Bilingual Education's Impact On Intergenerational Transmission Of Educational Attainment

Abstract

Obtaining a college degree is becoming increasingly important for securing a job, and how much education parents have often influences how much education their children will obtain. I examine the role of participation in a bilingual education program on intergenerational transmission of educational attainment using regression models on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort, with results also broken down by whether or not a respondent’s native language is English. Findings suggest a weak interaction between the effects of bilingual education and parental education on children’s education, indicating that the simple presence of a bilingual education program may not be enough to change educational attainment outcomes. Slight differences between native and non-native English speakers were found in the effects of bilingual education on intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. Future directions for policy changes and research are described.