I would like to interview and hire more Vietnamese teaching candidates, if only they were available,'' said John Shaw, principal of Evergreen Elementary School in southeast San Jose, where Asian-Americans make up 63 percent of the students, but only 5 percent of the teaching staff. Members of minority groups make up 63 percent of the county's students but only 22 percent of the county's teachers. The public doesn't seem to agree. Only 21 percent say students would benefit from having teachers of their own racial or ethnic backgrounds. The county's diversity also has prompted school officials to offer special programs hoping that they would lead to more parent involvement.
Some districts teach after-hours English classes, and others teach computer skills.
In the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District, ''parent institutes'' show new immigrants how to find health-care providers, said Judith Knutson, the district's director of student services. Sometimes it's the school administrators, and not the parents, who are learning about a new culture. When the Asian-American population began to increase at Saratoga High School, Principal Kevin Skelly was puzzled by the lack of parental involvement. He spoke to a few parents and learned that in certain Asian cultures, some parents respect a teacher's authority to the point where communication occurs only when the child is performing poorly. We started having events in people's houses, like an Asian tea, or we'd meet off campus because that's where they wouldfeel more comfortable.'' The teas, he said, ''were enormously successful'' at increasing parental involvement.