Advocates Push for AAPI Curriculum in New Jersey Schools

Bill would require schools to teach students about the history and contributions of AAPIs to the U.S.



In New Jersey -- where Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group -- a coalition of teachers, students, parents, politicians, and community members are fighting for "thoughtful and comprehensive Asian American and Pacific Islander studies into K through 12 curriculums in New Jersey public schools."

Make Us Visible New Jersey is rallying around a bill currently in the state Legislature that would require schools to teach students about the history and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the United States. The bill passed by a 34 to 2 vote last week in the state Senate, and now awaits a vote in the General Assembly.

More here: Advocates urge action on bill to establish Asian American and Pacific Islander curriculum in N.J. schools

Candidates targeted with racist mailers win election

School board candidates Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel are not going anywhere.



Awwww yeah. Take that, racists! In New Jersey, the two school board candidates who were targeted with racist "Make Edison Great Again" mailers that made national headlines won seats in the election on Tuesday.

Last week, voters in Edison received postcards, mailed anonymously, warning "The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!" and calling for the deportation of school board candidates Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel.

Shi and Patel, who respectively claimed their seats with 6,259 and 6,115 votes, will serve a three-year term on the Edison Township Public Schools board. So yeah, they're not going anywhere.

More here: Candidates targeted in racist 'Make Edison Great Again' mailers win election

"The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!"

Racist mailers sent to voters in Edison, New Jersey.



With an election just around the corner, you can always count on some underhanded racist campaigning. But it's still pretty shocking when it's this blatant. The above mailer, targeting Chinese American and Indian American school board candidates, was apparently sent to voters in Edison, New Jersey.

With the super-original slogan "Make Edison Great Again," the postcard implores voters to "Stop Jerry Shi & Falguni Patel From taking over our School Board," with a red "DEPORT" stamped under Shi and Patel's faces.

"The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!" the anonymous mailer declares. "Chinese school! Indian school! Cricket fields! Enough is enough!" But wait, they're not done yet.

The reverse side says, "Stop the overcrowding! Stop taking over our sports fields! Stop the McMansions! Stop the multiple families living in the same house! Stop wasting school holidays! Stop the outsiders! Let's take back our Edison & our Schools."

New York teacher fired for lesson about Central Park Five

Jeena Lee-Walker says administrators feared the lesson would incite "riots" and "rile up" black students.



In New York, a former teacher at an Upper West Side high school says she was fired for creating curriculum with lessons about the notorious Central Park Five case. According to a federal lawsuit, school administrators feared the lesson would incite "riots" and "rile up" black students. You've got to be kidding me.

NYC high school teacher claims she was fired for Central Park Five lessons that administrators feared would create 'riots'

Jeena Lee-Walker, who taught English at the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry, says that administrators asked her to be more "balanced" in her approach to teaching about the racially-charged Central Park jogger case. She agreed to "soften" her approach, but after several tense exchanges with supervisors and a series of bad performance reviews, she was ultimately fired.

AAPIs stand up for equal opportunity in higher education

Over 120 AAPI organizations and individuals sign on to national open letter in support of affirmative action.



More than 120 Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community organizations and individuals across the country have signed on to a national open letter, released Thursday, strongly supporting affirmative action, racial justice and equal opportunity for all in higher education.

The letter dispels myths about race-sensitive admissions policies and calls out recent "misguided, misleading tactics" attacking equal opportunity. "Our universities should reflect our diverse democracy and expand opportunities for those students who have overcome significant barriers," the letter reads. "Rather than letting ourselves be divided, we must come together to ensure increased opportunities and success for all students."

Here's the full text of the letter:

Michelle Obama and Michelle Phan Go To Japan

Popular beauty guru gives support to the First Lady's "Let Girls Learn" education initiative.



First Lady Michelle Obama is currently on a five-day trip to Asia to promote her new global education initiative, and she brought along none other than beauty vlogger Michelle Phan to give her hand.

YouTube Star Michelle Phan Joins First Lady Michelle Obama In Tokyo

The popular entrepreneur and YouTube celebrity joined Mrs. Obama in Tokyo to provide support and spread awareness for the "Let Girls Learn" campaign, which aims to get more girls in school around the world. Phan posed questions to the First Lady submitted by her followers through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Watch these cool Asians teach you some math.

CAAM videos use cultural and artistic diversity to teach middle school math lessons.


This is pretty cool. The Center for Asian American Media has produced a series of short videos that use cultural and artistic diversity -- and a little bit of ukulele -- to teach middle school math lessons.

