How Do Asian Students Get to the Top of the Class?

Why do many Asian students excel? The secret is parenting, say the authors of the provocative book "Top of the Class: How Asian Parents Raise High Achievers - and How You Can Too."
By Dr. Soo Kim Abboud and Jane Kim

While Asian Americans make up only 4% of the U.S. population, Asian-American students make up a much higher percentage of student bodies in top universities

Dr. Soo Kim Abboud and Jane Kim

around the country. The percentages are astounding: 24% at Stanford, 18% at Harvard, and 25% at both Columbia and Cornell. More Asian Americans over the age of 25 have bachelor's degrees and advanced degrees than any other race or ethnic group. And after outperforming their colleagues in school, Asian Americans also bring home higher incomes than their non-Asian counterparts — almost $10,000 more annually than the rest of the population (2002 statistics).

So what does this mean? Are Asian students simply smarter? Contrary to what much of the public may believe, Asian students are no more intellectually gifted than non-Asian students are. The reason that Asian students outperform their peers in the classroom has nothing to do with how they were born and everything to do with how they are raised. continue...