From NPR:
This is Asian-American and Pacific Islander heritage month. That's a time set aside to acknowledge the contributions of people from these backgrounds to the bigger American story. Undeniably, when many Americans look for role models for educational achievement, many find them in Asian-American homes. Now, the idea of Asian-Americans as academic powerhouses has been fueled in recent years by many things, but perhaps most publicly by Yale law professor Amy Chua, author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" and co-author of "The Triple Package." Now, we've spoken with her about both of these books and she argued that the extremely high standards and no-nonsense style that she sees among Chinese-American parents is what accounts for better grades and higher test scores. Now, one criticism of Amy Chua's work has always been that her background in these areas is actually very slight. Well, two scholars who do have a background in this wanted to dig into the question. And they say that the story of Asian-American achievement is much more complicated. They are both sociology professors. Jennifer Lee is at the University of California at Irvine. Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

For the full transcript and an audio recording, please visit http://www.npr.org/2014/05/12/311857049/asian-americans-are-successful-b....