Residential Context and Educational Outcomes: Student Homelessness in the Post-Truth Era

• In Event: 66.086 - MTCC Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: 66.086-2 - Responding to Geographic Contexts and Their School Effects

Abstract

Data suggests that the residential settings of students experiencing homelessness are shifting, with an increasing share of students living doubled up versus in shelter, motel or unsheltered contexts. However, little extant research examines student academic outcomes by residential setting. Using administrative data from a large urban school district, we find that students experiencing homelessness have lower attendance than non-homeless peers and that these differences contribute to lower levels of achievement. While doubled-up students tend to have slightly better attendance than other homeless students, they still exhibit lower achievement than non-homeless peers. We couple this work with an exploration of the available community resources, which highlights the constraints of restrictive provider policies and locations. Implications for leaders and scholars are discussed.

Authors

• Meredith Paige Richards, Southern Methodist University

• Alexandra E. Pavlakis, Southern Methodist University

• Mark Pierce, Southern Methodist University

• DongMei Li