Differential associations of school practices with achievement and sense of belonging of immigrant and non-immigrant students

We are interested in identifying “malleable” school and classroom practices to enhance immigrant students' learning. Using PISA 2015 data from Germany, Italy, and Spain we test the differential associations of school–level practices with achievement and sense of belonging at school for students with and without an immigrant background. We found that (1) in-school ability grouping was invariably, negatively related to achievement of both student groups, and the effects were stronger for immigrant than nonimmigrant students; (3) grading based on “hard” factors was not related to achievement, but it showed differential associations with sense of belonging in Germany; (4) grading based on “soft” factors and provision of extracurricular activities also showed mixed associations with the outcomes across countries and did not fulfil the potential to enhance immigrant students' outcomes. We discuss these findings and implications.