<\/a> \u2013 such as China\u2019s gaokao<\/a> or South Korea\u2019s suneung<\/a> \u2013 and where intense test prep is a regular feature of teenage life. For that reason, many Asian immigrant parents see the SAT or ACT as the equivalent of Asia\u2019s admissions tests. As a result, many conclude that test prep is a worthy investment.<\/p>\n

This helps explain why Asian-Americans, and in particular Chinese- and Korean-Americans \u2013 have the highest rate<\/a> of participation in SAT\/ACT test prep.<\/p>\n

In one study, I found<\/a> that over half of Korean-Americans and 42 percent of Chinese-Americans took an SAT prep course prior to college, compared to 35.6 percent of white students, 32.4 percent of Hispanic students and 40.4 percent of black students. While affluent Asian-Americans are more likely to take test prep, 46.7 percent of low-income Korean-Americans still took a prep course.<\/p>\n

2. Asian-Americans are better prepared to benefit<\/h2>\n

East Asian-Americans are the only group that show statistically significant gains<\/a> from test prep. Average gains linked with test prep are more in the range of 10-30 points<\/a>, versus the hundreds of points<\/a> that are often advertised. Why?<\/p>\n

Test prep tends to work best<\/a> when students already have high levels of academic preparation. While there is a wide range of experiences within the Asian-American community, on average, Asian-Americans tend to have access to higher quality K-12 education<\/a> than other minority groups. <\/p>\n

They are also less likely<\/a> to attend racially segregated, poorly resourced schools, unlike their black and Hispanic counterparts.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, even some lower-income Asian-Americans enter test prep with high levels of prior educational achievement<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This is not to say that test prep can\u2019t help students with weak academic preparation. It just won\u2019t help in a way that will radically transform their ACT or SAT score, most likely. For instance, one study found no significant benefit<\/a> from test prep among a sample of low-income students.<\/p>\n

3. Test prep companies target Asian-American communities<\/h2>\n

Test prep businesses that cater to Asian-Americans are a mainstay in urban centers like Koreatown in Los Angeles or heavily Asian suburbs, such as the San Gabriel Valley, as noted sociology professor Min Zhou has found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Signs in the front window of these businesses advertise in multiple languages. These test prep companies also advertise in Asian-language newspapers and ethnic media. Their presence is hard to miss, making SAT\/ACT prep highly visible and available for Asian-American students. As The New York Times observed<\/a>, most of New York City\u2019s 411 prep centers are based in Queens and Brooklyn, \u201cwith over a quarter of them springing up in the past four years alone, most notably in the boroughs\u2019 Asian enclaves of Flushing and Sunset Park in Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the opposite coast, 861 such tutoring centers exist in California\u2019s Orange, Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties, all heavy with Asian-American families,\u201d the article states.<\/p>\n

Beyond test scores<\/h2>\n

Related to the Harvard case, test scores for all students should be considered with a grain of salt. Yes, high scores are impressive, but they should be understood in the context of opportunity. It\u2019s also important to note that strong scores are the norm<\/a> in Harvard\u2019s applicant pool.<\/p>\n

Given that test scores are limited<\/a> in their ability to predict future achievement, and are heavily shaped by race and social class<\/a>, colleges should consider the value of SAT-optional or even doing away with the test. <\/p>\n

But as long as the ACT and SAT remain part of college admissions, it should be understood that test prep alone won\u2019t be enough to eliminate racial disparities in standardized test scores.\"The<\/p>\n

Julie J. Park<\/a>, Associate Professor of Education, University of Maryland<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julie J. Park, University of Maryland When ACT released its latest test scores this past October, the results showed that average scores took a dip for every racial group in the United States except one \u2013 Asian-Americans. A similar situation played out with the SAT. Asian-Americans experienced a gain over the prior year \u2013 42 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[5512,2907,5513,3359,3844,1812],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14462,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14461\/revisions\/14462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}