Academic Profiling: Latino Asian America Ochoa

In Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian American, and the Achievement Gap, by Gilda Ochoa, it describes how a focus on the achievement gap, can cause harm to both Latina/Latino and Asian American students by ignoring systematic and structural injustices that maintain “binary” and “hierarchical” thinking. One of her arguments is that the achievement gap gives off a mirage that inequality is being managed by moving the focus to “high-stakes testing”. According to her bibliography Gilda L. Ochoa lives in Southern California. She enjoys reading, writing, and running. She is also a professor of sociology and Chicana/Chicano and Latina/Latino studies at Pomona College. She teaches and writes about race, ethnicity, education, and communities. She is …show more content…
The educational, systematic and structural injustices that occur can be seen in these interviews. Through them all unfairness can be seen in both the “high- performing students,” or Asian Americans and the “low- performing students,” or Latinas/Latinos. The students and faculty have come to believe in these everyday stereotypes of their classmates and students as being “smart”, and “hard working” if you look Asian and “stupid”, and “lazy” if Latino/Latina. Reading these interviews it confirms the harm that these stereotypes have caused and confirms that the achievement gap is greatly affected by this. Asian Americans at Southern California High School (SCHS) are encouraged by their counselors, teachers, students, and even their parents to be the best, to make straight A’s, take AP and Honors courses. That’s why there is a racially disproportionate amount of students at the school in the more advanced classes, allowing for better opportunities, more statuses, and better treatment. After reading the interviews of some of the Asian American students you learn that this is not all beneficial. They can feel used, overworked, and pressured to live up to the “perfect” stereotypical Asian American image. On the other side, Latinos/Latinas are one of the most underappreciated cultures at Southern California High School (SCHS) and also in the community. They receive the least amount of encouragement and help from faculty, counselors, and other students. Not very often are they in AP and Honors courses at the school. They are seen as forever needing help because they don’t try or work hard enough or because their parents don’t encourage them and help them with school. But this is far from the truth after reading about the hardships there families actually go through to help their children succeed. It makes there struggles even harder when there are educational,