Richard Bernstein explains the secret to the academic success of Asian-American students on standardized tests: test prep.
As we have noted, Asian-American students ace the admissions test for NYC exam-based high schools.
“Asian children, who comprise just 16 percent of the overall school population, have come to dominate admissions to those schools –earning more than 50 percent of the spots overall and 74 percent of the slots at Stuyvesant, the most competitive and prestigious school in the public system. Of the 900 eighth graders admitted to Stuyvesant for next year, 10 are African American, 27 are Hispanic, 151 are white and 613 are Asian.
“De Blasio has a plan to close this gap: scrap the SHSAT altogether, and offer admission to the specialized high schools to the top 7 percent of all of New York’s 600 middle schools instead. The mayor says this will increase the black and Hispanic population to about 45 percent of the total…
“New York is hardly the only place where Asian Americans are disproportionately represented in the best schools. There’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, for example, which is commonly ranked the best public high school in America. Asians represent about 20 percent of the local population and secure about 70 percent of the seats at the school, where admissions are based on test scores plus grades, an essay, and teacher recommendations.
“Asians now account for 20 to 25 percent of undergraduates at Ivy League universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, four to five times their representation in the general population. Advocacy groups cite strong evidence those figures are held down by unofficial anti-Asian quotas at those schools. That claim is at the center of a discrimination lawsuit brought against Harvard by a group called Students for Fair Admissions, now underway in federal court in Boston.”
The Hal of “Students for Fair Admissions,” led by Edward Blum of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, is to eliminate affirmative action.
The effort to abandon affirmative action is likely to pass muster in the new Trump Supreme Court.
This is very bad news for African-Americans and Latinos who are equally deserving of making a contribution to our society and equally deserving of a chance to enter the middle class without intensive test prep.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Identify students early. They have to want it. Offer free prep classes. Don’t change the rules.
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I know ESL teachers that have made a lot of money tutoring Asian students for various standardized tests including the TOEFL. Extra tutoring is a cultural value, and parents that cannot provide it for their children are considered “negligent.”
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Harvard is more impressed with a ghetto kid who beat the odds, or a kid who started a successful business at 15, then more formulaic tiger-family driven kids who end up mediocrity in life. A Harvard dropout started Microsoft. A Harvard dropout started Facebook. Harvard graduated the most Supreme Court Justices and US Presidents. What Harvard wants are future world leaders and young people who will change the world. Harvard has perhaps the most diverse population amoung all elites University’s! Who said it just about those who score the highest alone? 16% Aisan population vs. 20%?! This lawsuit is just sour grapes from a few obnoxious tiger parents whom browbeaten kids into super testers. Harvard should fight this and never change!
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This lawsuit was brought not by an authentic Asian American group but by a rabid white neoconservative at the American Enterprise Institute. Edward Blum is astroturfing and using Asian American kids as a cover for his ideological campaign to end affirmative action.
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While I agree with being impressed by a “ghetto kid who beat the odds”, I disagree with your insinuation (evidence, please?) that Asian Americans are more likely to end up in mediocrity after attending Harvard.
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While I’m at it, a parallel thought…
I agree that Harvard must find balance between absolute achievement against one’s starting opportunities and the need to create a class somewhat representative of the diversity of the country, BUT I disagree with the insinuation that Asian Americans have worse “personalities”, that they somehow have less “humor, sensitivity, grit, leadership, integrity, helpfulness, courage, kindness and many other qualities’”.
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I don’t support the test, BUT every child does have access to test prep courses. Test prep is free for every single middle school student in New York City.
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Also, how are “Asians” represented? Asia comprises of many different ethnicities. Does western culture lump all these groups together?
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Thank you for bringing this up. A lot of what has been written on this subject has been sounding very racist.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-new-yorks-mayor-erase-real-diversity-1530572207?ns=prod/accounts-wsj
Will New York’s Mayor Erase Real Diversity?
By Maximilian Ximenez
When I received my diploma from Bronx Science High School in 2010, I was one of the few Hispanic graduates on the stage. But my fellow students and alumni were united by a deep respect for our common accomplishment—which is now in jeopardy.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza have proposed to abolish the Specialized High Schools Admission Test, the qualifying exam for Bronx Science and New York City’s eight other specialized high schools. In the name of “diversity,” they propose a lottery open to the top students from all city middle schools, regardless of academic standing or rigor.
