School performance of the children of
immigrants in Canada, 1994-98
by Christopher Worswick
Family and Labour
Studies Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 178
The
school performance of the children of immigrants in the Canadian school system
is analyzed using data from the first three waves of the National Longitudinal
Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). School performance is measured in terms
of ability at reading, writing, mathematics and overall aptitude. The parents'
and teachers' assessments of the children's performances are used, as
are the results of formal testing.
On average, children of immigrants generally
do at least as well as the children of the Canadian-born along each dimension
of school performance. The children of immigrant parents whose first language
is either English or French have especially high outcomes. The children of other
immigrant parents have lower performance in reading, writing and composition but
their performance in mathematics is comparable to that of the children of Canadian-born
parents. It is also found that with more years in the Canadian education system,
the performance of these children in reading, writing and mathematics improves
and is equal to or greater than the performance of the children of Canadian-born
parents by age thirteen in virtually all areas of performance.
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