Reading and Written Expression Performance of Ten Asian/Pacific-Islander Ethnic Groups on the Eighth Grade California Assessment Program.
Author(s):
Lai, Morris K.; And Others
Format:
Report
Publisher:
1990.
Language:
English
Abstract:
For the first time, Asian and Pacific-Islander (API) eighth-grade students taking part in the California Assessment Program (CAP) were identified as belonging to one of the following 10 API ethnic groups: Asian-Indian, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Pacific-Islander, and Vietnamese. In school districts associated with Fresno, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose Unified School Districts, 7,475 students classified themselves as Asian, Pacific Islander, or Filipino. However, because only 5,821 of these students further classified themselves into one of the 10 aforementioned API subgroups, all analyses are based on the latter sample. Strong relationships were found between performance on the CAP reading and written expression subtests and the following set of variables: (1) the generation in the United States to which they belong; (2) parents' education; (3) English fluency; and (4) hours spent on homework. Even when these variables were taken into account, there remained several large differences among and within ethnic groups on their performance in the different skill areas on the test. Results indicate that California API eighth graders are extremely diverse in their reading and written expression performance, a situation clearly related to variables such as ethnic-group membership, generation in the United States, English fluency, and skill area measured. Ten data tables are included. (TJH)