The notion that specialized high schools are insufficiently diverse is false. The majority of students at almost all of them are not white but Asian-American, the racial group with the highest poverty rate in New York City. Most are not sons and daughters of privilege; they are first-generation Americans, if not immigrants themselves. My best friends were the children of cabbies and grocers, cleaners and cooks—parents who sacrificed to support their children’s dreams of becoming doctors, physicists or roboticists.
“Asian” is a broad category, covering the planet’s largest continent with the majority of its population. Many of my classmates were of Chinese, Indian or Korean heritage. But I also studied alongside Afghan, Bangladeshi, Burmese, Filipino, Indonesian, Iranian, Jordanian, Malay, Mongolian, Pakistani, Taiwanese, Uzbek and Yemeni students, among others.
I was exposed to more diversity at Bronx Science than I could have been at almost any other institution of learning in the world. Long nights in the school’s tech lab would end with a friend’s mother dropping off lumpia or paneer for the robotics team. During free periods I would practice guitar chords from Taiwanese death-metal bands or discuss mythology and philology with my friend who headed the school’s Vedic Religions Club. Some of my best friends belonged to small communities like the Druze, Baha’i or Tayoke, groups that would be hard to find together outside New York.
The idea that schools like Bronx Science lack diversity reflects something worse than mere ignorance. Chancellor Carranza asserted that he does not “buy into the narrative that any one ethnic group owns admission to these schools.” It’s as if he wants to erase my classmates and their genuine diversity.
I was born in the Bronx and raised by a single mother. I attended a failing middle school with a graduating class of fewer than 60, which was closed right after I left. I made it into Bronx Science with little more than a used copy of a $10 test-prep book my mom ordered on eBay. That I was Hispanic had no bearing on my admission: I got in because I studied hard and worked hard, just like my many Asian friends from all backgrounds. I would have been mortified to hear that I was offered a spot in the school at their expense.
Mr. Ximenez is a literary agent.
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The law requiring a special exam also establishes a “Discovery” program that has been allowed to fade away, re-establish the program, identify Afro-American/Latinx students with high 3s and 4s on state tests, begin in the fifth grade, Saturday and summer sessions in their neighborhoods, align the tests more closely with the state tests, it just takes a will ….
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Is this the best type of education for these students? Rather than making everyone do more and more test prep in order to compete, how about designing a test that doesn’t test for test prep but tests for ability … so that intrinsic ability is selected for rather than the number of hours in a test prep factory.
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Just how do we define “intrinsic ability,” and how do we “test” for it. Sounds like another rabbit hole to me.
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No matter how you slice it Asian students will end up ahead, do you want to punish these students who study? This is a crazy policy, testing is the only “ real” way to select students. How will schools define their requirments for entrance? It will become a hodgepodge of friends and family rather than “tests” which are ultimately fair.
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The first thing to do is to kill multi-choice tests. They test the lowest levels of cognitive skills.
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Test are certainly objective but that doesn’t make them fair.
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Abolish selective enrollment schools. Problem solved. (And, yes, that needs to happen in my hometown of Chicago too).
If my podunk, middle-of-nowhere small town/rural high school of less than 1,000 kids could offer all ranges of classes from remedial to honors and AP (and they now have IB), along with a full range of arts, vocational, foreign language and life skills education, I’d certainly think that big schools in big cities could figure out how to do that too. There is no earthly reason why kids should be commuting hours a day to get to “elite” high schools, especially considering that these kids then have hours of homework on top of that. Life is just as important (maybe more so) than academics, especially when young people are at their most social age when they are trying to figure out how to be in the world and how to relate to others.
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I tend to agree, but I’ve mostly lived in rural areas where everyone in the district attends the same school no matter where they live, who they are, how hard they work, or what their academic abilities are. Once we got to high school we either opted in or opted out of the more challenging course choices. The decisions about what courses to take were made by students and their parents. It worked fine for me and it’s working for my daughter (different state, but same type of school district). Her school is small, but she has plenty of choices for electives in the arts, humanities, sciences, and mathematics. Her classmates all have different interests an abilities and have all kinds of backgrounds. Some kids belong to families that have been in the area for generations and some are the children of immigrants. I admit that I have no understanding of how a large city school district functions. I just know that I would prefer not to be part of one. I find the idea that a test score determines where you go to high school very strange. I also find the idea that schools within the same district wouldn’t have the same resources very odd.
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Maybe you’re wrong.
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Well that was a convincing argument.
