1
Achievement Gap Among Asian American Youths in Urban Context:
Significance of Social Class, Social Capital, and Race Relations
A growing body of research shows that co-ethnic networks in forms of
entrepreneurship, churches, and community organizations provide economic and social
support for the post-1965 immigrant parents and their second-generation children (Kim,
1981; Light, 1972; Light and Bonacich 1988; Portes et al., 1993, 1996). It is argued that
by maintaining strong ties to first-generation co-ethnic networks, second-generation
children are more likely to adhere to their parents’ sanctioned values of education,
maintain ethnic identities, and gain economic resources toward achieving academically.
Second-generation Asians, in particular, have been cited as immigrants who, despite their
limited socioeconomic status, are achieving social mobility by maintaining strong co-
ethnic networks (Portes et al., 1993, 1996; Zhou and Bankston III 1998).
But what do we know about children of Asian immigrants who are failing in
schools, dropping out of high schools, or facing downward mobility? Notwithstanding
the significant number of second-generation Asian students who are academically
successful, there is a limited understanding of variability within and among Asian groups.
For instance, how do variability of structural and institutional forces—such as
socioeconomic status, social capital, and schooling contexts— impact Asian students’
educational attainment and aspirations? Do Asian students adopt a different set of racial
strategies in different social and economic contexts? If so, how does this process affect
their schooling aspirations?
In this research, I attempt to examine some of these questions by comparing
experiences of two groups of second-generation Korean American high school students
Page 1 of 25 
Convention