Immigrant pupil achievements in centralized and decentralized school systems: a comparison between Pisa scores in Italy and Spain

This paper compares immigrant pupil achievement in the Italian and Spanish school systems. Using 2009 PISA data, a stochastic production function is estimated for the whole school population of the two countries. In this way, the actual and potential scores in both countries are evaluated for sub-samples of students: natives, first-generation, and second-generation immigrants. Our results show that the difference between the potential and the actual scores for the sub-sample of immigrant students is greater in Italy than in Spain, in private schools with respect to public institutions and if the schools are managed nationally.