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The stereotyped notion in our American culture suggesting that all Asian Americans are highly successful in the academic arena, is based on the model minority thesis introduced by William Peterson in 1966 in an article titled, "Success Story: Japanese American Style." Although the model minority thesis was initially applied only to Japanese American's in Peterson's article, future research, literature, and popular notions extended the thesis to all Asian Americans consisting of: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian American groups. The latter group encompasses Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Filipino and Laotian groups. By aggregating all Asian Americans into a single group, conclusions taken from research were then generalized to all Asian Americans within the heterogeneous group., The model minority thesis poses several problems for all Asian Americans groups, and especially the Cambodian and Laotian groups in the United States. The thesis fails to account for differences in immigration patterns, socioeconomic status, academic success, and parental education. Additionally, the thesis is poorly suited to describing the Cambodian and Laotian experience., This study examines the inaccuracies of the model minority thesis as it relates to higher education experiences of specific Asian American groups in the Los Angeles Community College District. Specifically, this study argues that there is a mismatch between the actual characteristics of Southeast Asian community college students and the expected characteristics as derived from the model minority thesis. In particular, this paper investigates the variability of the actual students' parental levels of education, cultural related values of education, and student success and the extent of their divergence from the model minority stereotype., Through exploring the contemporary variation that exists among Asian American groups at the community college level, this study found that Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Filipino students in general have more educated parents and different educational values than their Cambodian and Laotian counterparts. Moreover, in many instances, these differences could have affected Cambodian and Laotian students' scholastic performance. In particular, evidence of an impact was observed in Cambodian and Laotian students' lower grade point averages and course completion ratios when compared to the other Asian groups., Unrestricted.

Traffic responsive control strategies are increasingly being implemented to improve intersection performance. Critical intersection control (CIC) is using real-time traffic data to better assign green times to conflicting movements. However, the benefits of CIC have not been assessed, and existing methodologies for estimating intersection performance do not account for CIC or other traffic responsive control strategies. The effectiveness of CIC was evaluated at seven signalized intersections in the City of Los Angeles. The findings indicate that CIC generally improves traffic operations. The ongoing evaluation of additional test sites will result in guidelines and adjustment factors in estimating intersection performance under CIC using the Highway Capacity Manual and other analysis techniques. Key Words: Traffic Signals, Capacity, Level of Service, Critical Intersection Control (CIC)

The City of Los Angeles and Caltrans would like a simulation testbed for testing alternate traffic management strategies in the Santa Monica corridor. This study assesses the data available for such a simulation and describes data needs, potential sources, and data preparation required. It presents a work plan and resource requirements for acquiring the necessary data. The Appendix analyzes the conditions under which a simulation testbed is worthwhile. This study supported another PATH project, Los Angeles Smart Corridor Simulation Feasibility Study (MOU 270), which analyzed candidate models for the simulation and determined their data requirements. Key words: Data, transportation modeling, traffic simulation, Santa Monica Corridor, Smart Corridor

As part of a project investigating the benefits of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems (IVHS) technology using simulation, two models of the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles were developed. This report describes the work performed to create, test, and apply these simulations. Two independent simulations were coded, using FREQ and INTEGRATION models, from the available data. The report describes the strategies, limitations, and assumptions needed to code the Santa Monica Freeway using the two simulation tools. After coding the models, calibrating the output to match traffic performance from a typical day was needed to insure that the simulations would be useful for IVHS investigations. Three representative studies using the FREQ model of the freeway to perform initial investigations are described. These investigations (considering future demand growth, ramp metering, and HOV lanes) are representative of the potential for study using simulation. The report ends with individual evaluations of the two models for freeway simulations and suggestions for future research.