Different roles of family socioeconomic status in academic trajectories between emergent bilinguals and their peers across primary years.

Abstract

The academic achievement of emergent bilinguals (EBs) has received increasing attention in the past decades due to the growing presence of this population. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2011 data set, we compared academic growth trajectories of ever-EBs (including both former and current EBs) and never-EBs and how EB status and family socioeconomic status (SES) intersect to shape children’s trajectories of academic skills development from kindergarten through Grade 5. Compared to never-EB students, ever-EBs performed significantly better in reading, math, and science in kindergarten but grew significantly slower in all three academic areas across primary years. In addition, household income and parental education were differentially associated with academic development, with differences between ever-EB and never-EB students (ever-EBs outpaced never-EBs) narrowing at higher income gradients for reading and math and narrowing at higher levels of parental educational attainment for science. Results suggest that ever-EBs from lower-SES families were more likely to maintain advantages over their never-EB peers from similar SES backgrounds, compared to children from higher-SES families. The current study provided compelling evidence of the different roles of dimensions of SES in shaping academic trajectories in ever-EB and never-EB children.