"Best Bets" for Promoting High School Completion: Discourage Residential Mobility During Adolescence

Two studies demonstrated a negative relationship between mobility and educational attainment. Ludwig, Duncan, and Ladd (1998) evaluated educational outcomes of an experimental evaluation of the Moving to Opportunities program, a program that randomly assigned housing vouchers to assist families in moving to low poverty areas. Ludwig, et al. (1998) found that adolescents in the experimental group were more likely to repeat a grade, and to subsequently drop out of high school than control group youth, after being offered a voucher to move to a low-poverty neighborhood. This study implies, although it does not indicate decisively, that moving actually led to the decreased levels of educational attainment. Evidence presented from a longitudinal study also suggests that there are negative implications for adolescents who move Haveman and Wolfe (1995) found that the number of household moves was related to lower levels of high school graduation and fewer number of years of schooling completed, after controlling for a number of background factors.


 
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