Immigrants Lagging in Educational Performance

08/02/2006

Immigrants Lagging in Educational Performance

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.
Rachel Carson

Students from immigrant families lag behind their native counterparts in developed nations. This is the conclusion of a 17-nation study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported in Education Week (May 24, 2006; www.edweek.org). This study was a first-ever analysis of how the world’s 200 million immigrant children fare in school. Some findings…

On average in the 17 developed nations, immigrant students scored over 40% lower in math performance than their native peers.
In most countries, a quarter or more of immigrant 15-year-olds did not score high enough on the math test to reach basic levels of proficiency.
Immigrant children in European countries performed particularly poorly. The math achievement gap between first-generation immigrants and native students was on average 1.5 years in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
First generation U.S. students trailed about 6 months behind native peers in math tests.
In three nations (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) and the Chinese territory of Macao, newcomers scored on par with their native born peers. These countries tended to have more established, systematic approaches to teaching the language of instruction.

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