More than a new country: Effects of immigration, home language, and school mobility on elementary students’ academic achievement over time

Authors

  • Orlena Patricia Broomes University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v21n48.2013

Keywords:

Student Achievement, Immigrant Education, Standardized Testing

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of immigration and home language on academic achievement over time. Using data from Ontario’s Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics administered to the same students in Grades 3 and 6, logistic regression was used to predict if students achieved proficiency in Grade 6 if they were not proficient in Grade 3. The results indicate that home language or interactions with home language are significant in most cases. In addition, students who speak a language other than or in addition to English at home are, in general, a little more likely to be proficient at Grade 6. Most students who were born outside of Canada were significantly more likely than students born in Canada to stay or become proficient in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics by Grade 6. These results highlight the importance of considering the enormous heterogeneity of immigrants’ experiences when studying the effects of immigration on academic performance and the dire limitations of datasets that do not collect such data.

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Author Biography

Orlena Patricia Broomes, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

Orlena Broomes

University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Trinidad and Tobago

Email: “orlena.broomes@alumni.utoronto.ca”

Orlena Broomes is a lecturer, Schoolof Education, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. She teaches assessment, research methods and statistics with some sociology.

She received her Doctor of Education from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include: Melding sociology and psychometric perspectives to examine standardized, large-scale testing (assessments. She focuses on examining standardized testing , student backgrounds and student outcomes to improve the achievement levels of disadvantaged students. She is the proud wife and mother of a very supportive husband and two lovely children.

 

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Published

2013-05-20

How to Cite

Broomes, O. P. (2013). More than a new country: Effects of immigration, home language, and school mobility on elementary students’ academic achievement over time. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 21, 48. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v21n48.2013

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Section

Articles