A new brief, authored by San José City College President Rowena M. Tomanag, under the Campaign for College Opportunity’s Affirming Equity, Ensuring Inclusion, Empowering Action initiative highlights policies and practices to ensure all Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students can attend college and succeed without sacrificing or leaving their cultural assets behind.
“If colleges and universities are going to provide meaningful, differentiated resources to their students, they must disaggregate their data on Asian American and NHPI subgroups,” Tomaneng said.
The new brief provides a detailed analysis of the college preparation, access, and success trends for multiple groups within the U.S. Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations, among the fastest-growing in the nation while noting the dangers of aggregating over 26 distinct Asian American and NHPI ethnic groups together.
The U.S. Department of Education projects that the number of Asian American and NHPI students enrolling in college will grow by 12% in the next four years. While, historically, Asian American students have been viewed as high-achieving students who gain access to and graduate from elite colleges and universities, this model minority myth masks serious disparities within Asian American and NHPI communities. It discourages investment, policies, and differentiated approaches that support Asian American and NHPI students in earning their college degrees.
The brief highlights that NHPI students are not as well supported in earning their degrees as their Asian American peers and often have graduation rates below those of their peers, more broadly at two-year and four-year institutions.
A series of recommendations are proposed for the federal government, state governments, and colleges and universities, including disaggregating data on Asian American and NHPI subgroups, expanding investment in colleges and universities serving Asian American and NHPI students, creating welcoming campus environments that ensure Asian American and NHPI students experience a sense of belonging, and increasing the recruitment and retention of Asian American and NHPI administrators and faculty to ensure diverse leadership representation.
Access the publication here.