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You aren’t even from NYC, and you are judging these selective schools without knowing about the work. I wasn’t creating an argument, I was just saying you might be wrong cause you’re not familiar with the specific work they do at this schools.
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Because no one has given me a good answer as to why big cities can’t do what small towns and rural areas have to do – provide a comprehensive, quality education to all students within one school. What is the purpose of segregating all the supposedly “bright” or “gifted and talented” kids in one building (and making them travel hours a day to do so) where they are only exposed to their own “kind” of people?
Provide all schools with equal resources so that all kids get a good education right at home.
BTW, I may not be from NYC, but I am from Chicago, so I am familiar with the arguments for selective enrollment schools. Not buying it.
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The education at a gifted school in NYC might be stronger than those schools. No one has ever looked at the materials side by side. You are basing all your ideas on the same tests you disagree with.
Until we examine the type of worked provided at gifted schools, and compare the work, your argument is not strong and full of contradictions.
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“why big cities can’t . . . provide a comprehensive, quality education to all students within one school.”
Number one, your assumption that small town/rural schools all do this is flat out wrong.
Coming from Chicago, this is a spectacularly naïve question. The simple answer is that far too many students simply do not take education very seriously. Offering demanding academic programs to all would find widespread failure or empty classrooms. However, any student in NYC can apply for admission to a maximum of 12 different schools, Serious students have a myriad of academic opportunities beyond the 8 selective high schools that require the SHSAT admission test.
NYC High School admissions
http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/High/default.htm
400 NYC High Schools
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high_schools_in_New_York_City
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“Coming from Chicago, this is a spectacularly naïve question. The simple answer is that far too many students simply do not take education very seriously.” – one third of all HS in Chicago does not have physics, like at all, even if one wanted to take it. How do you like them apples?
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I would like to understand what a large city school district is like. Could someone describe it for me? Assume I know nothing. I see that one of the responders indicated that some schools in Chicago don’t have physics. Is this really true? My daughter’s small rural high school (graduating class approximately 100) offers both physics and AP physics. Based on the size of this year’s physics class, I woul guess that at least 20% of students will take it before they graduate. We’re not a wealthy or particularly well educated community either.
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C
Click on the link for NYC’s 400 high schools in my post above. This list alone will give you a flavor for the biggest system in the country.
LIM schools tend to offer the least because the demand for academic rigor is extremely low.
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Okay, so I get that there are a huge number is schools in NYC, but that doesn’t help me understand the system or why all the high schools can’t offer the same advantages that a small rural high school can.
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Big city school systems like NYC, Chicago, LA, and Houston have it all. Except for the most of the super-affluent who send their kids to the toney private schools. The full spectrum of humanity can be found, but often appears via de-facto segregation. NYC for example has some of the best public schools in the country – and some of the worst.
Translation – NYC has some of the best students public school students – and some of the worst students. If you think that “bad” , low performing schools are filled with students eager to learn but held back by burned-out, lazy teachers – think again. There is a reason so many inner city teachers burn-out, and it has little to do with underfunding and over-crowded classrooms. The bottom end of the big city school spectrum includes chaotic and disorderly learning environments, many burned out staff, excessive absenteeism ( 30 – 50 days missed is not uncommon), and far too many students who are willing to do their classwork. The other end of the spectrum is pretty much the opposite. My father who taught in Harlem for 34 years told me that the most prized teaching assignment in NYC was in Chinatown – schools filled with poor students who’s parents valued education more than most. Much of what I have written here may not sound politically correct but it is the reality of the underbelly of big city school systems where poverty and dysfunctional family are psychological burdens too difficult to overcome.
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Unwilling to do their classwork
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I live in a relatively poor rural area; the local school system graduates close to 100% of its 90+ seniors and offers a number of AP classes in addition to a full IB program. Rigorous programs such as these, or even just a Regents physics class cannot be offered in many big city high schools because they are all elective classes that can only be filled by highly motivated students. Sad but true. This is the reason that many Chicago high schools do not offer physics – too few students sign up for it, too few students willing to challenge themselves.
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Taking away opportunity from hard working bright kids is no way to elevate the disadvantaged. If the democrats adopt this type of policy, expect mass exodus from college educated families.
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How about expanding that opportunity to all kids? I guess you believe in the conservative view that “success” is a scarce commodity, rather than a more liberal view that there is a place for everyone in this world (and that the world is best off when everyone is given equal opportunity to contribute their best).
P.S. Doing well on one BS test does not equal “hard working bright kids”.
