The children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants who arrived in Quincy 30 years ago, are establishing themselves in the culture of the city. Fourth of five parts.

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QUINCY -- Nearly 40 percent of Quincy's 9,163 public school students are Asian, but the racial balance is uneven in many schools, with Asians accounting for three out of every four at one elementary school and only one in 14 at another.



No one in city government seems to have a problem with that. Neither do Asian parents, according to school and community leaders.



A high concentration of Asians at a few Quincy schools actually reflects a nationwide trend of voluntary segregation among Asians, one expert said.



John Logan, a sociology professor at Brown University, says the segregation of Asian students and parents in Quincy is likely with their consent.



It reflects the separate but equal trend across the U.S., an Asian flight of sorts, similar to the white flight of past generations, when white city-dwellers moved to the suburbs, he said.



"It's so much better than the usual situation for blacks and Hispanic people," Logan said. "(For Asians) it's often by choice. They're exercising their choice, and it's not so clear that it's problematic."



At five of the city's 19 schools, Asians represent more than half the student body. At six others, they account for less than 25 percent. Three of four kids at Parker Elementary are Asian, and at Atherton Hough Elementary, the ratio is one in 14.



School enrollment in Quincy is determined by neighborhood district lines, meaning in most cases kids go to the school that's closest to their homes. Since most Quincy Asians live in Wollaston and North Quincy, schools in those areas have many more Asian students than schools in other neighborhoods.



That is fine with Quincy parent Lan Ruan, whose daughter attends Wollaston Elementary School.



She said she and other Asian parents chose homes in Quincy knowing who their neighbors would be and which schools they wanted their children to attend.



"(If) I find somebody similar like me and I find similarities I can share, I probably feel maybe safer and more comfortable," Ruan said. "That's the way I look at it."



School Superintendent Richard DeCristofaro said racial balance in schools isn't an issue.



"It's neighborhood schools; that's what Quincy is. That's what really builds a lot of the trust with parents and families is that neighborhood concept."



Quincy has an open-enrollment program that allows parents to try sending kids to schools outside their neighborhoods. But permission is based on availability, and with most city schools full, only 179 of 370 requests were granted last year. The city did not provide a racial breakdown of requests.



Student achievement



There is no disputing that Asian kids do well in Quincy classrooms. They perform better on state assessment tests than any other race in the city.



The percentage of Asian students across all grades who scored proficient or advanced on the 2015 MCAS test was 74 in the English-Language Arts exam, 76 in math and 67 in science. Among whites, who make up 48 percent of the student population, 71 percent of test takers scored proficient or advanced in English-Language Arts and 56 percent in math and science.



That's largely consistent with statewide trends. On the 2014 MCAS – the latest year for which statewide data was available – the percentage of Asian students in Massachusetts who scored proficient or advanced was 78 in the English-Language Arts exam, 79 in math and 67 in science.



Among whites statewide, 76 percent of test takers scored proficient or advanced in English-Language Arts, 66 percent in math and and 63 percent in science.



But, having a large Asian population at a particular school doesn't always mean a higher school-wide MCAS score. In Quincy, the elementary schools with the largest shares of Asian students are also among those with the highest numbers of poor kids and kids who don't know English, factors that generally lead to lower test scores.



For example, MCAS scores among all students at Parker Elementary, which is 72 percent Asian, and Clifford Marshall, which is 41 percent Asian, were in the middle or lower end of the city's 11 elementary schools.



The only school in the district where Asians got lower scores than their white classmates was at Atherton Hough, where only 7 percent of the students are Asian.



Language is another challenge. At Parker, Montclair and Wollaston, at least a third of all students don't know enough English to sit in general classrooms. District-wide, there are 1,375 kids who are non-English speakers.



Beth Hallett, who coordinates the school department's program for non-English speakers, said there is at least one instructor at each of the city's 19 schools. Of 37 instructors, 15 are fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, or Vietnamese or a combination thereof.



Hallett said the district relies on English classes provided by the nonprofit Quincy Asian Resources and a tutoring program staffed by some of Quincy's bilingual high school students to supplement the school department's services.



Many of the non-English-speaking students are fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin or Vietnamese. Hallett said there's been an increase in other foreign languages spoken by children, including Arabic.



Kids don't see race



Like Superintendent DeCristofaro, Mayor Thomas Koch, chairman of the city's school committee, said race is not an issue at public schools.



Classrooms are more racially balanced now than they were years ago because Asian families have started to move outside North Quincy and Wollaston neighborhoods, and that is likely to continue, Koch said.



He also said students, particularly at the elementary level, don't care about race.



"Kids are kids. They don't see the differences in their color or their culture," Koch said. "They're kids. They want to learn, most of them. They want to play. Kids are color blind."



Renee Malvesti, principal at Montclair Elementary School, where 57 percent of the students are Asian, agreed.



She said the school's racial makeup isn't something kids pay attention to, and they're largely unaffected by it.



"For a lot of our kids, it's their home away from home. It's their community. It's where they're comfortable," Malvesti said. "So they don't see it as 'we have X amount of kids, and they only have X amount of kids.' It's just 'it's our school, it's our community and it's our family.' "

THURSDAY: Overt racism has ended, but some resentment remains

ASIAN STAFFING IS SPARSE

Only 105 of 2,031 (5 percent) Quincy school professionals are Asian.



School Superintendent Richard DeCristofaro said the district hires only the most qualified candidates as teachers and does not give preference to Asian candidates to try to provide more racial balance.



However, Maura Papile, senior director of the district’s student support services, said she’s made a concerted effort in her department to hire more Asian and bilingual professionals to serve roles such as guidance counselors and school psychologists.



“It’s always helpful to have diversity, and I do think there’s value in having a diverse staff as well as diverse students,” Papile said.

WORTH NOTING

Thirty-seven percent of students in Quincy public schools this year are Asian, compared with 6 percent statewide. The percentage of Asian students in Quincy has more than doubled in 20 years. In the 1995-96 school year, it was 17 percent. In 2005-06, it was 27 percent. It is now close to 40 percent. Districtwide, 105 of 2,031 (5 percent) Quincy school professionals are Asian. Of 37 teachers who teach non-English-speaking students, five speak Cantonese and Mandarin, five speak Vietnamese, three speak Cantonese only, one speaks Mandarin only, and one speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese. Of the city’s five middle schools, Atlantic has the highest proportion of Asians (53 percent), and Broad Meadows the lowest (17 percent). More than half the students at North Quincy High School are Asian. At Quincy High School, Asians make up 20 percent of the school body. Forty-one percent of 380 pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students at the private Quincy Catholic Academy are Asian. Thirty-four percent are white, 9 percent Indian, 9 percent black and 7 percent multiracial.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, state Department of Education, Quincy Catholic Academy.