Next, we explore sensitivity to alternative samples of students. First, we limit our sample to those SAP students who always live in rental units between grades 5 and 8, to explore the possibility that results are at least partly driven by students moving into and out of rental housing for reasons not accounted for in this model. Results are robust to this change in sample—structural moves result in a significant decline in both medium-term ELA and math performance, with a significantly larger negative effect on ELA in the year of the move (table 8, columns 1, 2, 5, and 6). Also similar to our main results, we find that among students who never live in owner-occupied housing, nonstructural moves have positive impacts in ELA performance in all years following the move, with no effects in math.
| ELA | Math | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always-Renter | No 2–4 Family Homes | Always-Renter | No 2–4 Family Homes | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | |
| Post-summer move | ||||||||
| Structural | −0.032 | −0.043** | −0.055* | −0.048** | −0.189*** | −0.174*** | −0.163*** | −0.167*** |
| (0.024) | (0.018) | (0.028) | (0.020) | (0.034) | (0.024) | (0.040) | (0.026) | |
| Nonstructural | 0.283*** | 0.165** | 0.229 | 0.119 | 0.107 | −0.035 | 0.199 | −0.026 |
| (0.109) | (0.083) | (0.146) | (0.101) | (0.149) | (0.107) | (0.198) | (0.126) | |
| Summer move in year t | ||||||||
| Structural | −0.059*** | −0.054*** | −0.102*** | −0.067*** | 0.020 | −0.002 | 0.051 | 0.003 |
| (0.019) | (0.015) | (0.031) | (0.016) | (0.021) | (0.015) | (0.039) | (0.017) | |
| Nonstructural | −0.004 | −0.039 | −0.389 | −0.092 | 0.197 | 0.050 | 0.588* | 0.171* |
| (0.114) | (0.068) | (0.267) | (0.089) | (0.127) | (0.071) | (0.348) | (0.095) | |
| Instruments | ||||||||
| Building sale | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Terminal and entry grade | ||||||||
| Quadratic | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N |
| Nonparametric | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y |
| Observations | 328,496 | 328,496 | 214,290 | 214,290 | 329,619 | 329,619 | 215,238 | 215,238 |
| Unique students | 82,698 | 82,698 | 57,097 | 57,097 | 82,700 | 82,700 | 57,146 | 57,146 |
| ELA | Math | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always-Renter | No 2–4 Family Homes | Always-Renter | No 2–4 Family Homes | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | |
| Post-summer move | ||||||||
| Structural | −0.032 | −0.043** | −0.055* | −0.048** | −0.189*** | −0.174*** | −0.163*** | −0.167*** |
| (0.024) | (0.018) | (0.028) | (0.020) | (0.034) | (0.024) | (0.040) | (0.026) | |
| Nonstructural | 0.283*** | 0.165** | 0.229 | 0.119 | 0.107 | −0.035 | 0.199 | −0.026 |
| (0.109) | (0.083) | (0.146) | (0.101) | (0.149) | (0.107) | (0.198) | (0.126) | |
| Summer move in year t | ||||||||
| Structural | −0.059*** | −0.054*** | −0.102*** | −0.067*** | 0.020 | −0.002 | 0.051 | 0.003 |
| (0.019) | (0.015) | (0.031) | (0.016) | (0.021) | (0.015) | (0.039) | (0.017) | |
| Nonstructural | −0.004 | −0.039 | −0.389 | −0.092 | 0.197 | 0.050 | 0.588* | 0.171* |
| (0.114) | (0.068) | (0.267) | (0.089) | (0.127) | (0.071) | (0.348) | (0.095) | |
| Instruments | ||||||||
| Building sale | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Terminal and entry grade | ||||||||
| Quadratic | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N |
| Nonparametric | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y |
| Observations | 328,496 | 328,496 | 214,290 | 214,290 | 329,619 | 329,619 | 215,238 | 215,238 |
| Unique students | 82,698 | 82,698 | 57,097 | 57,097 | 82,700 | 82,700 | 57,146 | 57,146 |
Notes: Robust standard errors, clustered by first-grade school and middle school by cohort, in parentheses. Post-summer move is equal to 1 in all years after a student moves schools between June and October. Summer moves made after the completion of a terminal grade are structural moves and summer moves made after the completion of a nonterminal grade are nonstructural moves. Move in t is equal to 1 in the year that a student makes a particular type of move and 0 in all other years. All models include controls for poverty, English proficiency, home language, participation in special education services, mid-year moves, building type, residence borough, grade, and year. Models in columns (1), (3), (5), and (7) use the number of years between a student's grade in t and the completion of the terminal grade of his first-grade school (YearsPre) and this number squared, the number of years between the beginning of a student's grade in year t and the completion of the grade after the terminal grade of a student's first-grade school (YearsPost), and an indicator equal to one in the summer following the completion of the terminal grade of a student's first-grade school (Terminal) as grade span instruments. These models also include the number of years between a student's grade in t and the entry grade of his closest ZIP code (YearsPreMS) and this number squared, the number of years between a student's current grade and when he would have entered the lowest grade of his middle school (YearsPostMS), and an indicator equal to one in the summer before a student would enter the closest middle school if he started on time (Entry). Models in columns (2), (4), (6), and (8) use a vector of indicators that are the interaction between a student's current grade and the terminal grade of his first-grade school (
g), and a vector of indicators that are the interaction between a student's current grade and the entry grade of his closest middle school (ηgE). All models use the interaction between an indicator of whether a student's current building of residence was sold between t − 2 and t − 1 and an indicator for the building type, as instruments for school moves. The always renter sample excludes students who ever live in a single-family home, condo, or cooperative between grades 5 and 8. The no 2–4 family home sample exclude students living in 2–4 family homes in year t.
*p < 0.1; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01.