What makes a good student?

Children of Mexican immigrants face many obstacles to a successful transition into school.  Language barriers, low parental education, and high rates of poverty translate into lower test scores throughout the elementary school years.  But evidence from researcher Robert Crosnoe shows that socially and behaviorally these children are at the top of their class.

According to teacher reports of a national sample of kindergartners, Mexican immigrant children had better mental health, got along better with others and look a lot better in terms of self-regulation than their White, African-American, Asian-American and Latino-American peers whose parents were born in the US.

Crosnoe points out that while,  "People tend to think that doing well in school is all about IQ and cognitive development...there's a lot more that goes on to it than that. You have to have the capacity to sit there and learn and control yourself."

These abilities pose children of Mexican immigrants to make the most of the school experience.

"Psychological well-being doesn't begin to outweigh the burden of severe poverty", Crosnoe adds. "And Mexican immigrant families have the highest rate of poverty of any immigrant group in the US. But strong mental health at least cuts away a slice of that disadvantage."

Listen to the full story which aired on npr's "Day to day".