Pupil mobility and educational achievement in schools: an empirical analysis

One of the problems facing education policy-makers is how to raise achievement in schools. Improving schools and raising achievement requires, at the very least, an understanding of the factors influencing performance in schools. Previous research has looked at a number of factors, including quality of teaching and learning, patterns of resource use, gender, ethnicity, social class and socio-economic background in schools, but there has been little empirical research into the effect of pupil mobility on school performance. Pupil mobility in schools also has implications for many important policy areas, such as school funding, target-setting and league tables, and yet it is only just beginning to be recognized as an important policy issue. This paper examines the relationship between pupil mobility and educational achievement in an inner city LEA. The performance of three cohorts of pupils at key stages 2 and 3 and GCSE are analysed by the mobility factor to illustrate the effect of pupil mobility on educational attainment. This is followed by a discussion of the causes of pupil mobility in schools and strategies adopted by schools to address mobility problems. The final section of the paper addresses the implications of the empirical evidence for school improvement strategies and funding allocations.