Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/170832 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10848
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Immigrant children in the US tend to perform worse in reading, mathematics, and science compared to native children. This paper explores how much of such differences in achievement can be accounted for by a lack of English proficiency. To identify the causal effect of English proficiency on cognitive test scores, I use the fact that language proficiency is closely linked to age at arrival, and that migrant children arrive at different ages from different countries of origin. In particular, I instrument English proficiency by comparing children from English-speaking countries to children from non-English-speaking countries who migrated to the US at different ages. Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, I find that speaking English very badly or badly can explain 27–33% of the achievement gap between native and immigrant children in standardized language-related tests. However, I find no significant language effects for applied maths problems or calculations.
Subjects: 
standardized tests
English proficiency
immigrant children
age at arrival
English-speaking countries
JEL: 
J13
J15
I20
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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