The purpose of the study reported here was to test the myth that Asian-American students are a "model minority," who consistently outperform Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and other minorities. Using 1989 data on students attending the nine colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), the study analyzed academic achievement by the following measures: ethnicity, including Chinese-, Japanese-, Korean-, Filipino-, and Vietnamese-American subgroups; marital status; age; gender; residence history; pre-college academic preparation; social class; employment status; scholarships; student aspirations; educational plans; academic involvement; and student major. Study findings included the following: (1) marital status, age, academic involvement, and change in major field of study affected academic achievement across all ethnic groups; (2) the mean grade point average (GPA) for White LACCD students was 1.86, while the Asian-American aggregate was 1.76; (3) Korean-Americans had the highest GPA among all Asian-American subgroups (2.02), followed by Chinese-Americans (1.83) and Vietnamese-Americans (1.73); (4) native-English speaking Whites and Japanese-Americans had the largest proportion of respondents with GPA's of 2.99 or below; (5) Filipino- and Korean-Americans had the largest percentage of students eligible to enter the University of California or California State University systems after high school graduation, and Japanese-Americans had the least; and (6) the level of acculturation may have an impact on student performance. A review of the literature on the academic performance of minorities is included. Contains 81 references. (MAB)