Classes in Europe are getting more diverse by the year. Does this have an influence on the educational performance in primary education. This was the subject of research by Veerman et al. in the Netherlands.
In their research they make a distinction between the proportion of migrants (first- and second-generation) and the diversity among the different origin groups.
From the conclusion:
Our results demonstrated that the proportion of migrants in a class is negatively related to academic performance of native pupils. Pupils of migrant origins are less strongly affected by larger proportions of migrants in a class. The diversity of pupils in terms of origin has weaker effects overall, although the reading comprehension of children with a migration background is negatively related to origin diversity in Grade 8, the year in which decisions are made for the school type that can be attended in secondary education.
This conforms to the study of Van Ewijk and Sleegers (2010a), who demonstrated that peergroup effects increase as pupils get older.
Also children of Dutch descent had slightly lower scores on reading comprehension if they were in a class with a larger number of different origin groups. So, instructional problems resulting from a larger number of origin groups in a class were more negatively affecting children of Dutch descent. The combined results suggest that for reading comprehension in Grade 8 native pupils are significantly influenced by instructional mechanisms and migrant pupils by a combination of instructional and peer group mechanisms.
The difference between math and reading comprehension for the effect of the number of origin groups for native pupils in Grade 8 could possibly be caused by the different instructional needs of the pupils with respect to math and reading comprehension. For instance, for reading comprehension native pupils possibly need more instruction that connects to their own needs as natives. The results suggest that teachers have more problems with also planning the instruction for the needs of the native pupils. Nevertheless, for math the teachers could possibly instruct more origin groups at the same time.
Our findings of origin diversity residuals in Grade 8 are partially in line with the earlier research of Dronkers and Van der Velden (in press). Using data from diverse OECD countries, Dronkers and Van der Velden found significant negative effects of origin diversity on reading scores for migrants in secondary schools. Nevertheless, in contrast to this earlier study we found in our research model no significant effects for mathematics.
Abstract of the research that can be downloaded here:
This article examines the effect of the ethnic composition in the school class on school performance in primary education, using COOL 2008 data for The Netherlands. We make an important distinction between the proportion of migrant children and the diversity with regard to the different ethnic groups in a school class. Due to the strong correlation between these 2 variables, we employ a residualized score of diversity on the proportion of migrants. The diversity indicator, which indicates the level of diversity given a particular share of migrant children, is negatively related to reading comprehension in Grade 8. For other grade years, we find little support for negative effects of diversity net of the share of migrants in a class.