Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian Americans, and the Achievement Gap (original) (raw)

Addressing the "achievement gap" in academic performance has become prominent in educational reform efforts. However, too often,outcomes gathered from accountability measures are used to createhierarchies between students' performance based on gender and race/ethnicity. While such comparisons have traditionally beenmade between Black and White students, recently, more attention has been given to the performance of Latina/o and Asian American studentsbecause of their growing numbers in the educational system. In Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian American, and the Achievement Gap, Gilda L. Ochoaexamines how afocus on the achievement gap, which she argues gives the "illusion" that inequality is being addressedby shifting the focus to high-stakes testing, hinders both Latina/o and Asian American students by ignoring structural and systemic injustices that "perpetuate hierarchical and binary thinking" (p. 2).