How Does the Achievement Gap Between Immigrant and Native-Born Pupils Progress From Primary to Secondary Education?

Abstract

This paper documents the change in educational achievement differences between native and foreign background students between the ages of 10 and 15, as they progress from primary to secondary education. We examine three cohorts of students in a number of Western European and traditional English-speaking immigration countries using combinations of PIRLS, TIMSS and PISA survey data. While the performance of students with mixed parents is not markedly different from native students’, foreign background children — both first- and second-generation — exhibit a large achievement gap at age 10 in continental Europe, even when accounting for observable differences in socio-economic characteristics. The gap tends to narrow down by age 15 in reading, but no catching up is observed in mathematics. By contrast, we do not find significant differences between the academic achievements of immigrant children and their native-born peers in traditional immigration countries.

Keywords: Achievement Gap, Foreign-Born Students, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Test Scores Comparability, Europe, Traditional Immigration Countries, TIMSS, PIRLS, PISA

JEL Classification: C14, D63