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The Educational Achievement of Pupils with Immigrant and Native Mothers: Evidence from Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Eric S.

    (National Tsing Hua University)

  • Lu, Yu-Lung

    (National Tsing Hua University)

Abstract

This paper takes advantage of the Taiwan Assessment of Student Achievement data set to empirically evaluate whether the test score differentials between pupils with immigrant and native mothers are substantial across subjects, grades and years. Our results show that there exist test score differentials between the two groups after controlling for the students' individual characteristics and family background. The Chinese, Math and English subjects exhibit larger test score gaps relative to Science and Society. We also find that the academic gaps between native students and pupils with mothers from Southeast Asian countries tend to widen, while the students' performance is about the same as that for native students if their mothers are from mainland China, confirming that the language proficiency of immigrant mothers significantly affects pupils' learning. Our empirical results may suggest that remedial teaching (or an equivalent preferential policy) for the lower-grade pupils with immigrant mothers might be required to create a fair environment for learning, and such a policy should take the nationality of those foreign mothers into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Eric S. & Lu, Yu-Lung, 2015. "The Educational Achievement of Pupils with Immigrant and Native Mothers: Evidence from Taiwan," IZA Discussion Papers 9435, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9435
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amy Ellen Schwartz & Leanna Stiefel, 2006. "Is There a Nativity Gap? New Evidence on the Academic Performance of Immigrant Students," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 17-49, January.
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    7. Cook, Michael D & Evans, William N, 2000. "Families or Schools? Explaining the Convergence in White and Black Academic Performance," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(4), pages 729-754, October.
    8. Roland G. Fryer & Steven D. Levitt, 2006. "The Black-White Test Score Gap Through Third Grade," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 8(2), pages 249-281.
    9. Alan Krueger & Diane Whitmore, 2001. "Would Smaller Classes Help Close the Black-White Achievement Gap?," Working Papers 830, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigrants; foreign spouse; academic performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A2 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

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