title: Undermatched? School-based Linguistic Status, College Going, and the Immigrant Advantage.
abstract: Considerable research investigates the immigrant advantage, yet little work examines the influence of school-based linguistic status. Contradictory patterns exist: research identifies both an immigrant advantage and a language minority disadvantage in college going. Although not all immigrant youth are language minorities, many do speak a language other than English. Educators in U.S. schools group immigrant students into three discrete linguistic categories: native English speakers, language minorities not in ESL, and English learner (EL) students. We employ multivariate methods to investigate immigrant college going by linguistic status using theEducational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Results suggest an immigrant advantageonlyamong the two immigrant groups not in ESL, and evidence ofundermatching-wherein students choose post-secondary options for which they are over prepared-among high achieving EL students. Expanded understanding of the immigrant advantage might improve EL students' pathways into college, stemming this loss of human capital.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Callahan
authors.affiliation: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
authors.forename: Melissa H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Humphries