A I L P

AN INITIAL LOOK AT THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF
HOMELESS AND DOMESTICALLY AT-RISK CHILDREN
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS (#1)
John Hoover, Ph.D.
SCSU, Special Education &
Teacher Preparation Initiative
Teacher Preparation Initiative/ September 2015/ Preliminary Review/ Education of Homeless Children
(Paper = HL 15.1)
Rebecca Krystyniak, Director
THE EDUCATION ATTAINMENT OF HOMELESS CHILDREN
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AN INITIAL LOOK AT THE ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE OF
HOMELESS AND DOMESTICALLY AT-RISK
CHILDREN
John Hoover, Ph.D.
SCSU, Special Education &
Teacher Preparation Initiative
Context
This summary contains the results of a
preliminary analysis of the academic challenges
faced by students who are either homeless or
who suffer risk for domestic displacement or
who suffer tenuous domestic arrangements. I
have listed a set of references in APA style that
could be used for study or conversation—I
would be glad to facilitate student/faculty study
groups.
I intend that the reference list and data might
offer some clues as to useful dependent variables
that could be employed in assessing a support
program with an educational component. I have
purposely refrained from dealing with the
independent variables (e.g., treatments), I’ll
leave the intervention design to others.
However, I’ll cheat [in this regard] a little if I
find a great source that might help the grant
writing team. In short, these data are meant
primarily for the grant’s Need section.
The summary statements, Figures, and Tables I
provide are what I see (not to be legalistic about
it) as more probable than not statements
warranted from a preliminary analysis of
published research. I retain the right to modify
my statements at a later date when I have
enjoyed the opportunity to dig deeper.
Definitions. The term, “homeless children and
youth” has been defined for educational
purposes in the pages of Title VII of the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The
act is designed to produce equity in the
education of the population in question; the term
“homeless children and youth…”
(A) means individuals who lack a fixed,
regular, and adequate nighttime residence
and
(B) includes-(i) children and youths who are sharing the
housing of other persons due to loss of
housing, economic hardship, or a similar
reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer
parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of
alternative adequate accommodations; are
living in emergency or transitional shelters;
are abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting
foster care placement;
(ii) children and youths who have a primary
nighttime residence that is a public or
private place not designed for or ordinarily
used as a regular sleeping accommodation
for human beings
(iii) children and youths who are living in
cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned
buildings, substandard housing, bus or train
stations, or similar settings; and
(iv) migratory children who qualify as
homeless for the purposes of this subtitle
because the children are living in
circumstances described in clauses (i)
through (iii).
Numbers. The numbers of children and youth of
school age who are homeless and/or whose
domestic arrangements are at-risk or tenuous is
probably systematically underestimated. This
occurs because some students experiencing
some risky domestic arrangements are not
counted as homeless (e.g., living in hotels or
motels or “doubling up” in apartments.
Nonetheless, in 2014, the U.S. Government
counted nearly 1.3 million homeless school
children1. About a quarter of those counted as
homeless nationally (23.5%) are under 18 years
of age2. It is assumed that the figure in
THE EDUCATION ATTAINMENT OF HOMELESS CHILDREN
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Minnesota is about the same or, if compared to
other well-being reports, slightly lower than the
national average.
3
According to the Minnesota Homeless Study ,
“on any given night 3500 children in Minnesota
are inadequately housed or homeless. An official
of St. Cloud District 742 estimated under
McKinney-Vento, that 400 domesticallychallenged children are enrolled per diem in
community schools. The number of homeless
families per day averaged over a year has
increased linearly from 434 (including 875
children) in 1991 to 1,747 (~7,000) in 2012 (not
all of whom are of school age). It remains
unclear as to the proportion of variance in these
increases result from better reporting and how
much reflects real increases.
Homelessness among school-aged children and
their families is a crisis that differentially affects
persons of color. In the 2012 data, persons of
color made up 65% of homeless families with
children (excluding the category Hispanic
because not independent of race). This compares
with their over 14% of Minnesota families. Put
another way, homeless school-aged children, I
estimate, are about 5 times as likely to
experiences homelessness as do White families.
Summary Statements
1. In one study, only about half of homeless
youngsters (grades 3-8) met minimal state
standards in reading (2011-2012 school year).
This comes from an excellent source that I
have listed as USDOE below and is based on
the NAEP studies (the best comparative data
available to us).
2. It is not clear to me that homelessness and
SES are controlled in the above study
(frankly I doubt it), but I will look at it more
closely. The two-page summary contains
some great data to use in a grant application.
The proportion of homeless students taking
NAEP tests was sufficient nationally to
generate a meaningful (e.g., representative)
sample. By contrast, the figures in 11-12 for
proficiency standards was about 75% for
stably housed persons. See below:
3. A nice figure from the DOE summary: US
DOE table adjusted by JH). Note: It would be
rather easy to contrast these figures with
those for stably-housed individuals.
THE EDUCATION ATTAINMENT OF HOMELESS CHILDREN
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% of Homeless Students
Enrolled in All LEAs
Taking Assessment Test,
Grades 3-8
Reading
Mathematics
Science
% of Homeless Students
Taking the Test Meeting
or Exceeding State
Proficiency, Grades 3-8
74
51
75
48
29
48
4. Homeless children are identified as having
specific learning disabilities about two times
as often as stably-housed children.
5. Recently, educational researchers have honed
in on academic language (as a factor in
school success), particularly the “size” of the
lexicon, in analyzing the effects of poverty
and other stressors on children’s academic
performance. As is true of otherwise
maltreated or at-risk children, homeless
youngsters manifest lower levels (on
average) of word knowledge, less complex
syntax, and greater difficulties with sentence
formation. I will try to locate exact figures
for this—I have only found them so far in a
summary [and secondary] source (Frith).
