Language achievement growth in primary education: A focus on socio-ethnic background and school composition

This paper investigates how pupils’ growth trajectories in three language domains (reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension) are influenced by their socio-ethnic background and by the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of their school throughout primary education. For this purpose, a sample of approximately 8,000 students from 190 schools was divided into six socio-ethnic groups. Multilevel piecewise growth curve analysis was applied to estimate pupils’ growth in language achievement. The results of the present study point out that primary school pupils’ achievement score and learning growth in these three language domains are substantially affected by their socio-ethnic background. Furthermore, socio-economic or ethnic school make-up were both found to influence pupils’ language achievement at the first measurement occasion but not their growth in the subsequent years. The research findings therefore imply that in combatting ethnic-minority pupils’ arrears in language proficiency, priority should be given to investments in intervention programs over policy plans to desegregate schools. Moreover, our results indicate in which specific points in time of the primary school period intervention programs are needed the most.status: publishe