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Using a propensity score matching method, and regression modeling based on the 2002 Education Longitudinal Study, this study found a significant Catholic school, mathematics achievement effect among those 12th graders who were least likely to attend Catholic school. This result is evident within districts after we used the School District Demographics System map data to locate Catholic schools within school district boundaries. Furthermore, the Catholic school effects were statistically significant for students in districts that allowed publicly funded private education.

Central to student learning and academic success, the school engagement of immigrant children also reflects their adaptation to a primary institution in their new country. Analysis of questionnaire responses of 276,165 fifteen-year-olds (50% female) and their 10,789 school principals in 41 countries showed that school engagement has distinct, weakly-linked cognitive and emotional components. Native students had weaker attitudes toward school (cognitive engagement) but greater sense of belonging at school (emotional engagement) than immigrant students or students who spoke a foreign language at home. Students with better teacher-student relationships, teacher support or a classroom disciplinary climate often had a greater sense of belonging at school and had better attitudes toward school than other students. While immigrant students often have solid attitudes toward school, teachers can help them feel a greater sense of belonging at school. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Using data from the New Immigrant Survey, a study based on a nationally representative sample of legal immigrants, the present study extends prior research on the academic outcomes of immigrants' children by examining the roles of pre- and postmigration parental characteristics and the home environment. An analysis of 2,147 children aged 6-2 shows that parents' premigration education is more strongly associated with children's academic achievement than any other pre- or postmigration attribute. Premigration parental attributes account for the test score disadvantage of Mexican-origin children of legal immigrants, relative to their non-Latino counterparts. The findings reveal continuities and discontinuities in parental socioeconomic status and demonstrate that what parents bring to the United States and their experiences after arrival influence children's academic achievement. (Contains 6 tables.)

Our study re-examines the relationship between parenting and school performance among Asian students. We use two sources of data: wave I of the Adolescent Health Longitudinal Survey (Add Health), and waves I and II of the Taiwan Educational Panel Survey (TEPS). Analysis using Add Health reveals that the Asian-American/European-American difference in the parenting-school performance relationship is due largely to differential sample sizes. When we select a random sample of European-American students comparable to the sample size of Asian-American students, authoritarian parenting also shows no effect for European-American students. Furthermore, analysis of TEPS shows that authoritarian parenting is negatively associated with children's school achievement, while authoritative parenting is positively associated. This result for Taiwanese Chinese students is similar to previous results for European-American students in the US. (Contains 6 tables and 3 footnotes.)

What it means to be a "student" varies within and between countries. Apart from the wide variety of school types and school quality that is experienced by young people, there also is, accompanying increased rates of school participation, a growing population of students who work part-time. The theoretical and actual consequences of student work have long been in dispute. This article reformulates the dispute as an empirical question that can be addressed using cross-national testing data and student background information from the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). Drawing information from 20 countries with distinctive proportions of students who reported paid and unpaid work, this study first compares their academic achievement in each country. Next, regression analysis is used to control for students' home resources, and estimates are made of the effects of work and the differences in these effects cross-nationally. Finally, hierarchical linear models are estimated in each country so as to control for school effects, and to take into account the fact that working students may be clustered in lower-achieving schools. The results show that work after school, whether paid or unpaid, never positively affects academic achievement. However, after controlling for home resources and school effects, work negatively affects achievement only in certain countries. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways to interpret international differences in the effect of students' work. (Contains 4 figures and 8 tables.)

Data from Hong Kong PISA 2003 show that 15-year-old Hong Kong students who have immigrant parents from mainland China are grossly overrepresented in grades below the modal grade attended by most native Hong Kong students. Same-age comparison, when grade level is not taken into account, puts immigrants' children at a disadvantaged position in the mathematics, reading, and science literacy tests. The academic advantage of immigrants' children in Hong Kong is only revealed after grade is statistically controlled. Also, mainland immigrant students who are repeaters outperform native Hong Kong repeaters. Immigrant redshirting is a possible driving force behind these results. (Contains 5 tables and 10 notes.)

Uses data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to examine the relationship between class size and mathematics achievement in nine countries. In no country other than the United States was a beneficial effect found for small class sizes. Except in Hong Kong, neither curricular coverage nor instructional practices mediates the relationship between class size and mathematics achievement. (SLD)

Using a longitudinal sample of eighth graders who lived with both biological parents in 1988, study estimates the increased risk of dropping out among students whose two-parent families experienced disruption over the subsequent four years. Results suggest that income is a significant contributor to the risk of dropping out for adolescents whose families became mother-only families. (Author/MKA)

Proposed a framework for analyzing the relationship between academic achievement and student employment and applied this framework to results from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Findings show negative effects on achievement from adolescent employment, even after controlling for family background. (SLD)

Uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) to reveal a detrimental contextual effect on 10th-grade mathematics and reading achievement associated with attending a school with a high concentration of children from single-parent homes. Maintains this effect is evident even when individual demographic characteristics and family background are controlled. (MJP)

Analysis of 1981 and 1991 Hong Kong census data confirms the waning effects of sibship size, sex composition, and birth order on the stratification of educational opportunities within the household, particularly with regard to daughters' access to education. These changes are related to increases in mothers' education, but more importantly, to a huge increase in availability of free schooling. (SV)

Reviews existing theoretical perspective on how single-parent families and stepfamilies affect student achievement by examining math and reading achievement scores. Results show that schools predominated by students from single-parent families and stepfamilies negatively affect student's achievement. These negative effects are countervailed when social relations among parents are strong. (RJM)

Comments on the apparent disparity between mathematics achievement as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and various international studies, focusing on the comparability among studies, the magnitude of change in average test scores, and the role of family-related factors in achievement trends in other countries. (SM)

The National Center for Education Statistics has reported that American students are way behind the top-performing countries and below the international averages in terms of math and science academic achievement. There is a reasonable connection between students' academic performance and some family related factors. Studies reveal that family is clearly one strong determinant of children's school achievement.

Reports a study which investigated the effects of education on fertility among Hong Kong women using a sample of the 1976 census data. Results showed that the drop in fertility due to education was greater among the less- rather than the more-educated women. (JDH)