Does School Academic Context Moderate the Relationship between Student Mobility and Academic Performance? Longitudinal Evidence from Missouri

Abstract Student mobility is highly prevalent in the U.S. and often has negative impacts on students’ academic performance. Within-year mobility may be especially disruptive; however, research on its impacts is limited. Additionally, less is known about how impacts may vary across school academic and geographic contexts. This study leverages longitudinal student-level data collected over nine years across five counties to investigate how within-year school mobility impacts academic performance over time and across contexts. Using random-effect panel regression models results indicate that within-year mobility predicted significant declines in academic performance the following year. Transferring to higher-performing schools initially led to poorer performance, with gradual improvement over time. Findings suggest that school context does matter. We provide implications for policy and practice.