Immigrants in Developed Nations Lag Behind Native Peers in School

Washington

Students from immigrant families lag behind their native counterparts in the United States and many other developed countries, concludes a 17-nation study released here last week.

Experts said the report, which was published by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, offers first-of-a-kind data on how the world’s 200 million immigrant children fare in school and which countries seem to be most successful at educating them. It bases its findings on 2003 results from the economic group’s Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, which tested 15-year-olds from 41 countries in math, reading, science, and problem-solving skills. For this study, though, the authors focused on nations experiencing high levels of immigration.

The report found, for instance, that, in most of those countries, a quarter or more of immigrant 15-year-olds did not score high enough on the PISA math test to reach basic levels of proficiency. What’s more, children of immigrant families trailed native-born students academically by an average of six months to three years, depending on the country and whether they were first or second generation. The gaps remained, for the most part, even after the researchers accounted for language and socioeconomic differences between...