Educational attainment of children of immigrants: Evidence from the national longitudinal survey of youth

•U.S.-born children with both foreign-born parents have the highest educational attainment.•Foreign-born children with both foreign-born parents have the second highest educational attainment.•Full-first and full-second generation females have higher educational attainment than their native female peers.•The findings support previous research and are consistent with the theory of optimism assimilation.•The attainment relies on the foreign-born parents’ strong values on education and the children's English proficiency.

This study investigates the educational attainment of children of immigrants in the United States. By employing a more detailed classification of children of immigrants, we examine whether a foreign place of birth of either parent or child affects the child's educational attainment. Our results indicate that the full-second generation (U.S.-born children with both foreign-born parents) achieves the highest educational attainment, while the full-first generation (foreign-born children with both foreign-born parents) achieves the second highest educational attainment compared to the other groups of children of immigrants and native children. Full-first and full-second generation females also achieve higher educational attainment than their native female peers. The results support the optimism theory of assimilation in which the educational attainment of children of immigrants relies on the combination of their foreign-born parents’ strong values on education and the children's English proficiency.