Residential stability matters to a young person’s educational success, and the housing crisis spurred by the Great Recession (2007-2009) has disrupted the residential stability of many families. Using data from a large high school district in San Bernardino County, California, as a case study, this study utilizes a multilevel model to examine the extent to which the housing crisis affected student mobility rates in an area considered an epicenter of the recession. Results show that race was a much stronger predictor of student mobility than socioeconomic status during the crisis. In 2008, mobility rates were especially high for Black students, controlling for a variety of background characteristics. Research and policies that could be helpful in reducing mobility are discussed.
AnanatE. O.Gassman-PinesA.Gibson-DavisC. M. (2011). The effects of local employment losses on children’s educational achievement. In DuncanG. J.MurnaneR., (Eds.), Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality and the Uncertain Life of Low-Income Children (pp. 299-315). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
2.
BerlinerD. (2006). Our impoverished view of educational reform. The Teachers College Record, 108, 949-995.
3.
BlandJ. M.AltmanD. G. (2000). The odds ratio. British Medical Journal, 320(7247), Article 1468.
4.
BocianD. G.LiW.ErnstK. S. (2010). Foreclosures by race and ethnicity: The demographics of a crisis. Durham, NC: Center for Responsible Lending.
5.
BohnS.SchiffE. (2011). The great recession and distribution of income in California. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.
6.
BonacichE.De LaraJ. D. (2009). Economic crisis and the logistics industry: Financial insecurity for warehouse workers in the Inland Empire. Los Angeles, CA: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UCLA.
7.
BriggsX. N. D. S. (2005). The geography of opportunity: Race and housing choice in metropolitan America. Wahsington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
8.
BronfenbrennerU. (1979). Contexts of child rearing: Problems and prospects. American Psychologist, 34, 844-850.
9.
BrykA. S.RaudenbushS. W. (1987). Application of hierarchical linear models to assessing change. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 147-158.
10.
CalemP.HershaffJ.WachterS. (2004). Neighborhood patterns of subprime lending: Evidence from disparate cities. Housing Policy Debate, 15, 603-622.
11.
ChenE.PatersonL. Q. (2006). Neighborhood, family, and subjective socioeconomic status: How do they relate to adolescent health?Health Psychology, 25, 704-714.
12.
ConleyD. (1999). Being Black, living in the red: Race, wealth, and social policy in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
13.
DuncanG. J.MagnusonK. A. (2005). Can family socioeconomic resources account for racial and ethnic test score gaps?The Future of Children, 15, 35-54.
14.
EllenI. G.LacoeJ.SharyginC. A. (2013). Do foreclosures cause crime?Journal of Urban Economics, 74, 59-70.
15.
EllenI. G.MadarJ.WeselcouchM. (2015). The foreclosure crisis and community development: Exploring REO dynamics in hard-hit neighborhoods. Housing Studies, 30, 535-559.
16.
EngelK. C.McCoyP. A. (2011). The subprime virus: Reckless credit, regulatory failure, and next steps. New York: Oxford University Press.
17.
FaberJ. W. (2013). Racial dynamics of subprime mortgage lending at the peak. Housing Policy Debate, 23(2), 328-349.
18.
FishbeinA.BunceH. (2000). Subprime market growth and predatory lending. Housing Policy in the New Millennium. Washington, DC: US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
19.
FlemingC. B.HarachiT. W.CatalanoR. F.HaggertyK. P.AbbottR. D. (2001). Assessing the effects of a school-based intervention on unscheduled school transfers during elementary school. Evaluation Review, 25, 655-679.
20.
GasperJ.DeLucaS.EstacionA. (2010). Switching schools revisiting the relationship between school mobility and high school dropout. American Educational Research Journal, 49, 487-519.
21.
GoldinC. (1999). Egalitarianism and the returns to education during the great transformation of American education. Journal of Political Economy, 107(Suppl. 6), S65-S94.
22.
HallM.CrowderK.SpringA. (2015a). Neighborhood foreclosures, racial/ethnic transitions, and residential segregation. American Sociological Review, 80(3), 526-549.
23.
HallM.CrowderK. S.SpringA. (2015b). Variations in housing foreclosures by race and place, 2005-2012. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 660, 217-237.
24.
HarwellM.LeBeauB. (2010). Student eligibility for a free lunch as an SES measure in education research. Educational Researcher, 39, 120-131.
25.
HanushekE. A.KainJ. F.RivkinS. G. (2004). Disruption versus Tiebout improvement: The costs and benefits of switching schools. Journal of Public Economics, 88(9), 1721-1746.
26.
HoynesH. W.MillerD. L.SchallerJ. (2012). Who suffers during recessions? The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(3), 27-47.
27.
HouleJ. N. (2014). Mental health in the foreclosure crisis. Social Science & Medicine, 118, 1-8.
28.
HyraD. S.SquiresG. D.RennerR. N.KirkD. S. (2013). Metropolitan segregation and the subprime lending crisis. Housing Policy Debate, 23, 177-198.
29.
KerbowD. (1996). Patterns of urban student mobility and local school reform. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 1, 147-169.
30.
LashA.A.KirkpatrickS.L. (1990). A classroom perspective on student mobility. The Elementary School Journal, 91(2), 177-191.
31.
LaVeistT. A. (2005). Disentangling race and socioeconomic status: a key to understanding health inequalities. Journal of Urban Health, 82, iii26-iii34.