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I am not advocating for a specific test. Reread my answer.
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You are advocating for limiting opportunity to the lucky few who get into a selective enrollment school.
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@Dienne: Students who are able to take coursework that is years ahead of their peers deserve the opportunity. Your insistence that these kids should be ignored is baffling.
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I doubt that there’s much useful historic data but back when I went to Stuy in the 80s there were indeed gifted / honors programs in “regular” high schools. When I started teaching at Seward Park, prior to moving to Stuy, I think there were honors classes there as well, at least in Math but I might be misremembering.
I’d love to get back to having neighborhood comprehensive high schools that can have honors within but even so, I don’t see what’s so wrong with a handful of special magnet programs for a small % of city students.
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Isn’t the answer to dienne & C’s question just — segregated housing?
Segregated housing is irrelevant where a single hisch takes all comers from a low/ med-density 30kpop township. Town has a broad enough tax base & wide enough spectrum of students to support a wide range of offerings. That describes my hometown upstate-NY hisch [still roughly same today]. The numbers & hisch offerings are identical to the NJ town where I raised my kids, but the context is different. Towns here are cheek-by-jowl & segregated by SES.
My hi-SES NJ town has zero industry/ farming, precarious retail, lots of pricey restaurants – lion’s share of school funding falls on residential prop taxes which are very high to support such a hisch. Some med/ med-hi SES similar-sized towns have anchor industry so they can support a good hisch. Smaller towns do pretty well by teaming into regional hischs. But cities are all low-SES, & much of southern NJ is wkg-class (small farming, seasonal resort biz). NJ has been addressing for decades via re-apportioning most state aid to poor districts – w/ mixed results, & at this point hi-SES towns’ RE tax so hi [soon to worsen w/elim of SALT deduction] change needed.
So, NJ issues a function of residential segregation as in a big city. At least in a big city you have pub transp so can offer magnets as a patch. But NYC among big cities would seem to have some options? Seems like there is so much wealth/ investment there that is not getting into the public schools.
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So the exam is the only entrance requirement? Do I have that right? One standardized test to rule them all. All you do is get more questions right on a multiple choice test? On one test? That’s absurd.
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Yes. Admission is determined by one standardized test. Taken once.
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Sorry, to be clear, I was talking about Stuy, not Harvard.
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They’re losing an opportunity to work with a more diverse group with more diverse strengths to take more students who excel in standardization, in obedience.
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+1
And if schools like Stuy become dominated by students who gained access via special test-prep schools, the level of diversity will decrease and the only measure of worth that will be subliminally reinforced in these kids will be whatever comes out of that model.
In a country riven by conflict and division, finding new ways to segregate us seems like a bad idea.
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In Japan, Jukus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juku ) train students to take tests for school admission at every level. For testing they are cram classes. A child goes to school during the day then rushes to Juku after school. They just learn to take a test. Similar to what is also done here for certain things like FINRA test for financial advisors. You take a class for 5 days, cram for a test, take the test, pass with a 70 (may have changed since I did this), and you can get a job as a Registered Representative. Of course, cramming isn’t real education, you quickly don’t remember what you crammed. One of the results was the 2008 meltdown. As a retired teacher, I can tell you, the tests are not written by real educators. A real teacher never would construct tests like these. But, this is what so-called “testing” companies know how to do. Some believe this is education. Real educators know it isn’t.
>
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Off the subject: I don’t think the 2008 meltdown was caused because financial analysts crammed to get licensed. Those involved were highly skilled and knew exactly what they were doing. They got greedy and gambled with other people’s futures.
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This.
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There are always greedy highly-skilled folks ready to gamble w/other people’s lives. What changed was laws/ enforcement & regs/ oversight.
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Attention all aspiring White, Black, and Hispanic parents who wish to grab some of those cherished seats at Stuy or BHS or Harvard or Princeton: the SECRET is revealed in this article – and it is yours for the taking. Put your phones down, turn off the TV, and start, preferably at birth, SACRIFICING your TIME and ENERGY for your KIDS. Maintain unbending and unwavering EXPECTATIONS for your kids: never let the think that anything is more important than their education. Do interesting and exciting things with them, take them places, read to them, and converse with them about interesting ideas and topics which will result in enriching EXPERIENCES. Attend every Back to School night and every Report Card night, use online grade programs, be hard on them if they are missing assignments, help them with their homework, take them to libraries and museums, make absolutely sure that they attend school every day, and read to the some more. Put yourself on the back-burner (flame off) – and devote all your thoughts and ideas and actions to your kids experiences and to their school success. And do this with complete and utter RELENTLESSNESS. Now if you are unwilling to make these SACRIFICES than be content with the ordinary when it comes to schools and college and your kids. The extraordinary is never an accident.
