The United States is a mobile society, and this mobility brings about changes in the classroom as students enter and leave. These changes have the potential to impact student achievement as measured by the State assessments. This study examined the relationship of student mobility and district achievement using three New York State mathematics assessments to compare the achievement results of mobile students to those of non-mobile students in high and low mobility districts.
This study differed from current research in the field of student mobility and achievement. Current research indicates that mobility is a factor in achievement. This research did not find mobility to be a factor in student achievement.
Eight districts from Nassau County, New York, participated in the study. These districts represent 20% of the K-12 districts in the County. In terms of size, they are representative of the average districts throughout the County. Student data were collected relative to the New York State Mathematics Assessments from the participating districts at five key points of time that spanned the years 1999 to 2005.
Three research questions were developed to get at the complexity associated with student mobility. These questions allowed for analysis of definitions of mobility and the disaggregation of data by district, sex, and race/ethnicity. The data reflect no difference in achievement between mobile and non-mobile students by district on the Mathematics 4, Mathematics 8 and Math A assessments. When data were disaggregated by district, there were limited differences that favored mobile students.
By gender there were no differences in the achievement by mobility for the three mathematics assessments. At the Math A Regents level, the limited differences found favored female mobile students.
By race/ethnicity, there were no differences in the achievement by mobility for the three mathematics assessments. When disaggregated by district, at the Math A level, there were limited differences that favored mobile students of several race/ethnicities. At the Mathematics 8 level, the limited differences favored non-mobile students of several race/ethnicities.
Overall, this study found no difference in standardized test score results between mobile and non-mobile students in the eight participating study districts.
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