Learn Middle School Math with CAAM and PBS LearningMedia

The 2-5 minute videos were produced, written and directed by Kar Yin Tham, CAAM's director of education initiatives, who says she wanted to make diversity "the central starting point" in the lessons.

"The challenge was to figure out what math concepts were inherent in each artistic or cultural tradition, and how to best present them. To accomplish this, we collaborated with math educators, artists, musicians, and community based organizations."

Some of the collection's highlights include:

Asian Americans in New York: Film & Literature

A Summer Seminar for K-12 Educators, July 5-17

Hey, teachers! What are you doing this summer? Here's an awesome opportunity. The Asian American Studies at Hunter College, CUNY invites K-12 school teachers to apply for "Asian Americans in New York: Film & Literature," a two-week interdisciplinary summer seminar with a twenty-first century perspective on Asian American cultural production and communities in New York City. It's happening July 5-17, 2015.

Co-directed by Jennifer Hayashida and Chi-hui Yang, the program is hoping to draw a diverse group of educators from around the country, particularly from states with emerging Asian American populations, who are seeking more tools and resources to teach Asian American culture and politics.

Here are some more details about the seminar:

Hey Minnesota! Are you Southeast Asian? Take this survey.

Research study on early childhood education in Southeast Asian communities.



This is for all my people in Minnesota... The state's Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans is looking for folks to participate in a research study on Early Childhood Education among Southeast Asian families in Minnesota, including the Cambodian/Khmer, Hmong, Karen, Lao, and Vietnamese communities. Take the online survey, and you'll help CAPM inform valuable research and funding for the Southeast Asian community.

Here are some more details on who's eligible to take the survey:

ETS and College Board "deeply apologetic" for racist t-shirt

Joint statement addresses "culturally offensive actions" at AP World History Reading



So you may have heard about some of that racist bullsh*t that went down at the Educational Testing Service's annual AP World History Reading earlier this month in Salt Lake City. Some participants reported that, among other culturally insensitive behaviors, organizers printed up t-shirt designs featuring racist caricatures "inspired" by one of the exam questions. You can see images of the shirt here.

ETS and the College Board has issued a statement denouncing "culturally offensive actions" at the reading, apologizing for the distribution of the shirts and calling on ETS to discipline the individuals responsible:

I graded the AP World History exam and all I got was this lousy racist t-shirt

"Rampant cultural appropriation, cultural insensitivity, and straight up racism" at annual exam reading



Every year, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) -- yes, the folks behind the SAT -- invites over a thousand high school and college educators to Salt Lake City to read and score essays from the AP World History exam. Somebody's gotta do it, right? But I've heard from several attendees who say this year's gathering was marred by "rampant cultural appropriation, cultural insensitivity, and straight up racism."

One of this year's essay questions asked students to discuss Chinese Communism. This apparently became an excuse for organizers to run wild with a week filled with all sorts of culturally insensitive jokes and anti-Asian imagery, from inappropriate comments by the Chief Reader to a t-shirt emblazoned with racist caricatures.

The Chief Reader, who supervised the event, reportedly made jokes about the Tiananmen Square Massacre "Tank Man" ("You don't want to be that guy.") while wearing a Red Guard cap of the Cultural Revolution. He was reportedly one of many people wearing such a cap that week.

To top it all off, each year, the leadership produces souvenir t-shirt to commemorate the reading. It's available for purchase to participants, and the design usually reflects the subject matter of one of the essay questions. You can probably guess how that turned out for this year's reading. Here are the designs for this year's shirt.

Research Study: Second Generation Parents and Education

Seeking second generation Chinese and Korean American parents

Here's an interesting research study that could use your help...

I recently heard from my friend Julie Park, assistant professor of education at the University of Maryland, who is looking for research participants in the DC/Maryland/Virginia or Los Angeles/Orange County area to participate in a study on second generation Korean and Chinese American parents and their approach to education and child-rearing for their "third gen" children.

Here are some more details on the study and who is eligible to participate:

Hate, Fear and Lies: How Anti-Affirmative Action Haters Are Shoveling Bullsh*t about SCA5

Guest Post by OiYan Poon


Photo: AALDEF

For the last few weeks 80-20 and other conservative organizations have spread lies, fears, and hate about what California Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 (SCA 5) is. Their mobilization against SCA 5 is showing that Asian Americans can successfully fight for their interests. But in the process, they're pushing misconceptions that poison this important policy debate over affirmative action, racial equity and justice in public higher education.

