The Moderating Influence of Ninth-Grade Teachers' Approach to Ability Grouping on Immigrant Students' Sense of School Belonging (Poster 53)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Eight
  In Poster Session: 2023 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair

Abstract

"Immigrant students’ sense of school belonging is important because it is intertwined with academic performance and is an important determinant of persistence through high school. The goals of this research are to investigate: 1) how immigrant students’ native language relates to the degree to which they feel a sense of school belonging; 2) whether this relationship remains after accounting for related factors; and 3) how the way teacher groups students moderates (i.e., differentiates) this relationship. I use data from the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS) a nationally representative dataset that focuses on a cohort of 25,206 US adolescents in the 9th grade in 2009. After excluding youth who are not first or second-generation immigrants or who are missing on the dependent variable, my analytic sample includes 3,280 ninth graders. This study’s methods include linear regression analyses to determine how immigrant students’ native language relates to their sense of school belonging, estimating separate models to understand whether students’ math teachers’ approach to ability grouping moderates (i.e., differentiates) this relationship. Findings suggest that immigrant students who speak an Asian language prefer being grouped into groups of different ability levels or choosing their own groups, while other immigrant students prefer the other three modes of grouping (similar ability levels, without regard to ability levels, and no grouping). Findings also suggest that students who speak Spanish as their native language experience the lowest sense of school belonging among all groups, and findings are similar results among students who are allowed to choose their own groups. In the next steps, I will study whether the frequency of how often teachers group their students differentiates students’ sense of school belonging. Finally, HSLS also collects data on ninth graders’ science teachers such that I could consider immigrant students’ experiences in their science and math classes.

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Author

• Xuan Dinh, Portland State University
  Presenting Author