Asian-American schoolchildren tend to outperform their white counterparts in school because they try harder, according to a US study out Monday Asian-American schoolchildren tend to outperform their white counterparts in school because they try harder, according to a US study out Monday. 
 
 The findings were based on an analysis of records from two separate surveys tracking several thousand whites and Asians in the United States from kindergarten through high school. 
 
 Scientists at Queens College of New York, the University of Michigan and Peking University in Beijing looked at grades, test scores, teacher ratings, family income and education level, immigration status and other factors. 
 
 "Asian-Americans enter school with no discernible academic advantage over whites," said the study, noting that "advantage grows over time." 
 
 By fifth grade, or age 10-11, Asian-Americans "significantly outperform whites," and the peak difference is reached by grade 10, or age 15-16. 
 
 "Overall, these results suggest that the growing achievement gap can be attributed to a widening gap in academic effort rather than to differences in cognitive ability." 
 
 Asian-Americans tend to be motivated by cultural teachings that instill the notion that effort is more important than inborn ability, researchers said. 
 
 They also endure "greater parental pressures to succeed than in the case of comparable white peers." 
 
 The notion of a hard-working Asian student who is destined to succeed may be a stereotype, but it may actually work to the benefit of Asian-American youths, the researchers said. 
 
 "These positive stereotypes may help bolster Asian-American achievement just as negative stereotypes have been shown to hinder the achievement of African-American youth," said the article. 
 
 Asian-Americans' higher degree of success comes at a price, however. 
 
 Whether their family lineage traces back to the Philippines, South Asia, Southeast Asia or East Asia, these children report fewer positive feelings about themselves and say they spend less time with friends than whites, the study found. 
 
 "They also have more conflict with both parents than comparable white peers," it said. 
 
 The research was published in the May 5 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal. 
 
 Explore further: Research exposes racial discrimination against Asian-American men in job market 
 
 More information: "Explaining Asian Americans' academic advantage over whites," by Amy Hsin and Yu Xie, PNAS, 2014. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1406402111 ||||| A coalition of more than 60 Asian-American groups filed a federal discrimination complaint against Harvard University, claiming racial bias in undergraduate admissions. 
 
 Asian-American students with almost perfect college entrance-exam scores, top 1 percent grade-point averages, academic awards and leadership positions are more likely to be rejected than similar applicants of other races, according to their administrative complaint, filed Friday with the US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. Harvard denies any discrimination. 
 
 Their complaint, also filed with the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, reflects longstanding concern among academically high-performing Asian-Americans that they are held to a higher admissions standard at elite US colleges. While they represent about 6 percent of the US population and 21 percent of students admitted to Harvard’s freshman class this fall, they say they are being subjected to the kind of quotas that kept many Jews out of the same institutions in the first half of the 20th century. 
 
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 “So many in the Asian-American community have not spoken out,” said Yukong Zhao, 52, an executive at an engineering company and author of a book about Chinese culture who helped organize the groups filing the complaint. “We’ve been largely silent for 20 years.” 
 
 ‘Holistic review’ 
 
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 The coalition represents organizations such as the Houston Chinese Alliance, the Pakistan Policy Institute and the Sino Professionals Association, according to the complaint. It didn’t cite any individuals who had allegedly faced discrimination. 
 
 While Harvard officials hadn’t seen the complaint, Robert Iuliano, the school’s general counsel said in a statement that the college’s admissions policies comply fully with the law and are essential to the school’s mission. 
 
 “The college considers each applicant through an individualized, holistic review having the goal of creating a vibrant academic community that exposes students to a wide range of differences: background, ideas, experiences, talents and aspirations,” Iuliano said. 
 
 Affirmative action 
 
 Iuliano cited a landmark 1978 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action that referred to Harvard’s admission plan as an example of a legally sound approach. The treatment of Asian- Americans has factored into the debate over racial preferences for groups such as blacks and Hispanics, which survived a high court challenge in 2013. 
 
