How education systems shape cross-national ethnic inequality in math competence scores: Moving beyond mean differences.

Christoph Spörlein,Elmar Schlueter,Andrew R Dalby

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193738

Christoph Spörlein, Elmar Schlueter + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193738

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Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Mar 1, 2018
Citations: 13	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Giessen, University of Bamberg

Abstract

Here we examine a conceptualization of immigrant assimilation that is based on the more general notion that distributional differences erode across generations. We explore this idea by reinvestigating the efficiency-equality trade-off hypothesis, which posits that stratified education systems educate students more efficiently at the cost of increasing inequality in overall levels of competence. In the context of ethnic inequality in math achievement, this study explores the extent to which an education system’s characteristics are associated with ethnic inequality in terms of both the group means and group variances in achievement. Based on data from the 2012 PISA and mixed-effect location scale models, our analyses revealed two effects: on average, minority students had lower math scores than majority students, and minority students’ scores were more concentrated at the lower end of the distribution. However, the ethnic inequality in the distribution of scores declined across generations. We did not find compelling evidence that stratified education systems increase mean differences in competency between minority and majority students. However, our analyses revealed that in countries with early educational tracking, minority students’ math scores tended to cluster at the lower end of the distribution, regardless of compositional and school differences between majority and minority students.

Highlights

Social science research has long established that upon arrival in the host society immigrants often occupy disadvantaged socioeconomic positions in comparison to the majority group
Based on general ideas derived from the literature on ethnic inequality in educational achievement, the second aim of this study is to examine whether the characteristics of education systems moderate the extent of distributional inequality between first- and second-generation immigrants relative to majority student populations
We start by presenting a baseline model that only includes the difference between majority and minority students’ math scores and the corresponding random slopes, thereby giving insight into ‘gross’ ethnic penalties

Summary

Introduction

Social science research has long established that upon arrival in the host society immigrants often occupy disadvantaged socioeconomic positions in comparison to the majority group. While many theoretical lenses have proven useful for approaching the subsequent multifaceted process of immigrant integration [1,2,3,4,5], one persisting question is this: why do the gaps in achievement between majority and minority groups show considerable variation between immigrant groups and across receiving contexts? Research on this issue has increased in momentum and complexity in recent decades, because the long-term integration of immigrants into host societies has been on the public agenda since mass immigration became a common feature of Western societies [6,7]. While many theoretical lenses have proven useful for approaching the subsequent multifaceted process of immigrant integration [1,2,3,4,5], one persisting question is this: why do the gaps in achievement between majority and minority groups show considerable variation between immigrant groups and across receiving contexts? Research on this issue has increased in momentum and complexity in recent decades, because the long-term integration of immigrants into host societies has been on the public agenda since mass immigration became a common feature of Western societies [6,7].

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