Looking into the grade gap

Re “Trying to bridge the grade divide,” Column One, July 16

Thanks to Jack O’Connell for having the courage to not worry about political correctness and address a tough question. It seems that the students at Lincoln High School understand the situation better than the educators whom O’Connell assembled.

My best friend in medical school was black. My best friend during residency was Hispanic. I asked both of them what made them successful.

They both said it was because of their parents kicking their butts if they did not study. Sounds a lot like my Chinese parents. There may be multiple factors, but as the students at Lincoln know, the role of the parents is the most important factor.

Shiu Man Lee

Camarillo

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Each September, for the last seven years that I’ve taught sixth grade, I’ve had each student write down the lowest grade his or her parents would accept before the student would be punished. If you’re thinking the final grades mirrored the parents’ expectation, you earn an A.

Parental expectation is the main determinant of student grades, student behavior and the number of years of education a student completes.

Valerie Hartmann

Placentia

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The Times never emphasizes individual effort. Why ignore how long and hard kids study or how many books they read? Why should academic performance be considered an ethnic quality rather than individual achievement?

Individual bodies have individual brains, and individuals make choices in their lives as to what they do, what they want to be and how they want to lead their lives.

Robert Finger

Irvine

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That students agree expectations of their performance are so heavily based in cultural stereotypes is alarming at best. This demonstration of the model-minority myth in action -- the false idea that all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are achieving above and beyond -- further obscures the realities that inadequate data-reporting has already covered up: Many Southeast Asian American and Pacific Islander students are not thriving in our schools.

Education decision makers should not rely on assumptions to address the challenges our schools face. Instead, emphasis needs to be placed on consistent and clear data that show why students in L.A.’s schools are not graduating or performing at the levels of their peers, whether these students are Asian, Latino, Native American, black or white. If we shift our gaze from stereotypes to educational equity and quality, we will see that we must look to facts, not theory.

Doua Thor

Executive Director,

Southeast Asia Resource

Action Center

Washington