Masked by the mean: immigrants in school and differential effects on student achievements

Abstract Immigrant inflows to Europe have changed student compositions in and across schools. Despite the strong intuition that peers matter for outcomes, a comprehensive literature finds nil or moderate effects of immigrant peers. This study explores three reasons this mismatch. First, it uses quantile regressions reveal whether estimates on average outcome mask differential distribution. Second, effect attending schools with different shares, which is composite peer school traits. Third, compares teacher-assigned grades objective standardized tests explore share are influenced by teachers’ grading practices. The results show high achievers higher shares get better from their teachers, likely because they assessed relative lower academic socioeconomic levels. However, no sign improved test scores. In contrast, low obtain scores when having improvement not explained general level among findings demonstrate mean distributions.