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Report urges better college completion focus on Asian American and Pacific Islander students

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October 11, 2011

Despite a rapidly growing Asian American and Pacific Islander population in the United States, these students are constantly overlooked in federal higher education policy, including the national college completion agenda, according to a new report by the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education.

There is a large disparity among ethnic groups, the report states, with more than four out of five East Asians and South Asians enrolled in college earn at least a bachelor's degree. At the same time, a large percentage (almost 50 percent for each of the subgroups) of Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders report attending college but not earning a degree.

“With globalization as a mantra in the college completion agenda, it is essential to look at the importance of reaping the full benefits of diversity in American society and increasing degree attainment among all underserved communities," said Robert Teranishi, principal investigator at the commission and an associate professor of higher education at New York University.

Doug Lederman

Doug Lederman is editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed. He helps lead the news organization's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings and on campuses around the country, and his work has appeared in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003. Before that, Doug had worked at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles, first as an athletics reporter and editor. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one in 2009 for a series of Inside Higher Ed articles he co-wrote on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University. Doug lives with his wife, Kate Scharff, in Bethesda, Md.