Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Using the 2009-2012 panels of High School Longitudinal Survey, the latest nationally representative longitudinal survey from the National Center for Educational Statistics, this paper examines the net combined effects of race/ethnicity and immigrant status on academic achievement, as well as whether parental school involvement can mediate the effect of race/ethnicity and immigrant status on educational outcomes. Preliminary results show that the interactive effect of race/ethnicity and generational status is significant even after controlling for prior academic performance, family and school-level characteristics. The regression results suggest the progression in academic performance across generation varies substantially by race/ethnicity. While being a first or second-generation has a significant positive impact on academic performance for Asians, the impact is negative for first and second-generation Blacks and Hispanics although only the effect of being second-generation Blacks is statistically significant, after controlling for family background characteristics and school contexts.  In addition, this study shows that all minority immigrant youth have lower levels of parental school involvement compared to third or higher- generation Whites. Parental social capital and involvement contribute to explain some of the impacts observed for SES and family structure across all groups, but the mediating effect of parental social capital differs by race/ethnicity/ generation subgroup. The types of parental involvement that could be beneficial for improving children’s academic performance vary by racial groups. For Asians and Blacks, parental education aspiration matters most, while for Hispanics, parental participation in extracurricular activities with students has a significant positive association with academic performance. For Whites, higher levels of parental school involvement is positively related to higher test scores.