Children of Immigrants Health, Adjustment, and Public Assistance (1999) / Chapter Skim
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7 Educational Profile of 3- to 8-Year-Old Children and Immigrants
7 Educational Profile of 3- to 8-Year-Old Children and Immigrants
Pages 348-409
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From page 348... ...
Griffin his chapter provides a broad overview of the educational experiences of young children of immigrants and contrasts their experiences with those of children of nativeborn parents using data from a 1996 national survey, the National Household Education Survey, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education (Nolin et al., 1997~.
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From page 349... ...
The years before children enter formal schooling are especially important in preparing them for school, as is recognized in Goal One of the National Education Goals, which states that "by the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn" (National Education Goals Panel, 1996~. This goal reminds us that how children do in school is determined in part by things that have happened before they ever set foot in a classroom.
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From page 350... ...
Thus, white children are white nonHispanic children, black children are black non-Hispanic children, and Asian children are Asian non-Hispanic children.
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From page 351... ...
Information is shown for Hispanic, Asian, and white children of immigrants.3 There were too few black children in immigrant families to show separately. Information is shown for white, black, and Hispanic children of native-born parents.
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From page 352... ...
Children who grow up with two biological parents fare better in a wide variety of domains, including school, 4The Asian children of immigrants interviewed in the NHES may not be representative of all Asian children of immigrants. Bilingual interviewers were available for Spanish-speaking households but not for households that spoke other foreign languages.
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From page 353... ...
Among children of immigrants, whether the children were native or foreign born makes no difference in the likelihood that they live with both their biological parents. However, Asian and white children of immigrants are more likely than Hispanic children of immigrants to live with both their biological parents (88 percent each versus 72 percent)
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From page 354... ...
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1996 National Household Education Survey.
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From page 355... ...
Thirty-six percent of Hispanic children of immigrants live in such households, compared to 17 percent of Hispanic children of native-born parents and 4 percent each of white children of native-born parents and Asian children of immigrants. Asian and white children of immigrants, on the other hand, are substantially more likely than Hispanic children of immigrants or children of native-born parents to live in households in which a parent has graduate or professional school experience.
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From page 356... ...
Social Capital In recognition of the importance of parents to young children's learning, one objective of Goal One of the National Education Goals states that parents should be their children's first teachers, devoting time each day to helping their preschool children learn (National Education Goals Panel, 1996; see Table 7A2~. Although this goal focuses on preschool children, parental involvement in children's education is known to be important for older children as well.
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From page 357... ...
Asian children of immigrants are more likely than Hispanic children of immigrants to have been taught letters, numbers, or words by family members in the past week. Ninety-seven percent of Asian children of immigrants not yet enrolled in grade 1 or higher were taught letters, words, or numbers by their parents or other family members in the previous week compared to 90 percent of Hispanic children of immigrants.
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From page 358... ...
. Among native-born children, 79 percent of Hispanic children, 78 percent of white children, and 73 percent of black children had been told a story by a family member in the past week.
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From page 359... ...
There are also differences among children of immigrants by children's races and ethnicities. Over half of Asian and white children of immigrants (54 and 51 percent, respectively)
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From page 360... ...
Sixty-five percent of children of native-born parents have parents who are highly involved in their schools, compared to 57 percent of children of immigrants. Hispanic and Asian children of immigrants are less likely than white children of native-born parents to have parents with high levels of involvement in their schools (49 and 57 percent, respectively, versus 68 percent)
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From page 361... ...
leered at their schools, compared to 54 percent of white children of immigrants and 56 percent of white children of native-born parents. It is likely that lack of fluency in English makes volunteering more difficult for some Asian and Hispanic immigrant parents.
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From page 362... ...
. Among children of immigrants, Hispanic and Asian children are less likely than white children to attend early childhood programs (31 and 35 percent, respectively, versus 57 percent)
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From page 363... ...
. Poor Hispanic and Asian children of immigrants are about equally likely to attend Head Start programs (25 versus 22 percent)
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From page 364... ...
Sixteen percent of children of immigrants and 17 percent of children of nativeborn parents attend public elementary schools of their parents' choice. Ten percent of children of immigrants and 10 percent of children of native-born parents attend private religiously affiliated schools.
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From page 365... ...
For example, 36 percent of Hispanic children of immigrants have parents who strongly agree that teachers maintain good discipline in their classrooms, compared to 62 percent of white children of immigrants and 55 percent of white children of native-born parents. Similarly, 30 percent of Hispanic children of immigrants have parents who strongly agree that teachers and students respect each other, compared to 52 percent of white children of immigrants and 48 percent of white children of nativeborn parents.
