Contextualizing the Impacts of Homelessness on Academic Growth

Abstract

Background/Context Students experiencing homelessness are also often living in poverty and may share many of the same characteristics and experiences with children in low-income housing. Scholars aim to understand the impacts of homelessness above and beyond the effects of poverty, but studies are mixed. Contextual factors—such as the localized implementation of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento), which aims to reduce barriers to school success for students experiencing homelessness—are often overlooked by scholars but may play an important role in explaining inconsistencies between single-site studies. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Our purpose is to examine the impacts of homelessness above and beyond poverty. We ask two questions: “To what extent does homelessness impact students’ academic growth?” and “To what extent does chronic homeless-ness impact students’ academic growth?” In making sense of our findings, we consider the unique context of our study site. Setting We draw data from Midtown, a pseudonym for a Midwestern city that has experienced rising homelessness. Midtown has a nationally recognized program aimed at overseeing McKinney-Vento. Research Design We conducted a secondary analysis of a longitudinal administrative district dataset. For our first question, we used ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, with and without student fixed effects, with standard errors clustered at the school level. To help isolate the impact of homelessness apart from poverty, we (a) limited our sample to include only those students who have experienced sustained poverty (history of free lunch status) and stable housing prior to fourth grade, (b) included relevant covariates to adjust for other between-group differences, (c) used student fixed effects to control for any remaining time-invariant, unobserved between-group differences, and (d) examined achievement growth (rather than absolute achievement). To examine our second research question (chronic homelessness), we used OLS regression, with standard errors clustered at the school level. Conclusions/Recommendations Notwithstanding the fact that Midtown devotes considerable resources toward McKinney-Vento, the impact of homelessness remains evident in our fixed effects model. Turning to chronic homelessness, our results showed no discernible impact on achievement growth. We speculate that as time goes on, the Midtown district may play an important role in buffering families. Our study suggests that in order to reduce the impact of homelessness on academic achievement, it is important to be aware of when students become homeless—so that their needs can be met right at this critical juncture. Specific recommendations, such as the ongoing use of residency questionnaires and surveys, are discussed.

Timing and Duration of Student Homelessness and Educational Outcomes in Los Angeles

“…This study adds to the growing literature on students experiencing homelessness by providing new evidence on how the association between homelessness and achievement and attendance varies by the timing and duration of homeless experiences. After controlling for baseline differences between students, the relationship between homelessness and academic achievement and attendance is negative, consistent with most past research (Cowen, 2017;Cutuli et al, 2013;Herbers et al, 2012;Obradović et al, 2009;Pavlakis et al, 2017). We observe the largest negative relationship between students who are currently experiencing homelessness and math achievement and attendance, while the relationship between having been homeless in the past and these outcomes is smaller yet still important.…”

“…Students experiencing transitory homelessness (e.g., in only 1 year) are likely very different from those experiencing persistent homelessness (e.g., in 2 or more consecutive years), as the literature on adult homelessness suggests (see Kuhn & Culhane, 1998). Nonetheless, the only two studies of student homelessness that examined duration found that longer periods of homelessness have less negative associations with outcomes than shorter periods of homelessness (Pavlakis et al, 2017(Pavlakis et al, , 2020. For example, Pavlakis et al (2020) found that students experiencing 4 to 5 years of homelessness had higher school attendance than those who were homeless for shorter periods, suggesting that students may benefit from being identified and supported as homeless for longer periods.…”

“…Table 1 summarizes the existing quantitative studies that link student homelessness (as defined by McKinney-Vento) with academic achievement and attendance. Studies have generally shown that homeless students exhibit lower reading and math proficiency (Cowen, 2017; Herbers et al, 2012; Obradović et al, 2009) and lower math and English language arts achievement growth (Cutuli et al, 2013; Obradović et al, 2009; Pavlakis et al, 2017). These negative associations are apparent when using a number of different comparison groups, including when comparing homeless students with (a) nonhomeless peers (Cowen, 2017); (b) nonhomeless peers eligible for free and/or reduced-price lunch (FRL) (Cutuli et al, 2013; Herbers et al, 2012; Obradović et al, 2009; Pavlakis et al, 2017); (c) nonhomeless, non-FRL-eligible peers (Cutuli et al, 2013; Herbers et al, 2012; Obradović et al, 2009); and (d) themselves at times when they are not homeless (i.e., within-student comparisons) (Cowen, 2017; Pavlakis et al, 2017).…”

“…Studies have generally shown that homeless students exhibit lower reading and math proficiency (Cowen, 2017; Herbers et al, 2012; Obradović et al, 2009) and lower math and English language arts achievement growth (Cutuli et al, 2013; Obradović et al, 2009; Pavlakis et al, 2017). These negative associations are apparent when using a number of different comparison groups, including when comparing homeless students with (a) nonhomeless peers (Cowen, 2017); (b) nonhomeless peers eligible for free and/or reduced-price lunch (FRL) (Cutuli et al, 2013; Herbers et al, 2012; Obradović et al, 2009; Pavlakis et al, 2017); (c) nonhomeless, non-FRL-eligible peers (Cutuli et al, 2013; Herbers et al, 2012; Obradović et al, 2009); and (d) themselves at times when they are not homeless (i.e., within-student comparisons) (Cowen, 2017; Pavlakis et al, 2017). A small number of studies have shown that homelessness is not associated or is positively associated with academic achievement (Deck, 2017; Pavlakis et al, 2020), perhaps because of the local context, the age of homeless youth, and the duration of homeless experiences studied (Miller, 2011).…”

“…The preponderance of evidence suggests that experiencing homelessness 1 is associated with negative academic and behavioral outcomes (for reviews of the literature, see Buckner, 2008; Miller, 2011; Pavlakis et al, 2017). However, other studies have uncovered no relationship between homelessness and achievement or have shown that the relationship is mediated by attendance or school mobility (Cowen, 2017; Deck, 2017; Tobin, 2016).…”