Every Child Achieves Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the Hirono-Heller amendment No. 2109, which deals with Asian American and Pacific Islander, or AAPI, student data.
AAPIs are the fastest growing population in the United States, but it is important to highlight that we are not all the same. I know this from my personal experience.
Just a few months ago, I attended the White House state dinner for Japanese Prime Minister Abe. The next day, there was a nice photo in the Washington Post with a caption that said, ``Senator Mazie Hirono and her guest''--except it wasn't me. It was actually my good friend Congresswoman Doris Matsui of California.
In my time in Congress, I have often been mistaken for other AAPI members. Just a few months ago, during the budget debate, when I was on the floor of the Senate, C-SPAN identified me as Senator Daniel K. Inouye. I have been mistaken for Judy Chu, who is Chinese, and others. I may be the only AAPI in the Senate right now, but we are not all the same. We come from different places and have vastly different backgrounds that make us who we are today.
The same is true in education. Our current law and the Every Child Achieves Act use the broad ``Asian Americans/Pacific Islander'' category to cover all AAPIs. This AAPI group includes Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Korean, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and others.
When we look at averages, the AAPI group does very well overall, but in fact there is a model minority myth. The current AAPI category hides big achievement gaps between subgroups. For example, 72 percent of Asian Indian adults have a bachelor's degree or higher, but only 26 percent of Vietnamese adults do, and only 14 percent of Hmong adults do. This adult data comes from the 2010 census. But we don't have data on how AAPI children are doing.
The Hirono-Heller amendment is simple. Today, we already have public report cards on how students in different groups are doing. Parents can look up a school district online and see what percentage of its White or Hispanic students are scoring well in reading or math. With our amendment, districts with large populations of AAPI students will simply add a piece onto their report cards to show how AAPI subgroups are doing. Our amendment uses the same 11 categories as the census. Parents are familiar with it because they filled out the census information just a few years ago.
The Hirono-Heller amendment is a bipartisan compromise. Our amendment would only apply to large school districts with over 1,000 AAPI students. Let me be clear--not districts with 1,000 students total but districts with 1,000 AAPI students. Currently, that is only about 400 school districts out of more than 16,000 school districts nationwide. Less than 3 percent of school districts would have to do anything at all. These districts should want to know how their students are doing so they can help all students succeed.
Currently, the following States would not be affected at all by our amendment: Delaware, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
I have heard concerns that adding this AAPI data would be overly burdensome. The bill we are considering today already adds new reporting on military-connected student achievement. Districts can update their data systems to add checkboxes for military-connected children and AAPI children at the same time. This is not overly burdensome. Just as we are adding a new field to cover military-connected students, adding new fields that include AAPI subgroups will be just upgrading the software schools use.
In fact, the Hawaii Department of Education, DOE, is a national leader in using AAPI data. Hawaii DOE collects AAPI data on student registration forms. They easily put the data in their computer systems, which all staff can access. Having AAPI subgroup data is helpful for Hawaii's school administrators and policymakers, who analyze achievement gaps in college and career readiness, set statewide strategy, and then hire staff and target extra help to the highest need students. Hawaii DOE also shares the data with the University of Hawaii system to collaborate on student outcomes, such as credit completion and reducing remedial ed.
Principals who learn that a certain AAPI subgroup is doing poorly in their own school can choose to hire more staff for outreach to that community or can partner with community groups on afterschool programs, et cetera. Teachers can spend more time on parent outreach to help high-need students in their classroom. That is why the Hirono-Heller amendment has the support of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the National Education Association.
Districts in North Carolina, California, Washington, and others are doing similar work. Other districts around the country can make the appropriate changes to their systems. There are automatic software updates for student data systems that can add new data fields.
It is important to share the data publicly. Community groups can highlight best practices among schools that serve their students well and encourage other schools to improve. Parents deserve to have this data, too.
In the coming days, we will be discussing traditional public schools, public charter schools, and private schools. No matter where you stand on these issues, parents deserve to know how their schools are serving the needs of their kids so they can best help their children succeed.
Our amendment is endorsed also by school choice advocates such as the National Association of Public Charter Schools.
Just like current law in the broader ESEA bill we are discussing, there is no reporting if a subgroup is too small to maintain student privacy.
Our amendment was carefully crafted with the support of the National Coalition of Asians and Pacific Americans, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Council of La Raza, the NAACP, and over 100 other civil rights, educators, and women's groups and the disability community. They worked together very closely on the language and agreed that data disaggregation for AAPI subgroups is a top priority.
AAPI groups across the country are making their choices heard by posting photos of why they are more than just a large Asian population.
They are posting these pictures on Tumbler, Twitter, and Facebook. In fact, I saw one of those postings where students were holding up placards that say: I am AAPI, but I am also Japanese. I am AAPI, but I am also Korean.
Join them at hashtag ``All Students Count.''
I thank Senator Heller and his staff for their support and hard work on this bipartisan compromise bill. I also thank Senator Reid of Nevada, Senator Baldwin, Senator Boxer, Senator Cantwell, Senator Casey, Senator Feinstein, Senator Franken, Senator Markey, and Senator Schatz for cosponsoring my stand-alone bill, the All Students Count Act, which goes further than this amendment we will be voting on today.
I urge my colleagues to support this amendment because, in fact, all students count.
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