ABSTRACT
As noted earlier (Chapter 1) recent educational policy approaches concerning the achievement of minority ethnic pupils have tended to advocate that schools should focus their energies on ‘raising aspirations’ or providing ‘positive role models’ rather than, for instance, addressing racism(s) and structural inequalities. Where racism is discussed, it is notable that higher achieving groups of pupils, like many BritishChinese young people, remain absent from these discussions. This is presumably because it is commonly assumed that achievement levels act as a barometer, refl ecting the social problems and inequalities experienced by particuar BME communities. In other words, the relatively high recorded achievement of many British-Chinese pupils is taken to signal that they do not constitute (or experience) any signifi cant problems – and hence are not requiring of any specifi c attention or resources.
