Asian Students

There is something wrong with the U.S. We marvel at the increasing mental intelligence of people living in India and China, especially in the cyber field, and how they provide technical assistance to so many American companies. And we wonder, why? In the U.S., children grow up with denigrating terms as "geeks" or "nerds" to label such high-achievers while adulating stars on the athletic field who earn big bucks for performance on professional sports teams. There is nothing wrong with sports and the health benefits which accompany the activity.

There is something wrong with the U.S. We marvel at the increasing mental intelligence of people living in India and China, especially in the cyber field, and how they provide technical assistance to so many American companies. And we wonder, why? In the U.S., children grow up with denigrating terms as "geeks" or "nerds" to label such high-achievers while adulating stars on the athletic field who earn big bucks for performance on professional sports teams. There is nothing wrong with sports and the health benefits which accompany the activity.

WASHINGTON -- Facing stinging criticism from Asian-American organizations and a Japanese-American member of Congress, Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett has apologized for asking why the majority of the winners of a national scholarship contest didn't have "normal American" names.The freshman Republican, who made the remark at a meeting between members of the Maryland congressional delegation and Gov. William Donald Schaefer March 3, initially refused to apologize. But on Tuesday, Mr. Bartlett wrote to Rep. Norman Y. Mineta of California to say he was sorry for "my clumsy words," adding that "no matter where we came from, no matter what our ancestry, we are all Americans."

During the 11 years she has lived in Howard County, former Centennial Lane Elementary School Principal Florence Hu has seen the school district become a magnet for overseas families looking to move to the U.S. — so much so, that she has received email inquiries about the system from parents who live as far away as South Korea. But even parents who come armed with specific information about schools discover stark differences between the American approach to education and that of their own country, she says.

County school officials hope that two new partnerships will help promote an appreciation for the school system's growing Asian population. The school system was scheduled Friday to formalize a partnership with Counselors Helping (South) Asians/Indians, also known as CHAI. The school system formalized a partnership with the Chinese Language School of Columbia on June 7 during the school's closing ceremony, which was held at Howard High School. "We have folks from all over the world in our school system," said Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin.

A hundred years ago, there was talk of a "yellow peril" because of Chinese and Japanese immigration to the United States in general and to California in particular. Today, there are echoes of that notion in a front-page headline on the education section of Sunday's New York Times. "At 41 percent Asian, Berkeley could be the new face of merit-based admissions. The problem for everybody else: lots less room at elite colleges." Anybody of any race who takes a place at any college leaves one less place for somebody else.

In Thursday's Howard County section, the combined SAT scores for students in various ethnic groups were incorrect in the story and chart. A corrected chart follows.The Sun regrets the errors.SAT AVERAGES.. .. .. .. ..Combined.. .. ..Math.. .. .. ..VerbalAsian.. .. .. .1065.. .. .. ..588.. .. .. .. ...477Hispanic.. .. .1010.. .. .. ..530.. .. .. .. .. 480White.. .. .. ..996.. .. .. ..531.. .. .. .. ...465Black.. .. .. ..831.. .. .. ..438.. .. .. .. .. 393High school students in Howard County scored higher on thSATs last year than they have in 12 years, according to a report being presented to the school board today.

Meeae ChaeSchool: Mount Hebron High SchoolHometown: Ellicott CityAge: 17Meeae believes her most important work is the kind she does with other students -- the newly arrived Asian immigrants who barely speak English or know the local culture.As head of the school's Asian Students for Interracial Awareness, she is working to raise the consciousness of peers who may otherwise be less sensitive, while helping the newly arrived students to adjust. Friends describe her as a caring and compassionate person who strives to help the Asian community.

Melanie Lo went to high school in Alabama and had trouble finding many people who could identify with her experiences as an Asian-American. Now a student at the University of Maryland, College Park, she had to adjust to living farther north, and to being part of a larger Asian-American community, something she did not have in high school. "I always felt like the outsider looking into all these other cultures," Lo said. "Coming here to Maryland, I found a lot of different organizations and finally felt like I was part of a community."

WASHINGTON -- Studies about the state of education in America remind me of high school. That's a major reason why I hate reading studies about education in America. Nevertheless, one intriguing new study has caught my attention and won't let go. It tries to explain the gaping test score gaps among black, white, Asian and Latino students. The puzzle is, why do white and Asian students tend to cluster on the high side of the gap and blacks and Latinos on the low side? For years conventional wisdom has blamed the gap on poorly performing inner-city schools.