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Even in everyone did this, they couldn’t all get into selective high schools. It would be good if they did because then the talented might get in rather than those who get forced through factory test prep.
Some parent might believe that the educational cost* of getting into a selective high school might not be worth the benefits.
the warped sense of what education is about and how and what to learn
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That’s quite an assumption that none of those kids who are currently in the specialized schools are indeed talented.
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Yea, you’re right. But if talent is independent of ethnicity then it does suggest that quite a lot of that talent is missing out.
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Yes, it’s a really good thing that Asian parents sacrifice all the family’s time and money on test prep for a one-shot test that will be forgotten the minute it’s over. This is absolutely how every other racial/ethnic group should approach education. Because being truly educated means getting top scores on a BS Test.
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BS test is the gateway to better education created by someone OTHER than the Asians to take them. Acing this BS test is the characteristic TRAIT of the Asians. Meaning, they play by the rules they are given. Give them other rules, they will play by them just as hard.
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And that’s what happens when those evil Asians are systemically downgraded. The parents and kids just work harder to differentiate. Happy 😃 now?
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Wait a minute! I thought affirmative action already got thrown out, that we were one big happy family now. Even so, I don’t see it as a quota system for a college to want a diverse student body. We are a diverse nation. Why would we want a student body based solely on test scores and GPA? What about the so-so student who plays a mean horn? Or the aspiring journalist who just doesn’t get advanced math? Besides, I can’t remember the last time any adult I know bragged about their high school grades.
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“Asians now account for 20 to 25 percent of undergraduates at Ivy League universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, four to five times their representation in the general population.”
What is the percentage of Asians in the top 10% of college classes? In my experience, Asian students are consistently at or around the top of my classes. Yes, they study more, more consistently, but also, they appreciate and respect education and educators more. They do not just study to get a diploma fast, they do not just want to “survive” in college.
My feeling is that not only Asians do well at standardized tests, but they also do better in college. Perhaps somebody has data on this.
Another “issue”: Asians may have higher overall average salaries than other groups at universities—and perhaps at many corporations, organizations.
The question is where we are heading with these observations? I visited Auschwitz just a week ago. The beginnings of the “Jewish issue” seems to have begun similarly: the claim was that Jewish people do this and that with great numbers at the expense of other groups of people, then came quotas and worse.
I think we have to be extremely careful here.
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So people want to penalize Asian students for studying?? Wake up you all are so silly I can’t even believe what I’m reading!!!
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The schools are meant to be for the talented not for kids who skills consist of rote leaning and regurgitation on demand. There is obviously a balance to be had between hard work and talent but it looks like that it’s veered to much towards excessive test prep over talent.
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I agree: I’d like to read a clear underlying motivation for this discussion.
My impression is, the issue is not thought over.
Why do we talk about the US-wide distribution of races when trying to establish admission quotas in a particular school in a particular city?
Isn’t it the case that when people talk about “Asians”, they do not mean Indians, they do not mean Iranians, they mean Chinese, Korean and perhaps Vietnamese. After all, they are the ones who occupy the student body of selective schools in greater proportion than their proportion in the surrounding population.
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Máté, I agree with you completely and was a bit disappointed that Diane drew the conclusion from the Bernstein article (which I took the time to read in its entirety) that Asians as a group succeed because of “test prep.” They clearly succeed because of the cultural value that Asian parents put on education.
The New York school system uses a standardized admission test for the top schools, so of course that is what they prepare for! If the requirements were different I can guarantee you that the Asian students would do what is needed to meet them. At least the relatively new immigrants would, because, I have also noticed, the longer Asian families live in the US, the more their kids are sucked into American “culture” which too often extols the entertainment industry and sports above all else.
I tutor high school students and constantly regret the fact that too many of my white students place athletics practice ahead of their studies. This was not the priority when I, an old white guy, attended high school in the 60s. Instead of castigating Asians, we should take a hard look in the mirror and “get back to where you once belonged.”
