Undermatched? School-Based Linguistic Status, College-Going, and the Immigrant Advantage

• In Event: 73.026 - English Learner Access to Core Content: Critically Examining Linguistic Stratification in Schools

Abstract

Objectives: Considerable research has investigated the immigrant advantage, yet little work has simultaneously considered students’ school-based linguistic status. Immigrant youth in US schools fall into three categories: native English speakers, language minority but not in ESL, and English learner (EL) students placed in ESL. Investigating the immigrant advantage alongside school-based linguistic status may help disentangle seemingly contradictory patterns in immigrant achievement.

Theoretical Framework: In this paper, we draw on prior research investigating immigrant optimism and the immigrant advantage in education, focused as it is on parental expectations and integration into the dominant society while maintaining ties to the home. We expand the scope of influence, however, outward to the school and investigate the role of language, and more importantly, the interpretation of students’ linguistic status by educators as manifested through course placement. Focused attention to linguistic status may help to disentangle seemingly contradictory achievement patterns within the immigrant population; specifically the language minority college going disadvantage coupled with the immigrant college going advantage.

Methods: Using nationally representative data, we first describe college going by immigrant and linguistic status, taking into account both students’ reports of use of a language other than English in the home, and schools’ placement of students in linguistic support services. We then develop a series of models to determine the academic and socio-demographic predictors of college going for immigrant native English speakers, and immigrant language minority groups relative to native-born, native English speakers.

Results: Both immigrant, non-EL groups experience an advantage in two-year college going relative to the third-plus generation; however, EL students do not. In fact, when we parse out the relationship between math course taking and college going, we find that not only are EL students significantly less likely to even enroll in college preparatory mathematics, but when they do, they do not experience the same returns to college going as their peers. Despite having taken college preparatory mathematics, high achieving immigrant EL students remain significantly more likely to enroll in a two-year college, and less likely to enroll in a four-year college than any of their peers regardless of immigrant or linguistic status. In fact, our results suggest that EL students reap diminished returns from their college preparatory course taking relative to their peers, suggesting they are undermatched in their choice of college when they do actually enroll in college.

Significance: Our findings suggest that to enhance the field’s understanding of the immigrant advantage, we must take into consideration the implications of the school-based linguistic label. Not only do EL students fail to experience a tangible immigrant advantage in college going, but they experience diminished returns to college preparatory placement relative to their peers, net of all else. We hypothesize that several factors may contribute to this phenomenon, not the least of which may be the (low) expectations teachers hold for EL students. Despite their foreign-born parents’ relatively high expectations, EL students also internalize the low expectations teachers may hold of them, informed by their school-based linguistic status. 

Authors

• Rebecca M. Callahan, The University of Texas - Austin

• Melissa H. Humphries