Geographic Mobility and School Attainment The Confounding Variables

Summary

The relationship between geographic mobility and educational attainment is revealed as a complex problem, inadequately researched and only partly understood. The simple assumption made by many speakers in the Great Debate that more geographic mobility necessarily means an impairment of academic attainment can be shown to be erroneous. The direct effect of mobility is likely to be small and be itself affected by the social context and reasons for mobility. The frequently researched example of military families is examined, and shown to be a special case from which it is dangerous to generalize. The article points to the need for carefully designed longitudinal studies in this area, and, as a first step, suggests the exploitation of already existing data in the National Child Development Study.