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From page 366... ...
Similarly, 38 percent of foreign-born children of immigrants have parents who strongly agree that schools make involvement easy compared to 47 percent of native-born children of immigrants. Hispanic children of immigrants are less likely than white children of immigrants and white and Hispanic children of native-born parents to have parents who strongly agree that their schools welcome their family's involvement and make involvement easy.
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From page 367... ...
Similarly, 38 percent of Hispanic children of immigrants have parents who strongly agree that their schools make involvement easy, compared to 58 percent of white children of immigrants and 60 percent of white children and 52 percent of Hispanic children of native-born parents. Children's School Experiences Parents were asked a series of questions about their children's experiences at school (see Table 7A-5.
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From page 368... ...
Hispanic children of immigrants are less likely than white children of immigrants and white children of native-born parents to enjoy school, according to their parents. Thirty-seven percent of Hispanic children of immigrants had parents who strongly agreed that they enjoyed school, compared to 56 percent of white children of immigrants and 52 percent of white children of native-born parents.
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From page 369... ...
Hispanic children of immigrants are marginally more likely than Asian children of immigrants to experience problems in school, but the difference is only significant at the 0.10 level after using a Bonferonni adjustment to the t test for the number of comparisons being made. Asian children of immigrants, however, are less likely than white children of native-born parents to experience problems at school (17 versus 27 percent)
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From page 370... ...
It might be worthwhile for Head Start programs and other early childhood programs to target children of immigrants in order to help them adapt more quickly to American culture and language so that they will be ready to learn upon entry into school. Another potential challenge to the educational success of children of immigrants is the high proportion of Hispanic and Asian immigrants whose parents do not usually speak English at home.
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From page 371... ...
Increasing the participation of young children of immigrants in Head Start and other early childhood programs would help the children learn English more quickly. Children of immigrants, however, also have a number of strengths that should serve them well as they enter and progress through school.
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From page 372... ...
Response rates across census regions, however, are quite similar. Given that a majority of immigrants live in the Western part of the country, the similarity of the response rates provides some evidence that nonresponse among immigrants is not a large problem.
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From page 373... ...
An important question is whether differences in attendance at early childhood programs persist once these factors are taken into account. Similarly, the data in this chapter suggest that poor children of immigrants are less likely to attend Head Start than poor children of native-born parents.
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From page 374... ...
Chapman 1997 National Household Education Survey of 1996: Data File User's Manual, Volume 1.
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From page 375... ...
Montaquila, J., and J.M. Brick 1997 Unit and Item Response Rates, Weighting, and Imputation Procedures in the 1996 National Household Education Survey.
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From page 376... ...
Stewart, A 1993 Head Start: A Fact Sheet.
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From page 377... ...
The Parent and Family Involvement in Education (PFI) component of the NHES:96, which is the basis of this chapter, employed a sample of children ages 3 through grade 12.
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From page 378... ...
The completion rate for the interview with parents of children ages 3 through grade 12 was 89.4 percent. Thus, the overall response rate for the interview with parents of students ages 3 through grade 12 was 62.5 percent (the product of the screener response rate and the parent interview completion rate)
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From page 379... ...
For children not living with both their biological parents, there could be some misassignment of children to nonimmigrant status. For example, if children had a foreign-born father and an American mother but the father was no longer in their household, the children would be misclassified as children of native-born parents.
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From page 380... ...
In the NHES:96, household income was collected in increments of $5,000; however, exact income to the nearest $1,000 was also collected if the household's poverty status was ambiguous based on the increment reported. A household's size and income were compared to the poverty thresholds provided by the Bureau of the Census.
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From page 381... ...
To create a single variable about attendance at a school meeting, the two items asked in the second set were combined. The indicator of parental involvement was created by counting the number of school activities that an adult in the household had participated in.
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From page 382... ...
Child Participates in Extracurricular Activities Parents of children in kindergarten through grade 5 were asked whether their child had participated in any school activities such as team sports, band, chorus, or safety patrol. They were also asked whether during the school year the child had participated in any activities outside school, such as music lessons, church or temple youth group, scouting, or organized team sports, like soccer.
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From page 383... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN 383 was whether a teacher had contacted them this year about any problems with schoolwork that the child was having.
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From page 384... ...