There are two key ways the anti-affirmative action haters are shoveling a lot of bullsh*t about SCA 5. First, they claim SCA 5 is "anti-Asian." Second, they hold an assumption that tests and grades are race neutral, reliable, and the only valid considerations in selective admissions practices. In the meantime while they're too busy in a fear mongering campaign, they're missing a great opportunity to really fight to expand college opportunity for all of the highly qualified students in the state.

That funny Chinese homework assignment... now with context!

Turns out, it was supposed to be written in Chinese.



This blog has recently received a spate of traffic from a Distractify list, 38 Test Answers That Are 100% Wrong But Totally Genius At The Same Time, which links back to this amusing November 2010 post, featuring a viral photo of a grade school homework assignment that a student seemingly took quite literally.

According to the assignment: "You are to assume the role of a Chinese immigrant in 1870 and write a letter home describing your experiences. Your letter should include the following: your contributions and experiences in the West." What folks found funny is that the student went the extra mile and wrote out the letter in Chinese -- just like an 1870s immigrant would.

But it turns out, that's exactly what the student was supposed to do.

I just heard from Anna Janssen, the former elementary teacher who came up with this assignment, circa spring 2008, for an English/Chinese dual language class. Owing to the language disparity in the class -- some were new immigrants from China with no English proficiency, while others were raised in America with minimal written Chinese, and everything in between -- the students were free to write the essay in English or Chinese.

And yes, Ms. Janssen speaks Mandarin. Here's part of the message she sent me:

Fund This: Social justice and public education in the spotlight in Curtis Chin's Tested

Documentary feature examines race, class and public education in New York City.



My friend is working on a documentary feature that's winding down its fundraising campaign and could some help... Tested, directed by Curtis Chin, follows a diverse group of 8th graders from throughout New York as they prepare for an-all important test that will get them into one of the city's few elite public schools.

The problem is the racial make-up at these schools doesn't reflect the city. While blacks and Hispanics make up 70% of the city's school-aged population, they represent as little as 1% and 3% at these schools. Meanwhile, Asian Americans comprise as much as 72% and Whites 25%. This has led to the NAACP LDF charging racial discrimination and filing a legal complaint.

Here's Curtis' Kickstarter video with more details:

Help Sikh Coalition take action against offensive textbooks

Got this information passed along to me on behalf of the Sikh Coalition, a community-based civil and human rights organization that serves as a resource on Sikhs and Sikh concerns for governments, organizations and individuals.

The Sikh Coalition is asking for help in looking for social studies textbooks that make mention of Sikhs or Sikhism, in order to identify incorrect and/or damaging information that perpetuates misinformation and promotes stereotypes.

The truth is, educators often teach from the textbook without bothering to verify the accuracy of the information they're teaching. This, unfortunately, includes a world history textbook that calls Sikhs "terrorists": Help Us Create a "Most Wanted" List of Offending Textbook Manufacturers.

California's Department of Education sued for failing to assist English-learning students

Last week, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center announced that it had filed a lawsuit, with the American Civil Liberties Union, against the state of California on behalf of students, parents, and teachers to compel the state to provide services to English learners: California ignoring some English learners, lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, the state Education Department has ignored its obligation to make sure that thousands of students learning English receive adequate and legally required assistance. An estimated 20,000 students in California who need to learn English aren't getting adequate language instruction:

virginia's controversial race-based achievement goals

Whaaaaat. As part of Virginia's waiver to opt out of mandates set out in the No Child Left Behind law, the state's board of education has created a controversial new set of performance goals with significant disparities between subgroups -- higher for white and Asian kids than for blacks, Latinos and students with disabilities: Firestorm Erupts Over Virginia's Education Goals.

Based on students' test scores in reading and math, the board of education proposed new passing rates. In math, the new acceptable passing rate is 82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities.

Understandably, the plan has drawn controversy, particularly from the state legislature's black caucus:

Chinese Immigrant Homework

Found this kind of amusing, though I don't know exactly what it is... Well, it's homework. It's a history/creative writing assignment. And the directions seem fairly straightforward. But I guess this student took the instructions quite literally: Chinese immigrant homework.

Hey, a Chinese immigrant in 1870 probably isn't writing home in English, right? I just wish I could have seen the look on the teacher's face when this assignment got turned in. (Thanks, Stephen.)

UPDATE: Hold up! Some background on this homework assignment, from the teacher who actually assigned it: That funny Chinese homework assignment... now with context!