Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Students who immigrate to a new country are commonly expected to “catch up” to their mainstream peers in language and academics and to complete their education in the new language and culture. Yet little is known about recent immigrants’ academic trajectories, particularly in Germany, where research remains scarce despite the relatively high proportion of children who immigrate after the start of mandatory schooling (age 6 or later). This study focused on reading as a central skill for literacy and school achievement. Design/methodology/approach: The study invoked standardized tests of reading fluency, reading comprehension and vocabulary among 76 (+13) recently immigrated students and 192 of their non-immigrated peers in eight lower secondary schools in spring 2022 and followed up on a small subgroup annually for 2 years to provide exploratory information on learning trajectories. Data and analysis: Analyses using mixed-effects models compared the reading performance of immigrated and non-immigrated students. In addition, individual factors such as vocabulary breadth were analyzed to determine their impact on reading development. Findings/conclusion: Immigrated students consistently scored below their non-immigrated peers across all reading measures, with average performance gaps ranging from 0.2 to 1.2 standard deviations. Longitudinal follow-ups indicated little evidence that these students were closing the gap over time, though individual differences, particularly vocabulary breadth, had some effects. Originality: This study contributes novel insights into the long-term academic development of immigrated students in Germany, an understudied population in this context. It highlights the challenges faced by these students in acquiring academic language skills and the limitations of data collection instruments. Significance/implications: The findings highlight the need to clarify realistic literacy expectations for immigrant students and to better understand how their literacy trajectories vary. Such insight can guide policies and instructional practices that provide developmentally appropriate, linguistically responsive support.
Marx et al. (Mon,) studied this question.