Or, put slightly differently,
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves…”
Happy birthday, Diane! I greatly appreciate your work, but please be careful not to let the “vinegar” level get too high and influence your usually sound judgment. 😉
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I attended high school in the 1950s, the alleged good old days. My class had 400students. I’d say no more than 5-10% cared about academics. Sports and cars mattered more.
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Diane, the 50s may have had the “Happy Days (Daze)” moniker applied to them but I doubt that “The Fonz” will ever be held up as the pinnacle of American intellectualism (at least I sure hope not 😱!).
However after the Sputnik scare, there was a period where science became a national priority to such an extent that many of us who went through that period had to fight tooth and nail for jobs afterwards due to an oversupply of scientists. My friends and I loved science and would watch the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launches with great interest. Armstrong’s first step onto the moon was a highlight of my high school years.
In my high school there was a clear distinction between the “nerds” and the “jocks,” and “scholar athletes” were few and far between.
Now, given the ridiculously hyper competitive college admissions process, too many students try to do everything, and, under this pressure, the love of learning is taking a serious hit.
Yes, we can blame this increase in competition partly on increased foreign student enrollment and Asian immigration from cultures inured to standardized testing, but, instead of trying to discourage people who work hard and value education, we should be lobbying to increase the education pie and encourage other ethnic groups to succeed. If there needs to be affirmative action “set asides” to reach this goal, it is better to take them out of an expanded pie than depriving others of opportunities they have worked hard to achieve. Of course, this will require social farsightedness and a willingness to be taxed that is currently lacking. But that is why your continued lobbying efforts are so valuable!
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Here is something else to consider: I told my daughter, who just finished high school and was a very good student, forget about Harvard and such. It’s not worth accumulating a student debt for a life time—go for an instate school or a free university in Europe. On the other hand, for many of her Asian schoolmates, this sacrifice for an Ivy League school seemed worthwhile.
My private opinion: psychologically, I think it’s much better for a student to be a big fish in a small pond. It’s better to do well at an affordable school, where they usually help good students in many ways, than to survive Harvard.
Generalizing a bit bravely: isn’t it more important for us to focus our attention to strengthen the middle class, shorten their distance from the 1%, and make sure, they end up strong, confident, happy individuals than waste energy on controlling whom the elite schools try to make “leaders”?
Isn’t it our hope that things will turn around, and the 99% will determine what’s happening in this country?
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Maybe cause you grew up in Texas…? My mom attended Jamaica High School in the 1950s, and would be considered a very average student. She was too boy crazy to care much for academics. Her idea of preparing for a test was to sit next to the bright kids. Yet, her favorite author is Philip Roth.
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I read an article some years ago, that stated that at UCLA (and other universities), that when Caucasian students enrolled in a college class, and they went to the first class meeting, that if there were “too many” Asians in that class, that they would drop the class. The reason? The large number of Asian students pushed the curve up!
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Charles, you read too many rightwing rags.
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Curve grading is simply a wrong practice.
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The system was fair until the Asians started to use it. Then it became unfair. I looked at SHSAT and the ELA test is not very precise and scientific, it leaves a lot to interpretation, to me some of the “correct” answers do not seem correct at all, I am amazed that non-native English speakers can ace it. The math test is sensible, if one had a decent math course in middle school, there are no problems in this test that are not attainable. The problem, evidently, is that most middle schools cannot provide education good enough for a decent high school, so the Asians choose the only option they can, which is to prep. On the other hand, there are no famous Asian footballers or basketball players. Kinda shows the difference in priorities.
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There are famous Asian cricketers and table tennis players though.
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And the Koreans and Japanese aren’t too bad at rugby and soccer.
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NEWS FLASH
From: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-to-rescind-race-guidelines-in-college-admissions-wsj-reports/ar-AAzwzbQ?ocid=spartandhp
“The Trump administration plans to revoke guidelines that encourage considering race in the college admissions process as a way of promoting diversity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The guidelines, put in place in the Obama administration in 2011 and 2016, put forth legal recommendations that Trump officials contend “mislead schools to believe that legal forms of affirmative action are simpler to achieve than the law allows,” the Journal reported, citing two people familiar with the plans.
Trump administration officials plan to argue the guidelines go beyond what the Supreme Court has decided on the issue.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled universities may use affirmative action to help minority applicants get into college. Conservatives have said such programs can hurt white people and Asian-Americans.
The Justice Department under Republican President Donald Trump has been investigating a complaint by more than 60 Asian-American organizations that say Harvard University’s policies are discriminatory because they limit the acceptance of Asian-Americans.”
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