1. Comments on: ”Educating Children of Immigrants: Closing the Gap in Norwegian Schools” The Nordic Economic Policy Review Conference 2011 Lena Nekby Department of Economics, Stockholm University, SULCIS and IZA Research Fellow

2. 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University General Comments: Very much enjoyed reading this paper! Important and increasingly timely issue. Authors approach the question of immigrant- native education gaps from a number of perspectives and provide new and policy relevant information.

3. The Norwegian school system? The study needs to provide more information on the Norwegian school system and how it influences the choice of and the possibility to attend secondary school: –School choice (neighborhood? free choice?) –Entrance requirements/eligibility? –Enrollment and type of program (academic/vocational/preperatory)? 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

4. Secondary school choice? Neighborhood or free choice within a defined regional area? –If most students attend neighborhood schools, risk that immigrant students, due to housing segregation, attend schools with a higher proportion of immigrant students High immigrant concentration in schools found to have a negative effect on educational outcomes (especially first generation immigrant students) (Jensen & Würtz Rasmussen (2008); Szulkin & Jonsson (2007)) –Free choice may lead to increased segregation in several dimensions: Mixed evidence on outcomes, but definitely larger variation in outcomes across schools 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

5. Ethnic concentration not problematic! –Both ethnic size and ethnic capital has a positive effect on compulsory school GPA (Åslund, Edin, Fredriksson & Grönqvist; 2011) Especially for disadvantaged students School and housing segregation can be important factors in: – Explaining education gaps between natives and (first generation) immigrants –Explaining why parental education influences educational outcomes differentially But the association is complex! 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

6. 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University Eligibility for secondary school education? In 2007/2008: Students with immigrant backgrounds in Sweden were considerably less likely to qualify for national secondary school programs than children with Swedish backgrounds (23% vs. 9%) (OECD, 2010). –Students who do not qualify for national programs end up in individual programs (preparatory programs) with much higher drop-out rates (as high as 75% in one survey) (Statistics Sweden, 2007). –Students in individual programs have a higher proportion of interruptions/postponements (27.9%) than pupils in national programs (3.3%) (Skolverket, 2006).

7. First and second order choice of secondary school enrollment: –First order choice: To enroll (or not) in secondary school: Controlling for grades/incompletes, some indication that students with non-European backgrounds are less likely to (immediately) enroll in secondary school than native students (Jonsson & Rudolphi, 2011). –Second order choice: vocational or academic tracks? At given levels of performance, students with non-European backgrounds have a higher propensity to choose academic over vocational tracks (Jonsson & Rudolphi, 2011). –This is true across the grade distribution! 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

8. How does it look in Norway? What happens to students in Norway with incomplete or low grades? – Do results indicating lower secondary school completion partially reflect lower enrollment rates to start with? Do immigrant students study in more challenging academic tracks in secondary school, all else equal (grades)? –Weak performance but high aspirations? How does school/neighborhood segregation tie into the results? Effect of 1994 school reform?

9. Other comments: What is the scope for a second chance? –Adult education programs? –Higher age at immigration detrimental for educational outcomes but in the long run this group (in Sweden) catches up in terms of final educational attainment (Böhlmark, 2009) –Too soon to tell? On the other hand, these same immigrants continue to face long term income gaps Is it possible to compare parental education between immigrants and natives? –Register data for natives –Survey data for (many) immigrants –Mechanisms behind this differential effect? 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

10. Smaller comments to the authors: Table 2 & 3 by gender? Parental education measured by highest obtained degree within the family. –It would be interesting to see if spread in education between parents matters? –It would also be interesting to see if parental education has a differential impact depending on who has the highest obtained degree (mother or father). Why do foreign born girls catch up but not foreign born boys (Table 5)? 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

11. To what degree is figure 2 due to changing composition of immigrant groups over time? How are mixed backgrounds (one parent born in Norway, one parent born abroad) dealt with? Immigrant children even those arriving at relatively early ages have an education gap to native children –How much does this have to do with early childhood education? In particular day-care? –In Sweden, newly arrived immigrants with children get full parental leave benefits for all children under the age of 7 (at minimum level). Newly arrived female immigrants stay at home and keep their children out of daycare? 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

12. –Fredriksson et al. (2010) have a study suggesting that participation in daycare decreased differences in language ability between immigrants and natives. Parental average earnings calculated over a ten- year period. –But earnings profiles are likely to differ between immigrants and natives for a number of reasons (age compostion, unemployment, educ-occ matching, discrimination (wage and employment) etc. May also be a larger spread in earnings between parents across the groups. –What are we trying to measure with income? What are the mechanisms behind differential effects on child outcomes? 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University

13. Separate, in Figure 6 and 7, between children to immigrants born abroad and born in Norway? Show the distribution of parental education when missing education is not included (missing category is unclear: illiterates? immigrants not yet caught in surveys to measure education?) To what degree are grades in compulsory school compensatory? Is it possible to check using comparison to national tests? Policy implications: –Measures to compensate for lower parental influence on outcomes (homework centers, longer school opening hours, greater focus on early childhood education, greater provision of mother language support in homework, homework tutorials for parents) 2011-10-24/ Lena Nekby, Stockholm University