Jasper Dag Tjaden: What can international comparisons of outcomes and policies tell us about ‘good practices’ of migrant education?

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) is currently the best measurement of education policies that is available...Interestingly, our research has shown that wealthier European countries have not only more immigrant pupils and wider achievement gaps, but also more targeted education policies to help immigrant pupils achieve. Narrower gaps, smaller immigrant populations, and lower socio-economic levels are associated with weaker migrant education policies.  Countries with greater resources, larger numbers of immigrant students, and wider achievement gaps tend to adopt more ambitious migrant education policies, as measured by MIPEX. Indeed, migrant achievement gaps are often a justification for changes in policy, as noted in the MIPEX III country profiles...
Two assumptions can help to explain this potential gap between outcomes and policies: First, many of the policy changes have only been adopted in the last 5 years and are unlikely to be reflected in outcomes already. For example, if a country has heavily invested in early-childhood education, this will only be reflected in the early school leaving indicator after more than 10 years. Secondly, the link between MIPEX and available outcome indicators is not always direct. Why?Common education outcome indicators can measure similar but distinct things than the MIPEX indicators.  For example: Reading skills at age 15, early school leaving rates and educational attainment each take into account different shares of the population which not always correspond directly to MIPEX indicators. Some MIPEX indicators include provisions for ‘intercultural education’ which are associated with better education. This does not mean, however, that they are reflected in reading scores or dropoutrates. For example, MIPEX measures access to education for different groups of immigrants at different stages. In terms of outcome indicators, less access to education could actually increase some of the scores. Education is more than attainment and achievement (certificates and scores). Education is also about shaping characters, teaching norms and values, as well as transferring social and civic skills that are all necessary to equip young immigrants and non-immigrants to succeed in our societies. In short, we have to be careful to jump to conclusions when we look for the link between outcome indicators and policies. We have to look closely at what policies are intended to achieve and whether outcome indicators are capable of measuring it.
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