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 The filing marks the second complaint about admissions at Harvard in six months. Last year, Students for Fair Admissions Inc., a group which said it represents unidentified college applicants, filed a pending federal lawsuit in Boston against Harvard’s governing board, alleging that the school illegally limited admissions of Asian-Americans. 
 
 The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights first examined Harvard’s handling of Asian-American applicants more than 20 years ago. It turned up stereotyping by Harvard evaluators, such as this comment about one Asian-American candidate: “He’s quiet and, of course, wants to be a doctor.” 
 
 Higher scores 
 
 It also documented that Harvard admitted Asian-Americans at a proportionally lower rate than white applicants even though the Asian-Americans had slightly stronger SAT scores and grades. The agency concluded in 1990 that Harvard didn’t violate civil rights laws because preferences for alumni children and recruited athletes, rather than racial discrimination, accounted for the gap. The new complaint also says Asian-Americans suffer in admissions from stereotyping, such as a belief they lack creativity. 
 
 Princeton investigation 
 
 In 2011, a rejected Asian-American student filed a complaint with the Education Department against Harvard and Princeton University that was withdrawn the next year. The Education Department’s civil-rights division still has an open investigation against Princeton, stemming from complaints in 2006 and 2008, which included an allegation that the school discriminated against students of Asian background in admissions, according to the Department. 
 
 Princeton said it doesn’t discriminate and considers each applicant individually in enrolling a class “that is both excellent and diverse.” A spokesman said the school makes decisions on “a case by case basis.” 
 
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 Last year, Asian-Americans had the highest mean scores of any racial group on the math and writing sections of the SAT college entrance exam, according to the College Board, the New York nonprofit that administers the exam. On the reading section, they outscore all but white students, whom they lagged only slightly on average. They also win more than their share of academic competitions, the complaint said. 
 
 Lower expectations 
 
 Asian-Americans represent 5.6 percent of the US population. At Harvard, Asian-Americans made up 21 percent of the freshman class admitted in March, more than any other group apart from whites. In 2006, the percentage was was 17.7. Harvard this year accepted 5.3 percent of all applicants, second to Stanford University in its selectivity, the schools said. 
 
 Asian-American high-school students have lower expectations for getting into top colleges because of their race, said Chunyan Li, an assistant accounting professor at Pace University, who helped recruit groups to join the complaint. 
 
 “That to me, as a mother, is really hurtful,” said Li, 46, who has two teenage children. “It is easier for people to rationalize that they are not working hard enough than saying there is systematic discrimination.” 
 
 ‘Sea change’ 
 
 The coalition cited research from a 2009 book co-authored by Thomas Espenshade, an economist and senior scholar at the office of Population Research at Princeton University. 
 
 If all other credentials are equal, Asian-Americans need to score 140 points more than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics, and 450 points above African-Americans out of a maximum 1,600 on the math and reading SAT to have the same chance of admission to a private college, the book found. 
 
 In an interview, Espenshade said more evidence is needed to prove that Asian-Americans are facing discrimination because the schools evaluate “soft information” such as essays and teacher recommendations. Still, the mounting complaints from Asian- Americans represent a “sea change.” 
 
 “In some sense, they’re moving into the mainstream of American democratic participation,” Espenshade said. Once- isolated voices “have become a crescendo.”
– Researchers in the US and China are investigating the roots of a school-age stereotype: Why are Asian-American students more successful than their white peers? It's not a matter of innate cognitive ability, the experts find. Instead, Asian-American students often simply try harder, the study says, via Phys.org. That effort is fueled in part by "cultural beliefs" valuing hard work: "Studies show that Asian and Asian-American students tend to view cognitive abilities as qualities that can be developed through effort, whereas white Americans tend to view cognitive abilities as qualities that are inborn." What's more, Asian-American students may have "greater parental pressures to succeed than in the case of comparable white peers." As for the stereotype itself, it may actually "bolster Asian-American achievement just as negative stereotypes have been shown to hinder the achievement of African-American youth," researchers say. But the researchers suggest that Asian-American students also have less positive views of themselves and are less "socially engaged in school than their white peers." Researchers reached their conclusions through two national studies following thousands of students over several years, the Los Angeles Times reports.