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This qualitative study examines how Chinese immigrant parents perceive the importance of sending their children to a "good" school district and analyzes their strategies in doing so. Nine families from different economic and educational backgrounds participated in the study. Results show that some parents were not satisfied with children's previous schools and decided to move to higher performing school districts. Parents had different levels of economic preparation and thus used different strategies to achieve their goal. Higher income families chose to purchase homes in "good" school districts. In order to live in a "good" school district, lower income families' strategies included: purchasing a house and renting out a bedroom to reduce the economic burden, renting an affordable apartment, and living with relatives or friends. This study contributes to a better understanding of factors contributing to Chinese American students' educational experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acculturation plays a critical role in the adjustment of Asian Americans, as a large proportion of them are immigrants in the US. However, little is known about how acculturation influences Asian American adolescents' academic trajectories over time. Using a longitudinal sample of 444 Chinese American families (54 % female children), the current study explored the effect of mothers', fathers', and adolescents' individual acculturation profiles and parent-child acculturation dissonance on adolescents' academic trajectories from 8th to 12th grade. Academic performance was measured by grade point average (GPA), and by standardized test scores in English language arts (ELA) and Math every year. Latent growth modeling analyses showed that adolescents with a Chinese-oriented father showed faster decline in GPA, and Chinese-oriented adolescents had lower initial ELA scores. Adolescents whose parents had American-oriented acculturation profiles tended to have lower initial Math scores. These results suggest that Chinese and American profiles may be disadvantageous for certain aspects of academic performance, and bicultural adolescents and/or adolescents with bicultural parents are best positioned to achieve across multiple domains. In terms of the role of parent-child acculturation dissonance on academic trajectories, the current study highlighted the importance of distinguishing among different types of dissonance. Adolescents who were more Chinese-oriented than their parents tended to have the lowest initial ELA scores, and adolescents experiencing more normative acculturation dissonance (i.e., who were more American-oriented than their parents) had the highest initial ELA scores. No effects of parent-child acculturation dissonance were observed for GPAs or standardized Math scores. Altogether, the current findings add nuances to the current understanding of acculturation and adolescent adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory qualitative study aimed to examine the perspectives of teachers and parents of Chinese American students with disabilities regarding home–school communication in the special education field. The author recruited 2 parents and 2 teachers for this study. Different sources of data including observations, interviews, documentations, and e-mail exchanges were gathered and analyzed to identify components of effective interactions from both groups of participants. Emerging themes were identified: advocating for their child's education, mismatched expectations, barriers to communication, collaboration, and perspectives on building effective communication. Challenges to positive parent–teacher interactions included unstated assumptions about communication, communication barriers, and mismatched expectations will be discussed. Implications of these findings will be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Designing a learning environment that is culturally responsive to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds requires school professionals to view each student and his or her family as an individual entity. Cultural disposition consists of attributes exclusive to each student and should not be adopted as a blanket definition in characterizing individuals under the same cultural umbrella. To assist with such differentiations for students of Chinese heritage, three area topics with recommended practices will be discussed: (a) parent/family influence of participation and collaboration in schools, (b) considerations for academic instruction/learning and classroom management, and (c) structuring the learning environment to facilitate social-emotional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a school and community collaborative initiative that targeted students of Chinese descent as a suicide at-risk population. Its main focus was to reach out to immigrant parents to help them strengthen communication and relationships with their adolescent children and to facilitate their access to mental health services in the community. Discussion focuses on implementation of the educational workshop curriculum, relevant to Chinese immigrant values and parenting styles as well as engagement strategies for forming empathic alliance with immigrant parents. Implications for school social workers as cross-cultural liaisons also are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Chinese American students are often perceived as problem-free high achievers. Recent research, however, suggests that high-achieving Chinese American students can experience elevated levels of stress, especially comparing to their peers from other ethnic groups. In this paper, we examine how family dynamics may influence psychological adjustment among a group of high-achieving adolescents. Drawing on survey data collected on 295 Chinese American and 192 European American 9th graders attending a highly selective magnet school, our findings show that Chinese American adolescents reported significantly lower levels of psychological adjustment (d = −.31), and significantly less family cohesion (d = −.34) and more conflict (d = .56) than their European American peers. Further, the ethnic differences on adjustment disappeared after controlling for perceptions of family cohesion and conflict, indicating that such perceptions may be a key factor in understanding the high academic achievement/low psychological adjustment paradoxical pattern of development among Chinese American adolescents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Physicians base their practices on scientific knowledge that varies little from one country to another, but their experience and their careers are shaped by the culture in which they live and work. This essay casts light on medical practice in mainland China, based on three months of field work with an elite group of physicians at a tertiary academic medical center in summer 2009. It is a story of a diverse group of Chinese professionals navigating a demanding profession, and of the foreign college student on whom they left an indelible impact. Many of the normative features of the Chinese medical profession-its chain of command, commitment to medical ethics, and scientific orientation-are highly comparable to the working lives of American physicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on in-depth interview data collected on 18 high-achieving Chinese American students, the authors examine domains of acculturation-based conflicts, parent and child internal conflicts, and conflict resolution in their families. Their analyses show that well-established negative communication patterns in educational expectations, divergent attitudes toward other races and country of origin, and cultural and language barriers contributed to parent-child conflicts. Their findings also illustrate important internal conflicts both adolescents and parents had along the cultural tightrope of autonomy and relatedness. Finally, the vertical in-group conflict resolution style that was evidenced in youths' accounts raises questions about cultural differences in constructive versus destructive conflict resolution styles. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: In 2010, I was invited to give the annual lecture that honors Lawrence Cremin, the historian of American education who became the seventh president of Teachers College, Columbia University. To pay tribute to the way in which Cremin used an academic discipline to bring rigor and depth to educational research, I described my own use of an academic discipline--linguistics and its varied tools of discourse analysis--in conducting research at the College. Focus of Research: I focused on two major areas of research: (a) ethnocultural variation in processing spatio-temporal information in languages throughout the world and (b) children's interaction with multiple-choice tests of reading comprehension, with particular attention to the ways in which their ethnocultural background affects how they respond. Research Design and Findings: The first area of research used experimental methods developed by a research team that I directed. The major finding was that distinctive patterns of processing spatiotemporal information by speakers of African languages (e.g., Hausa) and Asian languages (e.g., Chinese) are preserved when African Americans and Chinese Americans speak English in the Western hemisphere. In addition to ethnocultural identity, our research team uncovered other factors such as age and gender that are reflected in the preservation of these patterns. I draw on the model structured heterogeneity (Herzog, Weinrich, & Labov, 1968) to show that what may appear to be random variation in language use can be accounted for by attending to sociocultural factors. The second area of research used quantitative methods (experimental probes) and qualitative methods (interviews). Our major finding was that children, especially African Americans who live in the inner city, often make inferences when responding to a multiple-choice task, which, although stimulated by features in the test item, lead them to select a choice, which, given the test makers' highly restricted model of literacy, cannot be justified. Our research team drew on the model ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1962) in identifying the contrasting interpretive norms used by test makers and test takers. We then developed a model grounded constructivism (Hill, 2004) that was used to build an alternative approach to assessment in which children respond to an integrated set of tasks that call for three different kinds of response: factual, inferential, and experiential. Recommendations: An academic discipline can provide greater depth and rigor in educational research, but those who draw on one must seek, much like Lawrence Cremin, to make their research intelligible to an informed public concerned with educational policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a paucity of research about the schooling experiences of preschool Chinese emergent bilinguals. This is especially evident when compared to other minoritized groups and warrants attention because of the rapid increase in Chinese immigrants in the US recently. This study investigates the sociocultural misalignments a group of preschool Chinese emergent bilinguals from low socioeconomic backgrounds encounter in school and the implications of these misalignments. The study spanned 7 months and included participant observation, interviews, and collection of textual/visual evidence as methods of inquiry. Findings point toward assimilationist tendencies in school as students experienced challenges becoming independent, making decisions, adjusting to individualistic outlooks, and adapting to different dining habits. Despite the subjugation of home culture under school culture, parents and students remained silent about their needs. The findings suggest that this silence needs to be reinterpreted in light of cultural and class differences. The author also proposes the deconstruction of the model minority myth surrounding Chinese students and the reimagination of new ways to collaborate with families and students so that both home and school cultures can be equally honored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study examines three non-limited English proficiency (LEP)/English as a second language (ESL)-labeled Chinese American students' English language and literacy performance in mainstream classrooms. Multiple methods were adopted for data collection, including interviewing the focal students' teachers and their parents, observing and audiotaping classroom interactions, and collecting student work. Findings indicate that although the focal students passed the ESL placement test and standardized tests when entering public school, they still showed needs in developing specific areas in English as a second language and sociolinguistic competence. However, findings demonstrated that such needs have been overlooked in class and also ignored by the mainstream curriculum. Even if their teachers noticed that the focal students' use of English language was different from other English monolingual students, the teachers did not consider the difference as a serious problem and did not feel the need to make any accommodations for them. Therefore, this study attempts to expand mainstream teachers' understanding of language minority students; it advocates that literacy developmental needs of language minority students should not be understood simply through labels used by schools to classify students and scores that students obtained on high-stakes tests which are the judgmental criterion of mainstream valuing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigated four Chinese American students' biliteracy development in two contexts: their heritage language school and public school. Data were collected through participant observa- tions, audio-recorded classroom interactions, student work samples, and semistructured interviews. Findings demonstrated how literacy instruction across languages and contexts helped to pave a path to biliteracy development. In addition, this study explored the influence of literacy instruction across languages and contexts and their effect on the focal students' biliteracy development. The study illustrated how cultural factors shaped literacy instruction across languages and contexts. Finally, pedagogical implications were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationships among adult attachment, cultural orientation, and three areas of psychosocial functioning (i.e., emotional expressiveness, social difficulty, and depressive symptoms) with a sample of 112 Chinese American college students. Findings indicated that both attachment avoidance and anxiety were significantly associated with indictors of psychosocial functions in the directions predicted by the theory which provides support to the cross-cultural applicability of adult attachment perspectives on Chinese American populations. In addition, endorsement of independent cultural orientation was found to be negatively associated with both social difficulty and depressive symptoms, and independent cultural orientation moderated the relation between attachment anxiety and social difficulty. Findings and implications are discussed based on attachment perspectives and the acculturation processes and challenges experienced by Chinese American individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies evaluating a school-based, culturally responsive career exploration and assessment group for low-income, urban Chinese immigrant youth are described. Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods compared the treatment (CEDAR group) versus the control group (no intervention). In Study 1, CEDAR group participants reported a significant decrease in career indecision; increases in academic, career, and college help seeking; and career decision-making self-efficacy at posttest compared to the control group. In Study 2, CEDAR group participants reported a significant increase in career decision making; decreases in career counseling stigma and value, collective self esteem, and affirmation and belonging in ethnic identity at posttest compared to the control group. Qualitative data from Study 1 and 2 revealed that participants had experienced an increased sense of social support, self-regard, self-knowledge, and learned practical career skills after participating in the CEDAR group. Implications for future research in career assessment and program development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does group psychoanalytic theory and technique have an application in an ordinary high school classroom? In this article, the writer describes a research project in which she attempts to answer this question by applying the techniques with a group of recently immigrated Chinese students who wished to improve their spoken English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the language skills and factors that predict English-language proficiency for a sample of 209 students ages 10 to 16 from three immigrant groups-Chinese, Dominican, and Haitian. Sources of data included structured student interviews, parent interviews, and individual language assessments. On average, students' English-language proficiency was far below their age and grade level with only 15 students scoring average or above average for their age. Significant differences were found among the groups. Demographic and language factors were found to predict students' language skills with differential effects across groups. Implications for the learning and education of these students are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the effort of academic libraries in the U.S. to become an extension of traditional service providers to meet the needs of growing Chinese population in the country. According to the article, school library media specialists can aid libraries learn and apply lessons from other types of libraries that experienced the same challenges in serving Chinese students. It is stated that the library and the support role that it plays in the life of a Chinese child cannot be underestimated.

To explore the cultural mechanisms underlying the distress experience among Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese, Chinese Americans, and European Americans, this investigation examined the role of face concern in psychological distress through a series of studies in both college students and community samples. Face concern refers to one's concern over maintaining or enhancing one's social position and worth that are earned through the fulfillment of specific social roles. Study 1 confirmed the single-factor structure of face concern among Chinese Americans and European Americans. Face concern was significantly and positively related to distress above and beyond age, gender, and ethnicity. Study 2 deconstructed face concern into a two-factor model among Hong Kong Chinese and Mainland Chinese university students (selfface and other-face) with discriminant predictive power. In Study 3, the twofactor model of face concern was further supported in the community samples of Hong Kong Chinese and Mainland Chinese. Self-face was found to be positively associated with distress. These findings highlighted the importance of attending to specific cultural dynamic of face concern in counseling services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, a corpus of research has been conducted to understand immigrant adolescent ethnic identity formation. However, few studies have examined the intersection of gender and ethnic identity. In this paper, drawing on mainly qualitative data collected on 72 Chinese immigrant adolescents, I present findings on the gendered expectations at home and school for Chinese immigrant adolescents and how they negotiated these expectations in constructing their identity. Findings suggest that while both Chinese immigrant girls and boys faced conflicting expectations at home and school, how they negotiated these differences differed. By examining issues related to gender, ethnicity, and identity, this paper also sheds light on the gendered pattern of educational outcomes of the new second generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study compares and analyzes the social network experiences of two working-class Chinese students from immigrant families (Sally, Alex) to those of one working-class Latina student from an immigrant family (Elizabeth). Theory holds that these students would have difficulty obtaining educational resources and support (i.e., social capital) to hurdle educational discrimination (Biddle, 2001). They would also have difficulty devising post-secondary education plans. As is argued throughout, it is Chinese students' presence in the more resource-full networks and organizations that facilitate their acquisition of social capital. This bears on their greater educational trajectories. The Latina student's experience contrasts theirs. Her limited social capital complicates her ability to hurdle educational discrimination. This reduces her high school opportunities and her post-secondary educational opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author investigated the level of participation and experiences of 5 Chinese parents of children with disabilities in individualized education program (IEP) meetings through observations and interviews. Results of the study suggested that the Chinese parents were dissatisfied with 12 of 15 observed IEP meetings. The level of parental participation in IEP meetings was minimal. Participants indicated numerous challenges preventing them from taking a more active role in meetings, such as the language barrier, poor interpretation services, and disrespect by professionals. The author discusses the implications for research to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general belief that Asian American adolescents are successful has led researchers to ignore variations in Asian adolescents' academic success. Using samples of Chinese and Filipino adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined whether differences between these two groups in acculturation, parent-adolescent attachment, and parental school involvement could account for academic achievement differences. Results revealed that Chinese adolescents generally performed better in school than their Filipino counterparts. Factors that predicted academic achievement were ethnicity, acculturation, and parents' academic involvement. An interaction was found between ethnicity and acculturation, indicating that acculturation is a predictor of academic performance among Filipino youth but not among Chinese youth. Cultural values in parent-adolescent attachment, acculturation, and parents' school involvement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study assessed variation in cultural orientation among Asian American adolescents by age and ethnic density in the community. A total of 128 students at a public high school in Oakland, California, participated in the study. Of these early and middle adolescents, 86 were Chinese American and 42 were Southeast Asian American. They completed the General Ethnicity Questionnaire-Ethnic and American versions, which assessed cultural orientation in the domains of cultural pride, language, social affiliation, food, and recreation. Middle adolescents reported a stronger ethnic orientation in the domains of social affiliation and recreation and weaker American orientation in the domains of food and language use (English) than early adolescents. Furthermore, Chinese Americans, residing in an ethnically dense community, reported a stronger ethnic orientation in the domains of language and food and a weaker American orientation in language than their Southeast Asian American peers with less access to their ethnic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The image of the model minority dominates scholarly and public discourse on Asian American children and adolescents. However, recent research has shown that despite their high levels of educational achievement Asian American students report poor psychological and social adjustment. Using an ecological framework, this article sought to explore the family and peer experiences of Chinese American adolescents as these are the two most critical contexts influencing adolescents' psychological and social adjustment. Drawing on longitudinal data collected from two studies conducted in Boston and New York on 120 first- and second-generation Chinese American students, our analyses suggested that many Chinese American adolescents feel alienated from their parents and peers. The alienation from parents was due to factors such as language barriers, parenting work schedules, and high parental educational expectations. Alienation from peers was due to ongoing peer discrimination from both Chinese and non-Chinese peers. Implications and future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores parental and community responses to Chinese American students' struggle for Chinese language classes at Riverside High School in California. The authors present survey findings on what parents and community members know about home language loss, power, knowledge, and democracy. It suggests the need of taking actions to fight for power and the representation of Chinese Americans in the school administration, which include recruiting teachers with Chinese backgrounds. In addition, school and community involvement play a key role in the students' fight for their rights by making students feel as if they are not alone in fighting for their rights.

Cultural background not only influences family beliefs about the value of education, but may affect how academic expectations are communicated by parents and perceived by their children. This study examined differences in willingness to conform to parents' expectations of academic achievement as perceived by American, Chinese-American, and Chinese high school students. Findings indicated that Chinese students were more willing to accept their parents' advice and cared more about fulfilling academic expectations than did American students. Students in all three groups had similar feelings of independence. The views of Chinese-American students reflected the influence of both their Chinese heritage and the American culture in which they resided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current investigation examined the experience of college challenges in 112 American-born, 121 early immigrant, and 110 late immigrant Chinese American students. Due to differential acculturation, it was hypothesized that late immigrants would encounter the most difficulties and American-born Chinese the least. Using the 13-domain Inventory of College Challenges for Ethnic Minority Students, we found that late immigrants reported more problems than American-born Chinese on six academic, social, and general living domains and experienced more problems than early immigrants on two academic and social domains. Additionally, early immigrants fared worse than American-born Chinese on two social and general living domains. Service implications, particularly for late immigrants, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a case study on the educational factors involved in the failure of Mei, a 14-year-old Chinese student, to attain proficiency in the English language in a U.S. public school. Family and educational background of Mei; Results of the implementation of the ESRI, an informal reading inventory, to identify the causes of Mei's inability to read; Preparedness of the teachers of Mei to teach English as a second language.

