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Jamie Lew, Ph.D.
Rutgers-Newark
Jamie is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education
and Academic Foundations at Rutgers University in Newark.
She received a bachelor’s degree in Biology, a Master’s
in Science Education and her Ph.D. in Comparative and International
Education at Columbia University.
Dr. Lew conducts research on social, economic, and academic
achievement among second generation Asian-Americans. She
is also completing a book on second generation Korean-American
students in urban schools, which compares students in a
competitive magnet high school with dropouts in a GED program.
The major goal of her research is to show how the economic
differences among Asian Americans affect student’s
academic achievement and schooling aspirations.
There is a popular sentiment that Asian-Americans are "model
minorities". That is, Asian Americans are stereotyped
as the minority group that achieves academic success, holds
middle-class values of hard work and entrepreneurship, and
are economically successful above all other minority groups.
She has found that although this stereotype is true for
many Asian-Americans, it is not true for all. This notion
ends up harming those Asian Americans who are poor and are
struggling academically. Often teachers overlook their needs,
assuming they are not in need of help. Also, these poor
failing students often blame themselves, believing they
are failing because of their own inadequacies, rather than
the “system” failing them.
In researching her book, which looks at second generation
Korean American youths in urban schools, she compared students
in a competitive magnet high school with dropouts in a GED
program. She found that magnet students, because they come
from parents who are working middle-class, gain support
from their first generation immigrant communities. The dropouts
don’t have that support and are not very close to
their parents or their immigrant community.
She has found that schooling achievements and aspirations
among Korean youths fundamentally depends on their socioeconomic
backgrounds, immigrant community support and school support.
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