Effects of Within Year School Transfers on Students’ Academic Achievement

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 20. School Dynamics: Behavior, Achievement, and Discipline

Abstract

Enrollment instabilities due to student mobility have important implications for students. Disruptions in schooling due to transfers between schools is associated with lower test score performance (Alexander, Entwisle, and Dauber 1996; Cordes, Schwartz, and Stiefel 2019), fewer social ties with peers and teachers (Felmlee et al. 2018; Langenkamp 2010), and decreased access to important services provided through schools, such as meals and mental and physical healthcare. While the literature focuses on the effects of the number of moves between schools, there is less systematic study around the effects of within year school transfers (Welsh 2017). This paper will address this question by asking: Do within-year school transfers affect students’ academic achievement? Does this effect vary by the timing of the school transfer? To answer these questions, I draw on state longitudinal administrative data from the Indiana Department of Education. Leveraging detailed student-level school entry and exit data, I track the number of within year school transfers one cohort of students (n=65,665) made between 3rd and 8th grade from 2013-2018. I explore the relationship between students’ within year transfers and their academic achievement in math and English Language Arts on the ISTEP+ standardized assessment. I find that enrollment stability, or attending one school for 180 days, is associated with positive test score performance. Attending more than one school in an academic year was associated with a 5-point decrease in ELA test score and 7-10 points lower in math. These findings have important implications for how we consider the effects of schooling instabilities, prompting researchers and practitioners to consider how best to support students in moments of transition or instability.

Author

• Bridget Curry, University of Notre Dame