Estimating the Effects of Student Houselessness on Learning Outcomes (Poster 18)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Houselessness affects over a million US students annually. Previous scholarship has detailed the experiences of unhoused students, as well as some steps schools can take to better support them. Still, little is known about the impacts of houselessness on learning outcomes such as test scores, attendance, and disciplinary infraction frequency. Using data from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), and the Research Alliance for New York City Schools (RANYCS), this dissertation quantitatively explores the relationship between student houselessness and learning outcomes. Analyses include descriptive statistics and multi-variate linear regression models. This dissertation consists of a national case study at the district level and a New York City (NYC) case study at the student level. Both studies explore the relationship between student houselessness, and Math and English/Language Arts (ELA) standardized test results. Additionally, the NYC case study includes attendance and student disciplinary infractions as outcomes of interest. Preliminary findings from the national case study identify a statistically significant relationship between rates of student houselessness and average standardized test performance at the district level. Furthermore, they suggest significant variation in the magnitude of this relationship across different levels of district urbanicity and in relation to students’ different temporary housing accommodations. Preliminary findings from the NYC case study confirm that houselessness is significantly associated with student’s learning outcomes at the individual level and suggest significant variation in the magnitude of this relationship across student racial/ethnic groups.

Author

• Fabian Barch, University at Buffalo - SUNY