Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/As-schools-reopen-Asian-American-students-are-16000068.php
As schools reopen, Asian American students are missing from classrooms
Moriah Balingit, Hannah Natanson and Yutao Chen, The Washington Post
March 4, 2021
Updated: March 4, 2021 7:25 a.m.
It's happening in well-to-do Pakistani households in the suburbs of Washington and among Chinese restaurant workers in Philadelphia. It's happening among weary Filipino nurses in Queens, Hmong refugee families in Minneapolis and in Silicon Valley's Asian American community.
As school buildings start to reopen, Asian and Asian American families are choosing to keep their children learning from home at disproportionately high rates. They say they are worried about elderly parents in cramped, multigenerational households, distrustful of promised safety measures and afraid their children will face racist harassment at school. On the flip side, some are pleased with online learning and see no reason to risk the health of their family.
In New York City, Asian American children make up the smallest share of children back in classrooms - just under 12% - even though they represent 18% of all students. In Tennessee, less than half of Asian families enrolled in Metro Nashville Public Schools opted for in-person learning, compared with nearly two-thirds of White children.
In Chicago, two-thirds of White students chose in-person learning, while just a third of Asian, Black and Latino students decided to head back. And in Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest district in Virginia, just over 30% of Asian families selected face-to-face instruction this spring, by far the smallest return rate reported among any racial group.
The academic consequences could be devastating, warned Mya Baker of education nonprofit TNTP, which works with school districts across the country to boost achievement among low-income and minority students. This is especially true in communities of immigrant and refugee Asian families, she said, who are often overlooked due to the pervasiveness of the "model minority myth."
In reality, many Asian communities face the same kinds of challenges that hold back Black and Latino students, including poverty, language barriers and under-resourced schools. In New York City, more than 1 in 5 Asians live in poverty, the second highest of any racial or ethnic group, according to city data...
As schools reopen, Asian American students are missing from classrooms
Moriah Balingit, Hannah Natanson and Yutao Chen, The Washington Post
March 4, 2021
Updated: March 4, 2021 7:25 a.m.
It's happening in well-to-do Pakistani households in the suburbs of Washington and among Chinese restaurant workers in Philadelphia. It's happening among weary Filipino nurses in Queens, Hmong refugee families in Minneapolis and in Silicon Valley's Asian American community.
As school buildings start to reopen, Asian and Asian American families are choosing to keep their children learning from home at disproportionately high rates. They say they are worried about elderly parents in cramped, multigenerational households, distrustful of promised safety measures and afraid their children will face racist harassment at school. On the flip side, some are pleased with online learning and see no reason to risk the health of their family.
In New York City, Asian American children make up the smallest share of children back in classrooms - just under 12% - even though they represent 18% of all students. In Tennessee, less than half of Asian families enrolled in Metro Nashville Public Schools opted for in-person learning, compared with nearly two-thirds of White children.
In Chicago, two-thirds of White students chose in-person learning, while just a third of Asian, Black and Latino students decided to head back. And in Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest district in Virginia, just over 30% of Asian families selected face-to-face instruction this spring, by far the smallest return rate reported among any racial group.
The academic consequences could be devastating, warned Mya Baker of education nonprofit TNTP, which works with school districts across the country to boost achievement among low-income and minority students. This is especially true in communities of immigrant and refugee Asian families, she said, who are often overlooked due to the pervasiveness of the "model minority myth."
In reality, many Asian communities face the same kinds of challenges that hold back Black and Latino students, including poverty, language barriers and under-resourced schools. In New York City, more than 1 in 5 Asians live in poverty, the second highest of any racial or ethnic group, according to city data...