This is a study of family social capital and academic achievement of immigrant children. Four kinds of family social capital are identified as relevant to child educational outcomes: 1) Networks with members of the extended family, such as grandparents; 2) parent involvement in school, for example attending parent-teacher meetings; 3) immigrant and ethnic culture; 4) parent-child interaction, such as supervising homework and discussing materials learned in class. Theories on how these factors operate to enhance education will be tested using data from NELS:88, a longitudinal survey that collected data on eighth graders in 1988 with two follow-up waves at two-year intervals, including oversamples of Asian and Hispanic students. The analysis will involve three phases. First, cross-sectional analysis of data on eight and twelfth graders will examine the creation and maintenance of family social capital and identify its level effects. Second, longitudinal analysis of academic achievement growth among Asian and Hispanic immigrant students from eighth to twelfth grade will identify the effect of changes in family social capital on achievement growth. Third, the analyses in the first two phases will be extended to compare immigrant results with those for the native-born children. %%% This study will contribute to the advancement of our knowledge about the role of the family in children's academic achievement, by testing the effect of family social capital on the reproduction of human capital in children and comparing the results across immigrant and native-born ethnic groups. It will also provide evidence for designing policies to strengthen the family and school-family connections and help in the allocation of public resources to improve parents' human capital and family social capital.
