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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