Homeless Students and Academic Achievement

Abstract

Child homelessness has recently reached levels unprecedented in the United States since the Great Depression. Contemporary research has attempted to isolate the effects of homelessness on education, with mixed results. This study reports results from a study in one large urban area and finds that there is no meaningful difference in achievement between homeless and housed low–socioeconomic status (SES) elementary school students. Furthermore, we find that attendance is a mediator of lowered achievement and that commonly suspected school-level characteristics do not predict homeless student success. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.