The effects of age at arrival and enclave schools on the academic performance of immigrant children

This paper analyzes the relationship between age at arrival and immigrant-receiving high schools (i.e., enclave schools) on the academic performance of first- and second-generation immigrant children using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS). The CILS survey was conducted in two major immigrant-receiving cities in the US—San Diego and Miami. Results show that the test score gap between first- and second-generation immigrant children decreases the longer first-generation immigrant children reside in the US. In addition, results indicate that students who attend enclave schools do not perform any differently on their reading and math tests and that the assimilation profiles of immigrant children in enclave schools do not differ from those who attend non-enclave schools.