"It's a stereotype we want to break," Yang said. "The majority of Asian-Americans don't have opportunities. If you go into Asiatown or Chinatown you definitely see Asians discriminated against."

Census figures back up this view of many Asian-Americans who are still socio-economically disadvantaged. In 1990, Asian Americans in Boston had a per-capita income half that of whites and over $1,000 below blacks.

A significant portion of Boston's Asian Americans, 38 percent, also had less than a 12th-grade education, double the percentage of whites and five percent more than the percentage of blacks with similar levels of education.

The director of the task force, whose members include DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Boston Public School Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant, said the report was not meant to suggest that Asian-Americans are not a minority group.

L. Scott Miller, director of the National Task Force on Minority High Achievement, said the task force was charged specifically with studying African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, not all minorities or under-performing students.

"The [task force] was not convened to work on how to improve all students who under-perform," Miller said. "Nowhere will you find in the report a finding that we should do less for any disadvantaged kids."

Miller justifies the exclusion of Asian Americans by pointing to the specific nature of the under-achievement that the committee was investigating.