Immigrant and Native Children's Cognitive Outcomes and the Effect of Ethnic Concentration in Danish Schools

In 2004 the Rockwool Foundation decided to launch a research project that would focus upon the relationship of young immigrants to the Danish educational sys-tem, including an investigation of the attitudes of these young people towards education and of the benefits that they obtained from attending primary and lower secondary school (i.e. the obligatory stages of schooling) in Denmark. It has been evident for a number of years that non-Western immigrants do not make much use of the Danish educational system, and that far too many of those who do go to Danish educational institutions fail to complete their courses. If this educa-tional pattern of non-achievement is not broken, then it will greatly hinder the true integration of immigrants from non-Western backgrounds into the Danish labour market, and consequently into Danish society. In order to determine the learning outcomes for young immigrants from their attendance at Danish primary and lower secondary school, the Rockwool Foun-dation Research Unit contacted the Danish PISA Consortium to arrange a spe-cial PISA survey. The results of this survey were presented in a book published in 2007 by the University Press of Southern Denmark entitled PISA Etnisk 2005 (PISA Ethnic 2005), edited by Niels Egelund and myself. This special PISA sur-vey made possible in-depth analyses of school-pupils' performance, including the performance of pupils from non-Western backgrounds.

Jensen is archbishop of the Diocese of Sydney, Australia. He was formerly principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney.