The Academic Achievement Of Chinese-American Fluent English Proficient And Non-Minority Background Intermediate Grade Students (Bilingual, Asian-American)

The primary purpose of the study was to determine how well Chinese-American fluent English proficient students were achieving relative to their non-minority background counterparts in the areas of reading, language, and mathematics achievement. A secondary goal of the study was to provide an idea of the adequacy of the California standards relating to the identification and reclassification of language minority students as mandated in Assembly Bill 507. A total of 544 students were involved in the study. They were separated into three groups: (1) initally identified Chinese-American fluent English proficient students (FEPi), (2) reclassified Chinese-American fluent English proficient students (FEPr), and (3) non-minority background students. All the student chosen for the study were from the Alhambra School District in Los Angeles County and were enrolled in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. ANOVA results indicated statistically significant differences in language and mathematics achievement between both Chinese-American FEP groups and the non-minority background group. No significant differences were detected between the three groups for reading achievement although group means for both Chinese-American groups were higher than that for the non-minority background group. Socio-economic status was also found to affect achievement for some Chinese-American students. Because of the diversity of the Chinese-American population, it is recommended that student background characteristics be taken into consideration when determining educational policies and programs for these students