Pupils’ school mobility during elementary school: what motives and results?

Abstract

In France, a quarter of pupils change schools during their elementary education. In this article, we analyse families’ motives in changing schools. Using a rich longitudinal database, we distinguish different motives for mobility: strategic mobility (search for a better school), reactive mobility (due to school difficulties) and residential mobility (due to a move). These different mobilities concern different academic and social student profiles. We then examine the extent to which school mobility influences later school performance. Using matching methods, we show that mobile pupils have significantly higher academic achievement than non-mobile pupils at the end of elementary school. These results are nevertheless heterogeneous with a neutral influence of strategic mobility, a negative influence of reactive mobility and a positive influence of residential mobility.

Keywords:

• School mobility
• elementary school
• academic achievement
• propensity score matching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In France, primary education is composed of preschool and elementary school. Students enter preschool at age 3 for a period of 3 years. Then, students follow a five-year cycle in elementary school. The student then goes to middle school “le collège” (for 4 years).

2 In France, a pupil theoretically enters elementary school at the age of six (after preschool). Elementary school lasts five years (from CP (1st grade) to CM2 (5th grade)).

3 In France, special education includes a range of arrangements for pupils with disabilities or serious educational difficulties.

4 Priority education schools are schools in an area with a concentration of pupils with academic and social difficulties. Specific pedagogical actions and additional resources are provided to these schools.

5 This nomenclature corresponds to that used by the Directorate of Evaluation, Forecasting and Performance. When the parents are a couple, the reference person corresponds to the father, and the father's occupation is thus taken into consideration. If the family is a single parent, the occupation of the reference person corresponds to either the mother's or the father's occupation. This nomenclature was recast in 2020 in order to take into account the bi-activity in the household (Amossé and Cayouette-Remblière 2022). This new nomenclature was not available at the time of the survey.

6 The father's level of education is not introduced in the models. This variable is correlated with the socio-professional category of the reference person. Moreover, studies show the predominant role of the mother's level of education on school choices (Van Zanten 2015a).

7 The share of students who experience both strategic and reactive mobility is 1.8%.

8 We present the statistics for pupils who experienced other mobility. In the rest of the article, they are not interpreted but are presented for comparison.

9 We present the statistics for pupils who experienced other mobility. In the rest of the article, they are not interpreted but are presented for comparison.