Hmong, a Southeast Asian ethnic group, lived an agricultural lifestyle in the hills and mountain regions in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand after migrating from south of China around 1810-1820 (McCall, 1999; Ngo & Lee, 2007; Tatman, 2004; Thao, 1999).
In the 1960s, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) approached and recruited General Vang Pao, a military leader in the Hmong community, to form a special force known as The United States Secret Army in Laos to help lead the Hmong fight in the Vietnam War (Lor & Yang, 2012; Thao, 1999).

When the United States withdrew from the Vietnam War in 1973, the United States made arrangements for many Hmong to be scattered throughout the county a few years later (Thao, 1999; Thao, 2003; Vang, …show more content…
Hmong children are responsible for simple manual labor chores.
While the Hmong grandparents are responsible for childcare and educating the young Hmong children (Thao, 1999; Vang, 1999).

United States educators and school personnel portray Asian students as overachievers and models for other minorities to follow (Ngo, 2006; Ngo & Lee, 2007; Supple et al., 2010).
However, researchers have found that aggregating data on Asian often mask the differences in achievement and attainment across Asian ethnic groups in the United States.
The Hmong, who are the most recent immigrant group to arrive in the United States in 1975, remain at the bottom in terms of having the lowest educational attainment and achievement (Ngo & Lee, 2007; Reeves & Bennett, 2004; Thao, 1999).

The Hmong lived much of their lives as supporting farmers in Laos with limited exposure to formal education (Lee & Green, 2008).
While living in Laos in the 1930s, only a few wealthy Hmong families were able to send their sons to school (Yang & Pfeifer, 2004). As a result, when the Hmong were brought to the United States in the late 1970s, approximately 75 percent of Hmong refugees were illiterate (Thao, 1999; Vang,