Demographic Data and Immigrant Student Achievement

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the issue of disaggregated school data. Although the No Child Left Behind Act requires that student achievement data be reported by subgroups like gender, race ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and home language, these categories do not give a clear understanding about the achievement of immigrant students in K–12 classrooms. Previous studies examine the postsecondary achievement of immigrant students. This article encourages researchers and district data personnel to examine K–12 student data for immigrant students to uncover unique challenges and successes for this subgroup of students.

Acknowledgments

Lesa M. Covington Clarkson is an assistant professor of mathematics education at the University of Minnesota.