384 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-1 Percentage of Chilclren with Selected Personal and Family Characteristics by Immigrant Status and Chilcl's Race and Ethnicity: Chilclren Ages 3 to 8, 1996 Total: Children of Immigrants Children Characteristic Ages 3-8 Total Native-Born Foreign-l Total (thousands) 22,959 3,213 2,782 430 Child's Characteristics Age 3 to 4 years 34% 36% 38% 21% 4 to 5 years 33 35 36 34 7 to 8 years 33 29 26 45 Sex Male 51 52 54 40 Female 49 48 46 60 Race/ethnicity White, non-Hispanic 65 26 27 22 Black, non-Hispanic 16 9 9 5 Hispanic 15 54 53 60 Asian 1 7 7 10 Other 3 4 4 3 Family Composition Number of parents Two biological parents 65 77 77 77 Other two-parent family 8 4 4 6 One-parent family 28 19 19 17 Number of siblings None 17 14 14 15 One 43 39 40 35 Two 26 27 27 33 Three or more 15 19 19 17 Presence of grandparents None 94 93 92 98 One or more 6 7 8 2 Presence of other relatives None 94 91 91 89 One or more 6 9 9 11
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From page 385... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN ally 385 `-Born Foreign-BornHispanicAsianWhite 4301,734239837 21%37%41%30% 34363138 45272831 40554349 60455751 2200100 5000 6010000 1001000 3000 77728888 6434 172498 15112616 35333651 33312824 1726119 98948295 26185 899090%95 1110105 continued on next page
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From page 386... ...
386 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-1 Continuecl Total: Children of Immigrants Children Characteristic Ages 3-8 TotalNative-BornForeign-l Human and Financial Capital Education of most educated parent in household Less than high school 9% 23%22%30% High school graduate or equivalent 31 272823 Vocational/technical school or some college 31 212115 College graduate 16 161616 Graduate or professional school 12 141316 Language parents usually speak at home Both/only English 91 434525 One English/one non-English 2 996 Both/only non-English 8 494569 Language child speaks at home English 92 505235 Spanish 5 333237 Spanish/English equally 2 9815 Other language 1 8713 Household income < $15,000 24 323135 $15,000-$25,000 16 222131 $25,000-$35,000 14 111110 $35,000-$50,000 18 13149 $50,000-$75,000 15 11119 < $75,000 12 11116 Household income below poverty threshold 26 363545 Received federal assistance (WIC, food stamps, or AFDC) in past 12 months 28 373830 Received WIC in past 12 months 16 2425 18
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From page 387... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN 387 `-Born Foreign-Born Hispanic Asian White 30 23 15 16 16 25 6 69 35 37 15 13 31 10 9 9 6 45 30 18 36 34 18 7 4 18 11 71 23 59 17 45 29 11 8 53 52 35 4 22 19 27 28 26 6 68 45 a 54 30 12 7 19 15 18 32 26 17 5% 19 24 26 27 80 8 12 88 2 9 1 1 13 18 21 24 13 5 continued on next page
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From page 388... ...
388 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-1 Continuecl Total: Children of Immigrants Children Characteristic Ages 3-8 Total Native-Born Foreign-l Received food stamps in past 12 months 21 25 26 17 Received AFDC in past 12 months 13 11 12 7 Home ownership Own home 57 45 49 22 Rent home 38 50 46 77 Other Arrangement 5 5 5 1 TABLE 7A-1 Continuecl: Chilclren of Native-Born Children of Native-Born Characteristic Total White Black Hispanic Total (thousands) 19,74614,1663,3261,652 Child's Characteristics Age 3 to 4 years 33%32%35%39% 4 to 5 years 33333332 7 to 8 years 34353230 Sex Male 51514854 Female 49495246 Race/ethnicity White, non-Hispanic 7210000 Black, non-Hispanic 1701000 Hispanic 800100 Asian <1000 Other 3000 Family Composition Number of parents Two biological parents 63732949 Other two-parent family 89610 One-parent family 29196542
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From page 389... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN 389 `-Born Foreign-Born Hispanic Asian White 17 37 17 7 7 16 6 4 22 35 50 67 77 58 49 30 1 7 1 3 TABLE 7A-1 Continuecl: Chilclren of Native-Born Children of Native-Born Characteristic Total White Black Hispanic Number of siblings None 17 16 21 16 One 43 45 36 39 Two 26 26 25 29 Three or more 14 13 17 15 Presence of grandparents None 94 96 88 91 One or more 6 4 12 9 Presence of other relatives None 95 97 85 91 One or more 5 3 15 9 Human and Financial Capital Education of most educated parent in household Less than high school High school graduate or equivalent 14 17 32 29 41 34 continued on next page
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From page 390... ...