Presents a study that applied the PRECEDE model to investigate dietary predisposing, enabling, reinforcing factors and dietary behavior among Chinese-American college students with a community-based nutrition education program and those without the program. Description of a survey used in the study; Details of a community-based nutrition education program sponsored by the Chinatown Community Board; Results.

Argues for the revision of a code-based and individual learner-based views of second-language learning. Study of adolescent Chinese-immigrant students in California in the early 1990s; Assessment of the English-language development of Mandarin-speaking students in seventh and eight grades; Multiple discourses to which the students were subjected.

On the basis of social identity theory, the author hypothesized that social identity (ethnic category) and salient intergroup comparisons would produce greater preference and perceived homogeneity within the in group than with the out- group. To test this hypothesis, surveys including stimuli of both African and Chinese American membership were administered to both an African American and a Chinese American sample of students. The results for both samples strongly support the hypothesis: Chinese American subjects judged the in group (Chinese targets) more favorably and perceived the Chinese to be more homogeneous than the out group (Black targets). Similarly, African American subjects judged the ingroup (Black tar- gets) more favorably and perceived Blacks to be more homogeneous than the out- group (Chinese targets). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's experience of being a teacher of exceptional children in a Chinatown in San Francisco, California. He considers teaching children of different personas as an adventurous as well as a challenging task. He decided to instruct a Chinese class despite his initial thoughts of being an inefficient teacher to his pupils.

Covers information on racist law in California allowing the state superintendent of education to withhold funding from schools which enrolled Chinese children. Lawsuit filed against San Francisco United School District (SFUSD); Discussion of a consent decree and its goals; Liberal defense of quotas by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Plaintiff in the Chinese-American community.

Presents news briefs on issues related to education in Southwestern States. Acceptance $50 by student Allen Grooves for a prize essay on "The Value of Total Abstinence in Pasadena, California; Decision of U.S.-born Chinese students to style themselves U.S. people in San Francisco, California.

The article presents a list of publications received by the journal related to education. The list includes "Chinese Students in America: Qualities Associated with Their Success," by Jennings Pinkwel Chu, "A Syllabus in the Technique of Teaching in High Schools," by Willis L. Uhl, and "Lives of Girls Who Became Famous," by Sarah K. Bolton.

The article reports that several Chinese parents had withdrawn their children at John Swett Grammar School in Oakland, California, due to a charge that the Chinese were being educated to become missionaries in China and were not to become American citizens.

The article reports that Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Chinese student Bill Quon formed an unofficial company that would be employed by a local firm in an effort to raise finance for his engineering studies. In February 1935, Quon appealed for assistance to Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, who ensured funding his studies on the condition that he brings more friends to join the company.