Research seminar: Effects of School Referral on Bilingual Children’s Outcomes

Helena Skyt Nielsen, Aarhus University: http://pure.au.dk/portal/en/hnielsen@econ.au.dk

Title: Effects of School Referral on Bilingual Children’s Outcomes

Authors: Anna Piil Damm, Elena Mattana, Helena Skyt Nielsen and Benedicte Rouland

Abstract: Multiple initiatives have been implemented internationally to mitigate potential adverse effects of residential segregation of minority groups. We evaluate the effects of a school referral policy on bilingual school starters with a significant need for host-country language support that created exogenous variation in school referral for that subgroup, conditional on a few observed individual characteristics. Bilingual pupils who were referred to another public school with free school bus service attend a so-called reception school characterized by a lower share of immigrant pupils and higher share of high SES pupils, but a lower per pupils spending than the district school. We find that referral to a reception school reduces academic performance on bilingual pupils by the 3 ^rd grade. We explore potential mechanisms, including endogenous network formation within the class.