Asian Americans in education

In 2010 Asian immigrants surpassed Latinos as the largest group of newly arrived migrants to the United States Recently arrived Asian immigrants are, on average, more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value on marriage, parenthood, hard work, and career success than most Americans (Pew Research Center, 2012).  

Despite the general sense of expressed optimism and personal satisfaction, institutions of higher education are struggling to respond to the cultural particularities of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. Troubling cultural myths — such as the idea that Asian Americans are a model minority — continue to receive substantive critiques pertaining to their concealment of unequal social conditions affecting specific communities within the broader AAPI umbrella (Museus & Kiang, 2009). Indeed, as Kiran Ahuja, executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders, has noted, “Data disaggregation is some activists’ civil rights issue,” especially as it pertains to the various Asian ethnic groups within the United States. Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) are one of the resources catering to this diversity.

AANAPISIs are federally designated Minority Serving Institutions whose total student body population is at least 10% AAPI and at least 50% eligible for federal need-based financial assistance. These institutions tailor specific resources to cater to diverse AAPI populations within their student body. AANAPISIs are significant because they recognize the unique challenges AAPI students face, such as college access and completion. According to Robert Teranishi (2012), AAPI students who enroll in AANAPISIs primarily do so because of lower tuition costs, issues pertaining to language and culture, and proximity to home. AANAPISIs also play a crucial role in AAPI student attendance and degree conferral. In 2007, for example, AANAPISIs enrolled 75% of all low-income AAPI students in U.S. higher education (Congressional Record Service, 2009). In addition, AANAPISIs confer a sizable portion of education degrees to students of color.