PISA 2003-2012: persistence, changes and challenges. An overview of immigrant students and their performance

The aim of this study is to provide an overview of immigrant students' profile, academic performances, social integration and well-being in secondary schools in Luxembourg, and to analyse changes of these between 2003 and 2012. The analyses are based on the OECD PISA data of 15-year old students collected in 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012 and contain both student-level and school-level information. Luxembourg's school population changed rapidly ? between 2003 and 2012 the proportion of immigrant-origin students among 15-year olds has grown by nearly 20 percentage points, from 35% to 54%. The major increase took place among EU-origin students, and 2nd generation immigrant students ? those born in Luxembourg, while parents were born abroad. We find that the most recent cohorts of Portuguese, ex-Yugoslavian, Cape-Verdean and EU-origin students show better results in reading compared to 2003. Results for mathematics tests remained stable, with the only exception being ex-Yugoslavian students, where the most recent cohort of 2012 had higher scores compared to their national peers from the previous cohorts. Results also show that large differences remain between school programmes: the « Enseignement Secondaire » (ES), « Enseignement Secondaire Technique » (EST), and « Régime Préparatoire des Enseignement Secondaire Technique » (PREP). These patterns persist across time and for each national group, including native Luxembourgish students. The gap in test results between students attending ES and EST or ES and PREP is comparable in magnitude between, for example, Portuguese and native students.