PUPIL MOBILITY AND PUPIL ACHIEVEMENT IN ELEVEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mobility on the academic achievement, reading and mathematics, of elementary school children in eleven schools of two inner-city parochial school districts of the Archdiocese of New York. In addition, an attempt was made to survey parents\u27 attitudes on a number of questions related to Catholic education. The subjects of the present study were 466 students (207 boys and 259 girls) from eleven parochial elementary schools in Districts Seven and Nine in the South Bronx. All subjects were in grade seven at the time of testing (March, 1982). In addition to the foregoing, a questionnaire was developed to collect information on parents\u27 attitudes toward Catholic education and government financial aid. The mobility groups were arranged by extent (permanent, low mobile, and high mobile), grade (permanent, early transfer--grades 1, 2, 3, and recent transfer--grades 4, 5, 6), type (permanent, voluntary--family residence remained the same, and involuntary--family residence changed), and direction (permanent, Catholic school to Catholic school, and public school to Catholic school). Furthermore, sex and absences were examined as independent variables. Five hypotheses were generated and tested using analysis of variance techniques. Overall, the results of data analysis indicated that mobility may not affect academic achievement. However, a significant difference was found in reading and mathematics between the voluntary transfer group (family resident remained the same) and the involuntary transfer group (family residence changed). Also, a significant difference was found in reading between non-mobile females and mobile females who had moved once. The number of parents\u27 responses to the questionnaire was too small to generate any conclusions. Nevertheless, the parents responding indicated preferences for Catholic education and government financial aid. A series of conclusions and recommendations were discussed. Two of the major recommendations were as follows: (1) Mobility, by itself, should not be considered detrimental to a child\u27s academic achievement. (2) Research should be conducted to examine the personal reasons for school change, particularly, if the family residence remained the same