The Gender Gap and Asian American Achievement

Amy Hsin, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY)

Little is known about whether a gender gap in achievement exists among Asian Americans and how it contributes to Asian American academic success over whites. Data from the ECLS-K and ELS are combined to describe patterns in academic performance from kindergarten to high school. Preliminary findings suggest that the Asian American advantage in schools is due to: 1) the relative success of Asian girls and 2) Asian boys not doing as poorly as white boys. Stratifying by mothers’ education reveals no evidence of an Asian advantage among children of the best-educated mothers: white boys do as well as Asian boys and white girls do as well as Asian girls. Among the children of the least skilled, an Asian advantage is observed but this advantage is primarily driven by the achievement of Asian girls. Asian boys, however, do as poorly as white boys and white girls.