What are some of the areas within the Asian American population that need more attention in higher education?
One of my biggest goals for this book was to demonstrate empirically that the prevailing assumption that AAPIs are a model minority is inaccurate, misleading, and damaging for the population. Disaggregated data on the AAPI population reveal a wide range of demographic characteristics that are unlike any other racial group with regard to their heterogeneity. Generalizations about the AAPI population miss incidences where they are experiencing high secondary school drop-out rates, low rates of college participation, and low college completion rates. Among the most vulnerable communities of AAPIs are Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders, who are often facing demographic conditions that go unrecognized on a national level. In St. Paul, Minnesota, for example, which is home to the largest concentration of Hmong outside of Southeast Asia, nearly 40 percent of Hmong children live in households in poverty, which is nearly three times the national average. Another community, Waianae, Oahu in
