Abstract

Scholars have linked multiple background characteristics to academic achievement; among these are student SES and race/ethnicity. A largely understudied student characteristic in relation to academic achievement is student immigrant status. I contextualize this relationship by considering a macro social setting: country-level foreign-born population. To do this, I examine mathematics achievement from the 2015 PISA assessment in 41 high-income countries. Using mixed-effects modeling, I examine student- and country-level factors and their effects on mathematics achievement. I use within- and cross-level interactions to examine the relationship between 1) immigrant status and student SES and between 2) immigrant status and foreign-born population. To examine the relationship between student immigrant status and student SES and between immigrant status and foreign-born-population, I use within- and cross-level interactions. My findings indicate that immigrant students perform similarly to native-born students when considering other contextual factors at the student-, school-, and country- levels. Furthermore, SES moderates the effect of immigrant status, with second-generation immigrants exhibiting a smaller achievement gain with increased SES. Additionally, everyone – immigrants and non-immigrants alike – benefits from higher foreign-born population rates, suggesting that immigration is advantageous for all students.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2018-05-01

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd10005

Keywords

international education, academic achievement, PISA, immigration, educational equality

Language

english

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