The Performance of High-Ability Asian-American Elementary Students on the EXPLORE Test and Their Attitudes toward School Subjects
By I-chun Chen

In the Belin Elementary Student Talent Search (BESTS) conducted by the Belin-Blank Center from 1993 through 1996, there were 220 participants who identified themselves as Asian-Americans. These Asian-American participants comprise 2% of the entire BESTS (1993-1996) population (N=11,156), forming the largest minority group in BESTS. Of the 220 Asia-American students who took the EXPLORE test, 89 were girls and 131 were boys. Following are major findings concerning this Asian-American group. (The EXPLORE test is a multiple-choice test developed by American College Testing [ACT] as a test for 8th graders.)

Major findings:

1. Asian-American BESTS participants have higher scores than non-Asian-American participants on all the subtests (English, Math, Reading, and Science Reasoning) on the EXPLORE test (see Table 1).
2. For the entire BESTS population, girls earned higher average scores on English and Reading subtests, while boys earned higher scores than girls on Math (please refer to Vision, Vol. 5, No. 2 [Spring, 1997], p. 7 for details). However, for the Asian-American sample, no statistically significant gender differences were found.
3. The percentages of Asian-American students expressing positive attitudes toward various school subjects were similar to those of non-Asian-American students except toward Math. The percentage of Asian-American students expressing positive attitudes toward Math was significantly (< 0.01) higher than the entire BESTS population (see Table 2).
4. The percentages of Asian-American girls expressing positive attitudes toward English and Reading were significantly (< 0.05) higher than those of Asian-American boys. There were no statistically significant gender differences in attitudes toward Math, Science, and school in general (see Table 2).