Many of the studies cited do not distinguish
between the independent contributions of
SES-based variance generally and that
produced by domestic-arrangement-based
risk specifically. I’ll keep looking, but the
language results appear consistent enough in
the literature to use in a grant application.
6. Homeless preschoolers’ language measured at
or below the first percentile on average. This
is from the Firth online source, but I will try
to track down the original data.
7. Among homeless children under five, at least
75% displayed significant developmental
delays in at least one domain. On other
words, homeless (or domestically at-risk)
% of Stably-Housed
Students Meeting or
Exceeding State
Proficiency, Grades 3-8
Need to get, but
~ 75
Need to get, but
~ 75
Need to get, but
~ 75
young children experience developmental
delays at about four times the rate of other
poor, but stably-housed, children. Speech
delays are the most commonly-observed
developmental delays.
8. Firth and others blame low language levels
and poor levels of academic performance on,
among other things, levels of toxic stress and
its effect on the brain. I want to remain
skeptical about this and look more closely at
academic participation, especially engaged
time. Of course, these will be difficult to
separate. See point #9 below:
9. Temporal (e.g., time-based) variables
represent the largest set of factors predicting
the academic achievement of any group and
this generalization rings particularly true for
domestically at-risk children. Put more
simply, the achievement gaps demonstrated
in the above articles may exist primarily as a
function of the time that students spend in
school and engaged in academic task (both
in- and out-of-school).
10. In other words, whatever, can be done to
assure school attendance and to provide
tutoring for specific academic skills will
provide the largest effect size on learning
performance. Nothing else will come close.
11. Get them to school, make sure they are ready
to study when there, and provide tutoring
THE EDUCATION ATTAINMENT OF HOMELESS CHILDREN
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help by trained individuals (e.g., help with
homework). These three things will produce
90% of your effect.
References: A Cross-Section of Useful
Resources/ More Later
Brumley, B., Fantuzzo, J., Perlman, S., & Zager,
M. L. (2015). The unique relations between
early homelessness and educational wellbeing: An empirical test of the Continuum of
Risk Hypothesis. Children & Youth Services
Review, 4831-37.
doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.11.012
Buckner, J. C. (2008). Understanding the impact
of homelessness on children: Challenges and
future research directions. American
Behavioral Scientist, 51(6), 721-736. Note:
Great summary source/ quite accessible to lay
readers.
**Buckner, J. C., Bassuk, E. L., & Weinreb, L.
F. (2001). Predictors of academic
achievement among homeless and lowincome housed children. Journal of School
Psychology, 39(1), 45-69.
Cutuli, J. J., Desjardins, C. D., Herbers, J. E.,
Long, J. D., Heistad, D., Chan, C., & ...
Masten, A. S. (2013). Academic achievement
trajectories of homeless and highly mobile
students: Resilience in the context of chronic
and acute risk. Child Development, 84(3),
841-857. doi:10.1111/cdev.12013
Fantuzzo, J., LeBoeuf, W., Brumley, B., &
Perlman, S. (2013). A population-based
inquiry of homeless episode characteristics
and early educational well-being. Children &
Youth Services Review, 35(6), 966-972.
doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.02.016
Firth, P. (undated). Homelessness and academic
achievement. Online resource downloaded on
Sept. 17, 2015 from
http://firesteelwa.org/2014/09/homelessnessand-academic-achievement-the-impact-ofchildhood-stress-on-school-performance/
Heinze, H. J. (2013). Beyond a bed: Support for
positive development for youth residing in
emergency shelters. Children & Youth
Services Review, 35(2), 278-286.
doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.10.018
Mauntauk, S. L. (2009, April) Mitigating
homeless children’s risk for developmental
delay. HGH Clinicians Network/ Healing
Hand. Downloaded on Sept. 17, 2015 from
http://www.nhchc.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/10/Apr09HealingHand
s.pdf. Note: This is a great, accessible article
that includes many useful references.
**McKibben, C. (2009). The impact of poverty
and homelessness on children’s oral and
literate language: Practical implications for
service delivery. Paper presented at the
ASHA Schools Conference. See
http://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/PovertyHomelessness-Childrens-Oral-LiterateLanguage.pdf
Rescorla, L., Parker, R., & Stolley, P. (1991).
Ability, achievement, and adjustment in
homeless children. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 61(2), 210.
Rafferty, Y., Shinn, M., & Weitzman, B. C.
(2004). Academic achievement among
formerly homeless adolescents and their
continuously housed peers. Journal of School
Psychology, 42(3), 179-199.
Rubin, D. H., Erickson, C. J., San Agustin, M.,
Cleary, S. D., Allen, J. K., & Cohen, P.
(1996). Cognitive and academic functioning
of homeless children compared with housed
children. Pediatrics, 97(3), 289-294.
**S. D. S. (2013). Education for homeless
children and youths program: Analysis of
THE EDUCATION ATTAINMENT OF HOMELESS CHILDREN
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2011-2012 federal data collection and threeyear comparison. Education Week, 33(10), 5.
Ziesemer, C., Marcoux, L., & Marwell, B. E.
(1994). Homeless children: Are they different
from other low-income children? Social
Work, 39(6), 658-668.
**Articles dealing with treatment variables
Footnotes
1
Homeless statistics in America (2015): An
introduction to homelessness by urban street
angels. Available online.
2
Minnesota DOE web site.
3
Wilder Research (2014). 2012 Minnesota
homeless study. Available online at
https://www.wilder.org/WilderResearch/Publications/Studies/Homelessness
%20in%20Minnesota%202012%20Study/Ho
meless%20Children%20and%20Their%20Fa
milies.pdf
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