390 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-1 Continuecl: Chilclren of Native-Born Children of Native-Born Characteristic Total White Black Hispanic Vocational/tech nical school or some college 33% 33% 33% 34% College graduate 16 19 8 10 Graduate or professional school 12 15 4 Language parents usually speak at home Both/only English One English/ one non-English 0 0 Both/only non-English 1 0 Language child speaks at home English Spanish Spanish/English equally Other language 0 99 100 99 100 87 0 3 0 10 100100 89 aa aa aa Household income < $15,000 23 15 52 36 $15,000-$25,000 16 15 16 20 $25,000-$35,000 15 16 11 14 $35,000-$50,000 19 21 12 15 $50,000-$75,000 16 19 5 10 < $75,000 12 15 3 7 Household income below poverty threshold 24 15 52 36
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From page 391... ...
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1996 National Household Education Survey.
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From page 392... ...
392 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-2 Percentage of Chilclren with Selected Types of Social Capital by Immigrant Status: Chilclren Ages 3 to 8, 1996 Total: Children of Immigrants Children Characteristic 3-8 Years Total Native-Born Foreign-l Total (thousands) 22,959 3,213 2,782 430 Family Involvement at Home In the past week, someone in family: Taught child letters, words, or numbersa 93% 92% 93% 86% Taught child songs or musics 76 73 73 68 Took child along while doing errandsa 95 91 90 97 Number of times read to childb: Notatall 7 11 11 13 Once or twice 20 26 25 34 Three or more times 28 25 26 23 Every day 44 37 38 31 Told child a story 77 76 77 74 Worked on arts and crafts project with child 72 65 66 59 Played a game, sport, or exercised with child 92 86 87 82 Involved child in household chores 95 86 86 83 Worked on a ~roiect with child like building, making, or fixing somethingC 67 56 58 51 In the past month, someone family: ~ in the Visited the library with child 44 38 38 32 Went to a play, concert, or other live show with the child 30 26 27 21 Visited an art gallery, museum, or historical attraction with child 20 20 20 17 Visited a zoo or aquarium with child 17 23 23 21 Talked with child about family history or ethnic heritage 52 55 54 60 Attended an event with child sponsored by a community, ethnic, or religious group 50 41 41 39 Attended an athletic or sporting event in which child was not a player 33 22 24 12
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From page 393... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN Capital by 393 nigrants ye-Born Foreign-Born Hispanic Asian White 430 1,734 239 837 86% 68 97 90% 70 88 97% 72 79 94% 78 99 13 14 6 7 34 32 18 17 23 25 25 24 31 29 51 51 74 71 83 84 59 59 74 74 82 81 92 94 83 84 74 90 51 47 59 69 32 27 54 51 21 21 34 33 17 15 24 27 21 20 32 26 60 52 50 61 39 35 38 51 12 18 19 30 continued on next page
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From page 394... ...
394 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-2 Continuecl Total: Children of Immigrants Children Characteristic 3-8 Years Total Native-Born Foreign-l Family Involvement at School Parents' involvement in schools Low 15% 17% 17% 17% Moderate 21 26 25 33 High 64 57 58 50 Parent attended a general school meeting 83 82 83 78 Parent attended class or school event 67 61 61 60 Parent volunteered at school 51 38 41 24 Parent attended parent-teacher conference 79 82 81 84 TABLE 7A-2 Continuecl: Chilclren of Native-Born Children of Native-Born Characteristic Total White Black Hispanic Total (thousands) 19,746 14,166 3,326 1,652 Family Involvement at Home In the past week, someone in family: Taught child letters, words, or numbersa 94% 93% 96% 91% Taught child songs or musics 76 76 83 69 Took child along while doing errandsa 95 96 94 94 Number of times read to childb: Notatall 7 6 8 8 Once or twice 19 17 25 24 Three or more times 29 28 30 29 Every day 45 48 37 39 Told child a story 77 78 73 79
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From page 395... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN 395 nigrants ye-Born Foreign-Born Hispanic Asian White 17% 33 50 78 60 24 84 21 30 49 79 54 29 83 13 30 57 81 56 36 88 10 20 70 87 73 54 86 TABLE 7A-2 Continuecl: Chilclren of Native-Born Children of Native-Born Characteristic Total White Black Hispanic Worked on arts and crafts project with child Played a game, sport, or exercised with child 93 Involved child in household chores 96 Worked on a project with child like building, making, orfixing somethingC In the past month, someone in the family: Visited the library with child 68 45 47 73% 75% 66% 72% 94 92 87 97 95 92 70 63 67 40 39 continued on next page
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From page 396... ...
