JOANNE JACOBS: Low-SES Asians are top students: Can ‘excellence gap’ be closed?

Thirteen percent of Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) eighth graders from very low socioeconomic families (mom didn’t finish high school) scored “advanced” in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), concludes Fordham’s new report on “excellence gaps.” That’s more than any other group except for very high SES (mom completed college) whites, note Meredith Coffey and Adam Tyner. Reading is not quite as dramatic, but AAPI students again are very high achievers at all SES levels.

Coffey and Tyner analyzed data from 2003 to 2022. Asian students started as high achievers and improved significantly — especially those from less advantaged families.

This is why elite colleges can’t get the “diversity” they want by giving an admissions advantage to high achievers from disadvantaged backgrounds: Too many Asians.

“Too many Asians” or any other race is only a problem for actual racists.