6533b858fe1ef96bd12b5634

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Educational Inequalities of the Second GenerationIn France and in the United States: school careers and attainment

subject

description

09025; Document de travail. Rapport pour la Nuffield Foundation. 34 p.; This paper aims to compare the educational outcomes of the second generation in France and in the United States and therefore to shape the patterns of educational inequality in both countries. The comparison is focused on children from two groups: North Africans in France and Mexicans in the US (compared to French born families and White third generation). By using two longitudinal datasets, the National Educational Panel Survey (Panel 95) of the French Ministry of Education and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examine their educational aspiration, careers and attainment in secondary education in the two national contexts. We explore in particular the role of parental education on educational attainment. Immigrant families have high educational aspirations in both contexts. North Africans express however higher aspirations than native French with similar background, while there are no differences between Mexicans second generation and non Hispanic White third generation. Second generation children are disadvantaged in school in both countries: they are more likely to repeat a year, to drop out and less likely to graduate from high school, but most of the disadvantages are related to their social background. Part of North African second generation are more likely to get the French high school diploma, the baccalaureat. Furthermore, this success is relative insofar as they get the technological baccalaureat which is less valued within the academic track and can be considered as providing a less certain route to higher education.. Institutional differences, such as grade retention or tracking, have an impact on educational careers and school experience of the second generation.