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1996 National Household Education Survey.
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From page 398... ...
398 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-3 Percentage of Chilclren Enrollecl in School and Selected Characteristics of Their Schools by Immigrant Status and Chilcl's Race and Ethnicity: Chilclren Ages 3 to 8, 1996 Total: Children of Immigrants Children Characteristic Ages 3-8 Total Native-Born Foreign-E Total (thousands) 22,959 3,213 2,782 430 Attends an early childhood programs 55% 41% 42% 27% Attends government-sponsored early childhood programs 33 45 4 Proportion of eligible children attending Head Starter 38 25 26 20 School Characteristics Public school Assigned 70 69 69 72 Chosen 17 16 16 17 Private school: Religious affiliation 10 10 10 7 No religious affiliation 3 5 5 4 Size of school <300 students 25 22 23 14 300-599 47 46 46 43 600-999 19 20 19 20 >1,000 9 13 11 23
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From page 399... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN :e and 399 ye-Born Foreign-Born Hispanic Asian White 430 27% 1,734 239 837 31% 35% 57% e 76 e 19 20 25 22 18 72 80 64 59 17 15 16 13 7 4 13 16 4 1 7 13 14 16 42 31 43 47 34 47 20 20 16 17 23 17 8 5 continued on next page
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From page 400... ...
bRestricted to children enrolled in an early childhood program. CEstimate obtained by dividing the proportion of children enrolled in Head Start by the proportion of children whose household incomes were below the poverty threshold.
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From page 402... ...
95 95 9499 How often school provides newsletters, memos, or notices to all parents O times 5 8 87 1-2 times 8 9 910 3 or more times 87 82 8283 How well school has been doing at: Letting parent know how child is doing in school/program Very well 68 71 7076 Could do better 23 21 2120 Doesn't do well 9 8 94 Helping parent understand developmental stages of children Very well 53 57 5664 Could do better 30 28 2923 Doesn't do 17 15 1513 Letting parent know of volunteer opportunities at school Very well 73 67 6772 Could do better 19 23 2321 Doesn't do 8 10 107
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From page 403... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN Practices ild's nigrants ~tive-Born 403 Foreign-Born Hispanic Asian White 782 3% 430 40 42 33 40 38 99 10 83 76 20 4 64 23 13 72 21 7 1 ,734 36% 39 30 39 38 97 10 10 80 73 19 7 64 24 12 64 25 11 239 48% 57 37 60 40 95 12 10 77 61 32 7 53 39 8 60 35 5 837 62% 64 52 70 58 c 6 88 68 22 9 49 34 17 74 17 9 continued on next page
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From page 404... ...
404 EDUCATIONAL PROFILE OF 3- TO S-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN TABLE 7A-4 Continuecl Total: Children of Immigrants Children Characteristic Ages 3-8 Total Native-BornForeign-l Providing information about how to help child with homeworka Very well 54% 65% 63%73% Could do better 29 25 2619 Doesn't do 17 11 118 Providing information about why child is placed in particular groups or classesa Very well 48 53 5261 Could do better 24 21 2117 Doesn't do 28 26 2721 TABLE 7A-4 Continuecl: Chilclren of Native-Born Children of Native-Born Characteristic Total White Black Hispanic Total (thousands) School Environments Strongly agree that: Teachers maintain discipline in classroom Principal maintains discipline in school Teachers and students respect each other 46 School Practices Strongly agree that: School welcomes family's involvement 65 School makes involvement easya 19,746 14,166 3,326 1,652 53% 55% 43% 49% 51 54 44 45 48 36 44 67 56 58 57 60 49 52
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From page 405... ...
How often school provides newsletters, memos, or notices to all parents O times 1-2 times 3 or more times How well school has been doing at: Letting parent know how child is doing in school/prog ram c c c c 4% 4% 6% 7% 8 6 11 12 88 90 83 81 Very well 68 66 72 72 Could dobetter 23 24 21 20 Doesn't do well 9 9 7 8 continued on next page
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From page 406... ...
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1996 National Household Education Survey.
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From page 408... ...
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1996 National Household Education Survey.
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From page 409... ...
CHRISTINE WINQUIST NORD AND fAMES A GRIFFIN Is by ~ to 8, 1996 409 igrants tive-Born 782 4% 430 53 37 56 24 6 1 ,734 41% 37 49 30 8 239 63% 51 78 17 3 837 51% 56 79 22 3
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