Toward an Interpretation of the TIMSS and PISA Performance Gap of Mainstream and Immigrant Students in Europe

The performance gap in educational achievement of immigrant students in Europe is well documented. We addressed the gap in two studies and examined to what extent the gap is moderated by generation differences, home background variables, and country-level variables, notably immigration policies. We first examined these questions in TIMSS 2015 mathematics scores of mainstream and immigrants in Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden. We used propensity score matching to estimate what would be the mathematics achievement differences among mainstream and immigrant students if they had similar educational resources provided at home. We then examined PISA 2012 reading and mathematics scores of Turkish immigrants in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. No item bias was detected. Results of a multilevel analysis demonstrated that at individual level, students with higher scores on an index of economic, social, and cultural status obtained higher achievement scores. At country level, Migrant Integration Index (MIPEX) scores of education, and the human development index of participating countries were found to be positively related to differences in reading results but not in mathematics. It is argued that this marked difference could be due to language factors, notably the lack of exposure to sophisticated language usage of immigrant children in their early development.