Comparisons of aptitude and achievement patterns of Asian-American and Caucasian-American students.

Abstract

A dearth of research exists to explain the disproportionately high level of academic achievement by Asian-Americans. Little attempt has been made to investigate indepth the relationship of several proposed factors to Asian achievement. The purpose of this study was to explore differences between Asian-Americans and Caucasian-Americans in cognitive ability, language proficiency, and achievement in reading, mathematics, and general knowledge. Forty-six Asian-Americans and forty-six Caucasian-Americans from the norming sample for the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Revised (WJ-R) (1989) were matched on the basis of school, gender, and number of years of school attendance. Broad Cognitive Ability scores of the WJ-R as well as scores from the WJ-R Tests of Achievement were then used to compare aptitude and achievement of each member of the two groups. No significant differences in Cognitive Ability were then used to compare aptitude and achievement of each member of the two groups. No significant differences in Cognitive Ability were found between Asian-Americans and Caucasian-Americans. There were also no significant differences found between the two groups in language proficiency or reading achievement. Significant differences did exist in mathematics and knowledge achievement but the superiority of Asian-Americans in those two areas could not be attributed to community socio-economic status (S.E.S.), school curriculum, or aptitude. Implications for future research on achievement indicate the need to refocus, not upon school curriculum and socio-economic status, but rather upon home process variables.