He said the committee focused on the fact that African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans tend to under-perform white students, even when differences of parental education or socio-economic status are taken into effect. They also do not do as well academically in college as their high school grades or SAT scores would suggest.

This is not the case for Asian-Americans, according to Miller. Children of well-educated Asian-American parents do equally well as white children of well-educated parents, he said.

"We focused on a certain set of issues and not others," Miller said.

The report's call for more attention on certain groups of minorities does not mean the report wants less for other minorities or disadvantaged groups, according to Miller.

"If I improve issue A, does it have to mean that I decrease issue B?" Miller asked. "The report contains conceptual tools to benefit all disadvantaged groups."

Reports issued recently by the group, such as the report on the average SAT scores of the high school senior class of 1999, include Asian Americans in statistics on minorities.