County school officials hope that two new partnerships will help promote an appreciation for the school system's growing Asian population. The school system was scheduled Friday to formalize a partnership with Counselors Helping (South) Asians/Indians, also known as CHAI. The school system formalized a partnership with the Chinese Language School of Columbia on June 7 during the school's closing ceremony, which was held at Howard High School. "We have folks from all over the world in our school system," said Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin.

A hundred years ago, there was talk of a "yellow peril" because of Chinese and Japanese immigration to the United States in general and to California in particular. Today, there are echoes of that notion in a front-page headline on the education section of Sunday's New York Times. "At 41 percent Asian, Berkeley could be the new face of merit-based admissions. The problem for everybody else: lots less room at elite colleges." Anybody of any race who takes a place at any college leaves one less place for somebody else.

Despite the recent news that last year's seniors saw the biggest dip in SAT scores in decades, Carroll school officials latched onto a silver lining in the results: impressive gains locally in the numbers of students, particularly among minorities, taking the college entrance exam. "I'm encouraged by the growth in participation rates, regardless of whether the scores are up or down a few points," said Gregory Bricca, the school system's director of research and accountability. Along with the push to increase student enrollment in advanced placement courses to improve their chances of future success, schools officials in Carroll have long stressed the importance of taking the SAT and its precursor, the Preliminary SAT, commonly known as the PSAT.

While Carroll County students posted the state's second-highest average percentage of students passing last spring's High School Assessment for English II, school officials greeted the news with cautious optimism. Nearly three-fourths of the county's test-takers passed the exam, but officials said they must refine teaching strategies to help even more students pass a series of such tests so they can graduate. "No matter how the scores look, you always want them to be better," Gregory Eckles, the county's director of high schools, said of the results state education officials released last week.

Harford County students outperformed the statewide average at every grade level on the most recent battery of statewide tests, and school officials say the results released show the system is on track toward all students eventually meeting the state's standards. "I'm thrilled because we have across-the-board improvements, with only a couple of exceptions," said Superintendent Jacqueline C. Haas, who heads the 40,500-student system. "I think it shows the hard work of our teachers, who are doing everything to improve their daily classroom delivery."

Harford County students outperformed the statewide average at every grade level on the most recent battery of statewide tests, and school officials say the results released yesterday show the system is on track toward all students eventually meeting the state's standards. "I'm thrilled because we have across-the-board improvements, with only a couple of exceptions," said Superintendent Jacqueline C. Haas, who heads the 40,500-student system. "I think it shows the hard work of our teachers, who are doing everything to improve their daily classroom delivery."

Harford County students outperformed the statewide average at every grade level on the most recent battery of statewide tests, and school officials say the results released yesterday show the system is on track toward all students eventually meeting the state's standards. "I'm thrilled because we have across-the-board improvements, with only a couple of exceptions," said Superintendent Jacqueline C. Haas, who heads the 40,500-student system. "I think it shows the hard work of our teachers, who are doing everything to improve their daily classroom delivery."

At Ivy League and other elite universities across the nation, the face of Christianity has been rapidly changing from Caucasian to Asian. As long-established student Christian clubs -- some of them go back to the time of World War I -- have shifted ethnically, they have also grown. In places perhaps known more as vanguards for deconstructionism and gay studies -- such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of Chicago -- Asian-dominated Christian fellowships in many cases attract hundreds of students.

Melanie Lo went to high school in Alabama and had trouble finding many people who could identify with her experiences as an Asian-American. Now a student at the University of Maryland, College Park, she had to adjust to living farther north, and to being part of a larger Asian-American community, something she did not have in high school. "I always felt like the outsider looking into all these other cultures," Lo said. "Coming here to Maryland, I found a lot of different organizations and finally felt like I was part of a community."

When African-American teens from nine of the county's 11 high schools systematically stood up at a recent forum and outlined a disparity of minority representation in gifted-and-talented programs, their words - though impassioned - weren't shocking to school officials. "We have been around and around with the data for many years in terms of participation," said C. Thomas Payne, the school system's gifted-and-talented program coordinator. "For some reason, African-American students aren't performing at the high levels, and therefore they are not participating."