A bit late on my answer, but this is a well-studied phenomenon: http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/12/15-school-readiness-isaacs http://www.brookin

A bit late on my answer, but this is a well-studied phenomenon: http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/12/15-school-readiness-isaacs http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/12/15-school-... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-gr... http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-Poverty-Affects-Behavior-and-Academic-Performance.aspx http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/How-P... Also, as trustfundbaby said earlier in the thread: "Group success in America often tends to dissipate after two generations. Thus while Asian-American kids overall had SAT scores 143 points above average in 2012 — including a 63-point edge over whites — a 2005 study of over 20,000 adolescents found that third-generation Asian-American students performed no better academically than white students" I don't doubt that there is a significant Asian culture effect, but in this case it seems that the "immigrant effect" plays a big, if not greater role.