This book examines immigrant student achievement and education policy
across a range of Western nations. It is divided into 3 sections: Part 1
introduces the topic of immigrant student achievement and the
performance disadvantage that is consistently reported across a range of
international jurisdictions. Part 2 then presents national profiles from
scholars in ten countries (England, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland,
Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand).
These educational jurisdictions were selected because they represent a
range of Western nations engaged in large-scale reform efforts geared
towards enhancing their immigrant students' achievement. Each of the
national profiles provides a brief overview of the evolution of the
cultural composition of their respective school-aged student population;
explains the trajectory of achievement results in non-immigrant and
immigrant student groups in relation to both national and international
large-scale assessment measures; and discusses the effectiveness of
policy responses that have been adopted to close the achievement gap
between non-immigrant and immigrant student populations. It also
examines the relationships between education policies and immigrant
student achievement and discusses how education policies have evolved
across various cultural contexts. In conclusion, Part 3 analyzes
cross-cultural approaches designed to address the performance
disadvantage of immigrant students and proposes future areas of inquiry
stemming from the national profiles.
The book offers insights into a diverse cross-section of nations and
policy approaches to addressing the performance disadvantage.
