Looking at Hmong children clearly shows that a functional, supportive family is still the single best barometer for educational success in our public schools.
The sign on the front door of Lincoln Elementary School in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin, says Txaistos Nej. Underneath this Hmong greeting, the sign continues in English: “Welcome to your school. Please register in school office.” In the entrance hallway are paintings from the sixth-grade class — art projects in which students were asked to draw and then paint their favorite sandwich. The names carefully printed at the bottom of the paintings indicate that 13 of the 29 students in the class are Hmong. Michelle Yang’s picture shows a three-level hamburger, complete with mustard, ketchup, and a pickle. This is not the public elementary school that adults in northern Wisconsin remember from their childhood.
This is the new face of public education in the six cities that span the middle of Wisconsin, from La Crosse on the Mississippi River in the west to Sheboygan on the shore of Lake Michigan in the east. Hmong refugees now comprise the largest minority population in these communities. Just two decades ago, it is safe to say that no one in Wisconsin — and only a handful of persons in the United States — knew who the Hmong people were. Yet now the future well-being of these communities is inextricably tied to the success — or failure — of Hmong children in the public schools. The good news is that Hmong students are outperforming other groups of students.
Recent studies from San Diego and St. Paul suggest that Hmong students outperform white and other non-Hmong students. In St. Paul, Hmong students spend more time on homework than other students (three hours per day compared to less than half an hour for non-Hmong students), are less likely to be involved in problem-causing activity, and have higher grade-point averages (GPAs) than other students (McNall, Dunnigan, and Mortimer 1994). In San Diego, Hmong students are less likely to drop out of high school than other recent immigrants, and Hmong high school students with Fluent English Proficiency have higher GPAs than other groups (Rumbaut 1995). Despite high levels of household poverty, parental unemployment, broken households due to the death of parents, and high rates of early marriage for Hmong females, Hmong students in St. Paul have graduation rates similar to those of other students (Hutchison and McNall 1994) and continue their education at two- and four-year colleges at levels comparable to those of other groups (Hutchison and McNall 1997). The high level of educational attainment of Hmong students in these communities has been attributed to their strong family and kinship system and to support within the ethnic community for the education of both male and female adolescents.
Although anecdotal information suggests that Hmong students in Wisconsin may have a similar pattern of school success, there is no specific evidence to indicate whether they do better or worse than other students. Indeed, continuing reports of adolescent gang involvement, early marriage of Hmong females, and the like might suggest that Hmong students are not doing particularly well. Recent school-board controversies over educational policies concerning Hmong students in La Crosse and Wausau have received national attention. Reports indicating that Asian Americans in Wisconsin have high rates of residential segregation and higher levels of poverty than other groups raise serious questions about the educational opportunities for a coming generation of Hmong children in our state. No issue is more important for the economic and social integration of Hmong refugees in the coming decades than the education of the first generation of children born in the United States. And because Hmong families now constitute the largest minority population in the six cities studied here, the success of Hmong children in the public schools is of critical importance.
In this report, we compare the educational performance of Hmong and non-Hmong students in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education in Wisconsin. Standardized test scores that measure the performance of Asian and other groups of students are available at several different grade levels for public school districts across the state. Enrollment and retention data from the UW System includes data on Southeast Asian refugee students from the 13 campuses, as well as the two-year campuses. We also interviewed teachers, administrators, bilingual-bicultural teachers and aides, guidance counselors, and others in schools across the state to collect qualitative data to help us better understand the educational performance of Asian and Hmong students in the public education system in Wisconsin.
The six school districts selected for study are the Appleton Area School District, Eau Claire Area School District, Green Bay Area School District, La Crosse School District, Sheboygan Area School District, and Wausau School District. These research locations include larger and smaller cities with Hmong populations ranging from some 2,700 persons (in Eau Claire) to 4,000 or more persons (in Wausau). In each of these communities, Hmong households account for 90% or more of the local Asian population, and Hmong students are the largest minority group in the public schools. In addition, the research sites include two communities (La Crosse and Wausau) in which issues concerning educational opportunities for Hmong students resulted in recall elections of school-board members.
