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Immigrant Student Achievement and Education Policy pp 119–135Cite as

Immigrant Student Achievement and Educational Policy in Ireland

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Part of the book series: Policy Implications of Research in Education ((PIRE,volume 9))

Abstract

Much of the existing research on educational outcomes among immigrant-origin children has been conducted in “old” immigrant-receiving countries. This chapter focuses instead on how immigrant-origin children and youth fare in a country, the Republic of Ireland, where large-scale immigration is a more recent phenomenon. What makes this case of particular interest is the fact that the immigrant population in Ireland is highly heterogeneous and has, on average, high levels of educational attainment. This chapter focuses on the academic achievement of immigrant-origin young people in Irish secondary schools, drawing on the latest round of PISA data as well as on data from a large-scale child cohort study, the Growing Up in Ireland study. The analyses point to an achievement gap in relation to literacy test scores but more variable findings in relation to Math and Science. Language of origin rather than immigrant status per se emerges as one of the main drivers of this achievement gap. The chapter concludes by highlighting the lack of consistent information on educational outcomes among immigrant-origin young people and argues for on-going monitoring of such outcomes in order to prevent longer term difficulties in integration.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Those who spoke language other than English or Irish were asked to assess their ability to speak English. The categories include “very well,” “well,” “not well,” and “not at all.”

  2. 2.

    Growing Up in Ireland is a government-funded national longitudinal study of children, carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD). For more information see: http://www.esri.ie/growing-up-in-ireland/

  3. 3.

    In 2015, 167 secondary schools in Ireland took part in PISA. After exemptions, refusals, and absences were taken into account, 5741 students completed the assessment. In Ireland, Third Year students account for 60.5% of students in PISA 2015, Transition Year students for 26.7%, Fifth Year students for 10.9%, and Second Year students for 1.9% (Shiel, Kelleher, McKeown, & Denner, 2016).

  4. 4.

    The number of 15-year-old second-generation students is relatively small in Ireland because of the recency of large-scale immigration (n = 179 or 3%; first-generation n = 581 or 11%).

  5. 5.

    OECD categorizes a student as having an “immigrant” background if the student was born in the test country and both parents were born elsewhere, or if the student and parents were born outside the test country; this chapter defines “immigrants” as those children with neither parent born in Ireland.

  6. 6.

    The survey of 5 year olds and their families was conducted in 2013 while data collection at 9 and 13 years of age were conducted in 2007/8 and 2011/12.

  7. 7.

    In the GUI analyses, children are defined as “immigrant” if both parents are born outside Ireland, or in case of a lone parent, the parent is born outside Ireland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, Ireland

    Merike Darmody & Emer Smyth

Authors
  1. Merike Darmody
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  2. Emer Smyth
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Correspondence to Merike Darmody .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Brock University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Louis Volante

  2. Waikato University, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Don Klinger

  3. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Ozge Bilgili

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Darmody, M., Smyth, E. (2018). Immigrant Student Achievement and Educational Policy in Ireland. In: Volante, L., Klinger, D., Bilgili, O. (eds) Immigrant Student Achievement and Education Policy. Policy Implications of Research in Education, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74063-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74063-8_8

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