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Academic achievement of homeless and highly mobile children in an urban school district: Longitudinal evidence of risk, growth, and resilience
Development and Psychopathology (2009)
  • Jelena Obradovic
  • Jeffrey D. Long
  • J. J. Cutuli
  • Chi-Keung Chan
  • Elizabeth Hinz
  • David Heistad
  • Ann S. Masten
Abstract
Longitudinal growth trajectories of reading and math achievementwere studied in four primary school grade cohorts (GCs) of a large urban district to examine academic risk and resilience in homeless and highly mobile (H/HM) students. Initial achievement was assessed when student cohorts were in the second, third, fourth, and fifth grades, and again 12 and 18 months later. Achievement trajectories ofH/HMstudentswere compared to low-income but nonmobile students and all other tested students in the district, controlling for four well-established covariates of achievement: sex, ethnicity, attendance, and English language skills. Both disadvantaged groups showed markedly lower initial achievement than their more advantaged peers, and H/HM students manifested the greatest risk, consistent with an expected risk gradient. Moreover, in some GCs, both disadvantaged groups showed slower growth than their relatively advantaged peers. Closer examination of H/HM student trajectories in relation to national test norms revealed striking variability, including cases of academic resilience aswell as problems. H/HMstudentsmay represent a major component of “achievement gaps” in urban districts, but these students also constitute a heterogeneous group of children likely to have markedly diverse educational needs. Efforts to close gaps or enhance achievement in H/HM children require more differentiated knowledge of vulnerability and protective processes that may shape individual development and achievement.
Keywords
  • Homelessness,
  • Residential Mobility,
  • Academic Achievement,
  • Growth Curves
Publication Date
2009
Citation Information
Obradović, J., Long, J. D., Cutuli, J. J., Chan, C-K., Hinz, E., Heistad, D., & Masten, A. S. (2009). Academic achievement of homeless and highly mobile children in an urban school district: Longitudinal evidence of risk, growth, and resilience. Development and Psychopathology, 21, 493-518.