What are the educational commitments of AEAC?

The long-term educational commitments of the council are:

• To function as a communication link between the Asian community and the Denver Public Schools

• To advise and make recommendations to the Board of Education and the Superintendent

• To communicate the needs of students, parents, and the community to the Denver Public Schools

• To identify and assess research that has application to Asian students and the community

• To act on behalf of the educational interests of Asian students, parents employees and community

• To assist the school district in developing programs to increase parent education and involvement

• To identify needed programs on the basis of school district statistics, policies and community concerns

• To relate the policies, programs, and activities of the Denver Public Schools to the community

• To evaluate the effectiveness and annual achievement of the council

• To report to the Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education

Asian American and Pacific Islanders are descendants of what countries?

Ethnic identities can be referenced in the aggregate e.g., Southeast Asians or disaggregated e.g., Cambodians. Asians and Pacific Islanders are generally grouped by regions although some of these can be politically controversial. There is tremendous diversity, with Asia having more than 40 countries, and there are more ethnicities than countries, e.g., the Hmong are an ethnic group from Laos. Also, Asian diasporas are extremely large and ethnic identity oversimplifications do not apply. For example, people of Japanese origin in Brazil culturally identify as Brazilians, those of Chinese origin in Guatemala identify as Guatemalans; whereas hyphenated identities are more common in the U.S. as evidenced by terms like Asian American, or Korean American. 

• Central Asians Afghani, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgians, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek.

• East Asians Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Okinawan, Taiwanese, Tibetan.

• Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (in the U.S. Jurisdictions & Territories) Carolinian, Chamorro, Chuukese, Fijian, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Kosraean, Marshallesse, Native Hawaiian, Niuean, Palauan, Pohnpeian, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan, Yapese.

• Southeast Asians Bruneian, Burmese, Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong, Indonesian, Laotian, Malaysian, Mien, Papua New Guinean, Singaporean, Timorese, Thai, Vietnamese

• South Asians Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Indian, Maldivians, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan.

• West Asians This is a contested term, most people from the region do not self-identify as such. West Asia is typically referred to as the Middle East; and geographically includes the countries of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey (straddles Europe and Asia) United Arab Emirates and Yemen.