This dissertation examines the effect of school mobility and concurrent life changes on students' academic performance. Using administrative records from a sample of public school students, the study estimates the impact of changing schools on grade point average. It finds that each school change is associated with a 0.02 point decline in GPA for the year of the change. School changes that coincide with changes in a student's social, residential, or family environments have greater negative effects on performance. However, stable school changes where students move as part of a peer group rather than due to residential or individual reasons have a neutral impact on GPA. Solo transfers triggered by family structure changes or financial issues are negatively correlated with academic achievement, likely because of additional instability outside of school

1. The Effect of School Mobility and Concurrent Changes on Students’ Academic Performance
Bess A. Rose
A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Education
Baltimore, Maryland
May 2016
Abstract: Changes in school environments are sources of instability and stress for children. The
social, educational, residential, and familial changes that usuallyaccompany school changes are likely
to exacerbate this stress and negatively impact academic performance. The full range of these
changes that occur with school changes, and their relative effects on performance, have not been
studied. Using administrative records documenting the educational histories of a representative
sample of public school students, this study estimated the effect of mobility on academic grade point
average, and the variation in this effect among different types of concurrent changes in children’s
social, educational, residential, and familial environments, controlling for students’ prior
achievement, personal characteristics, chronic absence from school, and school membership.
Multilevel growth curve modeling was used to account for the nesting of annual measures within
students and students within schools; cross-classification and multiple membership were used to
account for all of the schools that students attended since beginning first grade. Overall each school
change that a student experienced was associated with a deficit of 0.02 GPA points in the year of the
change compared to similar students who had not changed schools. The study found greater
declines in academic performance when students experienced changes in social, residential, and
familial environments concurrent with school changes. Relativelystable school changes in which
students moved with groups of peers, not triggered by changes in residence or specifically targeting
individual students, had neutral effects on academic performance. Solo transfers, on the other hand,
triggered by residential transfers with family structure change or financial issues, were negatively
associated with academic performance; this negative effect was likely due to the loss of
neighborhood and family stability in addition to the disruption of school-based social ties and
academic routines. Further investigation is warranted into strategies to support students who are
experiencing stress from changes that trigger school transfers, particularly those involving family
structure changes or financial issues.