[quote author="bkshopr" date=1243989836]The fact that there are no consequences such as expell and lost of quota. Parents in poor school district such as SA will not push their kids to trying hard. They consider school as free "baby sitting" rather than intellectual enrichment. Irvine without the discipline of Asians parents or grand parents from oversea the kids would not have done this well in branding Irvine school reputation.
In my daughter's class there were 2 Chinese students born in China in the bottom tier that will not advance to Geometry This seems odd to me but then I learned both kids were adopted from China by Caucasian Parents. This should prove that math smart is not in the genes but by nurturing environment.
I think it should be the privilege to attend school and poor attitude and performance should lead to losing privileges.</blockquote>
It isn't only Asian kids that are driven and pushed by their parents to excel at school. As an immigrant who came out to the US when I was 5 from Europe, I would be confident in saying that most immigrant parents (whether they be asian, indian, european, african, hispanic) push their kids to do well in school because in their minds good grades translate into success (this can be disputed) like my parents did. For example, if I brought home all "As" and one "B" my parents wouldn't tell me that I did a great job...I'd get the 5th degree of why that "B" was there and if there were any problems they needed to know about (it didn't help being an only child either).
I never got when test scores have become the be-all and end-all...I mean do we want to turn our kids into great test taking drones who lack social and developmental skills because they do not have a well balanced environment of learning (sports, music, etc)? Kids that do not have a well balanced learning environment and are all about grades & test scores grow up to be intraverted, socially inept adults with a lack of common sense and "soft" skills (communication, negotiation, thinking outside of the box).