32.
McCallL. (2001). Sources of racial wage inequality in metropolitan labor markets: Racial, ethnic, and gender differences. American Sociological Review, 66, 520-541.
33.
MehanaM.ReynoldsA. J. (2004). School mobility and achievement: A meta-analysis. Children and Youth Services Review, 26, 93-119.
34.
MolinaE. T. (2012). Reversed gains? African-Americans and foreclosures in the Los Angeles metropolitan region 2008–2009. In Banks, et al.I. (Eds.), Black California dreamin: The crises of California’s African-American communities. Santa Barbara, CA: Center for Black Studies Research.
35.
MordechayK. (2011). Fragmented economy, stratified society, and the shattered dream. Los Angeles, CA: Civil Rights Project, Proyecto Derechos Civilies.
36.
MordechayK. (2014). Vast changes and an uneasy future: Racial and regional inequality in Southern California. Los Angeles, CA: Civil Rights Project, Proyecto Derechos Civilies.
37.
MordechayK. (2017). The effects of the Great Recession on educational attainment: evidence from a large urban high school district. The Urban Review, 49, 47-71.
38.
MordechayK.OrfieldG. (2017). Demographic transformation in a policy vacuum: The changing face of U.S. metropolitan society and challenges for public schools. The Educational Forum, 81(2), 193-203.
PagerD.ShepherdH. (2008). The sociology of discrimination: Racial discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and consumer markets. Annual Review of Sociology, 34, 181-209.
41.
ParkeC. S.KanyongoG. Y. (2012). Student attendance, mobility, and mathematics achievement in an urban school district. The Journal of Educational Research, 105, 161-175.
42.
Patillo-McCoyM. (2005). Black middle-class neighborhoods. Annual Review of Sociology, 31, 305-329.
43.
PengC. J.SoT. H.StageF. K.StE. P.JohnE. P. S. (2014). The use and interpretation of logistic regression in higher education journals: 1988-1999. Research in Higher Education, 43, 259-293.
44.
PetersonR. D.KrivoL. J. (2010). Divergent social worlds: Neighborhood crime and the racial-spatial divide: Neighborhood crime and the racial-spatial divide. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
45.
PfefferF.DanzigerS.SchoeniR. (2013). Wealth disparities before and after the great recession. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 650, 98-123.
46.
PfeifferD. (2012). Has exurban growth enabled greater racial equity in neighborhood quality? Evidence from the Los Angeles region. Journal of Urban Affairs, 34, 347-371.
47.
ReynoldsA. J.ChenC. -C.HerbersJ. E. (2009, June). School mobility and educational success: A research synthesis and evidence on prevention. Paper presented at the workshop on the impact of mobility and change on the lives of young children, schools, and neighborhoods. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
48.
RughJ. S.MasseyD. S. (2010). Racial segregation and the American foreclosure crisis. American Sociological Review, 75, 629-651.
49.
RumbergerR. W.LarsonK. A. (1998). Student mobility and the increased risk of high school dropout. American Journal of Education, 107, 1-35.
50.
RumbergerR. W.LarsonK. A.ReamR. K.PalardyG. J. (1999). The educational consequences of mobility for california students and schools. Berkeley, CA: Policy Analysis for California Education.
51.
RumbergerR. (2003). The causes and consequences of student mobility. Journal of Negro Education, 72, 6-21.
52.
SampsonR. J.MorenoffJ. D.Gannon-RowleyT. (2002). Assessing “neighborhood effects”: Social processes and new directions in research. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 443-478.
53.
SandstromH.HuertaS. (2013). The negative effects of instability on child development: A research synthesis (No. 3). Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
54.
ScanlonE.DevineK. (2001). Residential mobility and youth well-being: Research, policy, and practice issues. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 28, 119-138.
55.
SchacterJ. (2001). Geographic mobility: March 1999 to March 2000. Current Population Reports. US Census Bureau, Washington, DC.
56.
ShaversV. (2007). Measurement of socioeconomic status in health disparities research. Journal of the National Medical Association, 99, 1013-1023.
57.
SouthS. J.HaynieD. L.BoseS. (2007). Student mobility and school dropout. Social Science Research, 36, 68-94.
58.
StanfielJ. D. (1973). Socioeconomic status as related to aptitude, attrition, and achievement of college students. Sociology of Education, 46, 480-488.
59.
StollM. (2013). Great Recession spurs a shift to local moves. Working Paper. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
60.
SwansonC. B.SchneiderB. (1999). Students on the move: Residential and educational mobility in America’s schools. Sociology of Education, 54-67.
61.
TempleJ. A.ReynoldsA. J. (2000). School mobility and achievement: Longitudinal findings from an urban cohort. Journal of School Psychology, 37, 355-377.
62.
TobarH., (1990, March30) Changing the face of South L.A. Los Angeles Times. p. A1.
63.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2014). American Community Survey (ACS).
64.
VoightA.ShinnM.NationM. (2012). The longitudinal effects of residential mobility on the academic achievement of urban elementary and middle school students. Educational Researcher, 41, 385-392.
65.
WoodD.HalfonN.ScarlataD.NewacheckP.NessimS. (1993). Impact of family relocation on children’s growth, development, school function, and behavior. Journal of the American Medical Association, 270, 1334-1338.
