A response to the model minority thesis : intragroup differences among Asian American community college students in the Los Angeles Community College District

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.