Chapter 15: Methodological Confounding In Cross-Cultural Research: Issues of Instrumentation and Analysis in Demystifying the Asian Success Formula

Achievement gaps among racial groups have persisted at all levels of the education system in the United States (Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003). By holding all constituencies accountable for bringing all children to the state proficiency standards, the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) is embraced by many as a remedy to close this long-standing racial divide (e.g., Haycock, 2005). Across all domestic and international measures of academic success, Asian and Asian-American students have consistently outperformed other racial and ethnic groups, earning themselves the title of “Model Minority” (Lee, 1996). As a result, causal-comparative studies that compare high-achieving Asian ethnic groups with their counterparts in an attempt to expo facto-ly reconstruct an Asian Success Formula have been emerging in both the popular press and the research literature (e.g., Abboud & Kim, 2006; Wang & Lin, 2005).