Who Switches Schools? Child-Level Predictors of School Mobility in Middle School Students
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Who Switches Schools? Child-Level Predictors of School Mobility in Middle School Students Enya Calibuso1 Adam Winsler ●
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Accepted: 31 August 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract It is vital for researchers examining student outcomes of school mobility to understand and control for selection effects—the many ways that students who experience school mobility are different from those who do not switch schools. Using data from a 5-cohort sequential longitudinal study (N = 26,063, 61.2% Latinx, 31.3% Black, 6.7% White/other, and 0.7% Asian/ Pacific Islander), we examined characteristics of students who did and did not engage in between-year, non-promotional, within-district moves throughout middle school (6th, 7th, and 8th Grade). Children were directly assessed for school readiness at age 4 and prospective longitudinal public school record data were collected on students through 8th grade. Approximately 19% of the sample moved to a different school at least once during middle school. Multivariate logistic regressions found that with all covariates included in the model, Black and Latinx students, those in poverty, and females were more likely to switch to a different middle school. Conversely, those who attended public school pre-K and those with better behavior at school entry were less likely to switch middle schools. Students who performed better academically back in 5th grade were less likely to switch schools. Researchers attempting to claim that school mobility has adverse effects on students’ academic performance and school completion need to understand and statistically control for these pre-existing differences between movers and non-movers before analyzing student outcomes. Keywords School mobility Middle school Predictors School transfer School transitions ●
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Highlights Examined student characteristics associated with school mobility in middle school, where almost 20% of students moved schools between 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. ● Black and Latinx students, those in poverty, and females were more likely to switch middle schools. ● Students who switched middle schools tended to struggle more academically earlier in elementary school. ● Those who attended public school pre-K and those with better behavior were less likely to switch middle schools. ● It is critical for researchers examining outcomes from school mobility to understand and control for these pre-existing selection effects or predictors of mobility. ●
School mobility can be defined as the physical relocation of students from one school to another (Welsh 2017). The United States leads the industrialized world in the highest rate of residential and school mobility (Mehana and Reynolds 2004). According to the 2000 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), “among grade 8 students, 21%
* Adam Winsler [email protected] 1
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
had changed schools at least once in the past 2 years, with 12% making one chang
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