Conventional wisdom has long held that Asian American students are conscientious, brainy, and successful, and a look at the statistics makes it clear that many are. These students routinely post the highest scores on California's standardized tests, are most likely to graduate from high school, and have the highest rates of eligibility for admission to University of California (UC) for at least the last 20 years. Clearly, many Asian Americans have overcome tremendous obstacles in California and elsewhere to build successful lives in the United States. But these numbers don't tell the whole story, say Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) leaders. Advocates for the AAPI community released two national studies that highlight the huge disparities between the highest- and lowest-achieving members of the Asian Pacific Islander population and called for specific changes in national education policy and resource allocation to better address the needs of these students. Ronald Takaki, professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, says "pundits and the media" bear some responsibility for perpetuating a myth that drives a wedge between different racial and ethnic groups. Ben Liao, an Asian Pacific Islander, is a school board member in the Cupertino Union School District--one of the highest-achieving districts in the state and one with a significant percentage of AAPI students. Liao says he is extremely concerned about the pressure some parents in his district are exerting on their children.