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THE PERFORMANCE of Asian American students on various mathematics tests, especially the SAT, has caused some people to speculate, in all seriousness, about an Asian "smart gene" for mathematics. In 1997, for example, while the national average for the SAT was 511, those reporting their ethnic background to be Asian averaged 560. As I noted in the December 1997 Research column, some who hold this view once claimed the gene belonged to Jewish kids. That same column also discussed a study from the Educational Testing Service that found a great deal of diversity within the Asian population. It also found that Asians were better educated and wealthier than the nation as a whole. I suggested that these socioeconomic advantages, rather than genes, could be the source of Asian excellence.
Now there is additional evidence to support the contention that, when not favored by socioeconomic factors, Asian students look like everybody else - at least once they have mastered English. The 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment found that white eighth-graders scored 282, while their Asian peers managed only 274. NAEP's treatment of this finding clearly reflects the combined influence of ratiocination and the scientific method: NAEP (and the U.S. Department of Education) published the scores, but they were tucked into an appendix along with a discussion of why they might not be valid.
And indeed, the results do seem odd, since the scores represent a 14-point decline since the 1992 testing. And in 1992, Asians enjoyed a five-point advantage over whites. On the other hand, the 1996 scores are only five points lower than the 1990 scores for Asians. It is also true that the Asian sample is small and subject to larger sampling error than scores for larger ethnic groups. (NAEP does not stratify its sample.) NAEP also calculated an Asian average by aggregating data from the various states that participated in the stateby-state comparison. This omits about 10 states that did not participate in that part of the assessment. Calculated from these data, the Asian score is 282, precisely the same as the score for white students.
The NAEP results for science, incidentally, look like the NAEP results for mathematics. At all three grades assessed, whites scored highest.
The NAEP...