The Negative Effects of Student Mobility: Mobility as a Predictor, Mobility as a Mediator

Abstract

Policy discussions on how to improve educational outcomes have traditionally focused on schools and teachers. While schools and teachers have measurable effects on educational outcomes, reforms aimed at only improving schools and teachers have failed to eliminate persistent achievement gaps. Thus, some scholars have argued for a broader, bolder approach to education. These scholars have investigated the effect of nonschool factors, such as health and early childhood care, on educational outcomes. The present study is intended to add to this growing body of literature. Two analyses that were conducted to examine the effect of student mobility on achievement are discussed. The first uses a multi-level analysis to investigate the relationship between student mobility and reading achievement of students. The second analysis uses aggregate school-level data to investigate if student mobility mediates the relationship between a school's socioeconomic status and its academic achievement levels. The results suggest that student mobility is indeed a predictor of academic struggles—at the individual student level as well as the school level—and should be included in the increasing number of conversations aimed at changing social policies to improve student outcomes.

Are low-performing students more likely to exit charter schools? Evidence from New York City and Denver, Colorado

“…Along with the policy consequences of charter schools artificially improving their aggregate test score performance through student attrition, understanding student mobility is an additionally important issue because mobility compromises effective student learning (Heinlein & Shinn, 2000;Rose & Bradshaw, 2012;Scherrer, 2013) and school accountability (Finch, Lapsley, & Baker-Boudissa, 2009), making it a particularly relevant topic for policymakers and educational leaders (Dauter & Fuller, 2011).…”

The Importance of Multicultural Education in Schools in the Era of ASEAN Economic Community

“…It's like the results of research by previous researchers (Hannum et al, 2013;Sargent et al, 2013;Scherrer, 2013;Twigg, et al, 2013), stated that education in areas far from the city also still need to obtain and understand the importance of character education in schools. However, to schools located far from urban areas, where the culture is still strong upheld as a norm of life.…”

Mobility and Academic Achievement for Texas Grade 7 Students: A Multiyear Investigation

“…Students experiencing mobility during the school year may have experienced differences in curriculum, school structures, and school culture, which could have caused a disorienting effect for mobile students (Rumberger, 2003). Frequent mobility could have also caused students to become less connected to the school they attend or prevented them from participating in activities such as extracurricular programs that foster school connectedness (Scherrer, 2013).…”

“…This adjustment appears to be effective in mitigating the effects of the most mobile students on a campus as gauged by the persistence of a difference in the academic achievement of mobile and non-mobile students but small effect sizes. However, excluding these students from the accountability subset creates incentives for not providing academic interventions for these students when scarcity in resources exists (Scherrer, 2013).…”