The effect of the ethnic composition of schools on primary school maths results of pupils of immigrant origin

Scientific interest in the impact of the school composition effect on pupil performance has been reflected in the literature for several decades and has recently intensified. In Portugal, sociological research in this field has been scarce, especially quantitative approaches. Taking fourth-grade pupils and their maths results as a reference, the present study seeks to contribute to this field. The objective was to identify the main effect and the moderating effect of school composition (socio-economic and ethnic) on pupil results, controlling the effect of individual and school variables, such as socio-economic status (SES), gender, school trajectory and school size. We particularly sought to understand whether school composition affects pupils’ results and whether the effects vary with their national origins. The current research was supported by an extensive database containing information on 23,143 pupils at 522 public schools in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. A multilevel analysis was developed, considering pupil and school levels. The dependent variable was the mathematics results of fourth-grade pupils in the 2015 National Attainment Test. The results showed that the effect of school’s social composition is more important to student performance than that of the school’s ethnic composition and that pupils from PALOPs (non-immigrants vs. Portuguese-speaking African countries) benefit more than others when they attend schools with a higher average SES.