Archive

• Season's Greetings — December 30, 2011
• Class Size — November 11, 2011
• Functional School Consolidation — October 28, 2011
• Effective Professional Development — October 14, 2011
• Kindergarten Readiness — September 30, 2011
• Social Media — September 16, 2011
• Magnet Schools — August 26, 2011
• Teacher Induction Programs — August 12, 2011
• Social-Emotional Learning — July 29, 2011
• College Faculty and Student Success — July 15, 2011
• School Turnaround Models — July 1, 2011
• Language Testing and ELLs — June 10, 2011
• Math Teacher Educational Background — May 27, 2011
• Urban Inclusion Models — May 13, 2011

The Reference Desk, using available evidence and research, provides quick-turnaround responses to questions submitted by education stakeholders around the Northeast and Islands Region. Every Friday, REL-NEI highlights one or two questions submitted to its Reference Desk.

Question of the Week

Is There a Relationship Between Student Mobility and Achievement?

This week’s Digest entry features a recent Reference Desk question about how student mobility may impact academic achievement. Student mobility is a persistent area of concern for education stakeholders, particularly in urban and rural school districts.

Question

Is there a relationship between student mobility and achievement?

Research Synthesis

Reference Desk researchers found several resources which suggest a correlation between student mobility and academic achievement. Two literature reviews presented below cite the 1994 U.S. Government Accounting Office report Elementary School Children: Many Change Schools Frequently, Harming Their Education, which found that “controlling for family income, children who have changed schools three or more times since first grade are much more likely to have repeated a grade or to have low reading scores by the third grade” (Garris-Hardy, 2004), and that “children who change schools more than three times before eighth grade are at least four times more likely to drop out of school” (Paik, 2002). Additionally, a study of the relationship between schools’ mobility rates and accountability scores found that “mobility is a significant factor in predicting school success under the ODE/NCLB accountability system” (Rhodes, no date,).

Publicly Available Resources

1. Student Mobility in Rural Communities: What Are the Implications for Student Achievement? 2002; Paik, S. and Phillips, R.; North Central Regional Education Laboratory; 17 pages.

   This study looks at the question of student mobility in rural communities in the United States: “Research clearly indicates the negative effects of student mobility. Forty-one percent of highly mobile students are low achievers, compared with twenty-six percent of stable students. The more frequently a child changes his/her school, the greater the threat to academic achievement. Furthermore, according to the U.S. Government Accounting Office (1994), children who change schools more than three times before eighth grade are at least four times more likely to drop out of school. Another study found that successive school changes result in a cumulative academic lag—students who move more than three times in a six-year period can fall one full academic year behind stable students (Kerbow, 1996)” (p. 7).

2. Kids on the Move: The Effects of Student Mobility on NCLB School Accountability Ratings. No Date; Rhodes, V.; Penn GSE Perspectives in Urban Education, Vol. 3, Issue 3; 30 pages.

   According to the introduction, “[t]he purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between urban school mobility and school ratings, one of the performance indicators mandated for schools under the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)” (p. 1). The author states: “The primary conclusion drawn from this study is that mobility is a significant factor in predicting school success under the ODE/NCLB accountability system. Given the conservative nature of the mobility figures used in the study (test scores from children who are not enrolled 120 consecutive days in school are not used in the accountability results), the significance may be higher. These findings are consistent with previous research in Ohio linking mobility to achievement (Ohio Department of Education, 1998), as well as being consistent with other research in urban districts (Bracey, 1997; Demie, 2002; Ingersoll & Eckerling, 1989; Kerbow, 1996; Rumberger, 2003). Secondly, all three of the other tested variables—ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and school enrollment size—also have a significant impact on school success, though not as great as that of mobility” (p. 19).

3. School Stability and School Performance: A Review of the Literature. 2004; Gariss-Hardy, B. and Vrooman, C.; National Center for Homeless Education, SERVE Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; 10 pages.

   According to this literature review: “Several studies suggest a relationship between mobility and academic achievement as highly mobile students tend to perform at a level below that of their stable counterparts (Attles, 1997; Alexander, et al., 1996; Family Housing Fund, 2003; Temple & Reynolds, 1999). The United States General Accounting Office ([GAO], 1994) reported that, controlling for family income, children who have changed schools three or more times since first grade are much more likely to have repeated a grade or to have low reading scores by the third grade. Wood, Halfon, and Scarlata (1993) also found that students who moved frequently were more likely to have repeated a grade. Astone and McLanahan (1994), after controlling for several family and demographic factors, found that frequent mobility is associated with dropping out of school. Few reviewed studies examined school performance prior to mobility, thus precluding examination of a possible relationship between the two variables (Temple & Reynolds, 1999)” (p. 3).

The Reference Desk also found the following IES Issues & Answers Report to be helpful in learning more about student mobility in general:

1. Student Mobility in Rural and Nonrural Districts in Five Central Region States. June 2010; Beesley, A., Moore, L. and  Gopalani, S.; Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Central (Issues & Answers Report, REL 2010-No. 089; 61 pages.

   From the summary: “This report describes the extent and distribution of student mobility in five Central Region states. The study, which calculated student mobility percentages in each state and compared percentages by locale (city, suburb, town, and rural locale, and degree of rurality) within each state, found no consistent patterns across locales” (p. i).

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