Neighborhood poverty and public policy: a 5-year follow-up of children's educational outcomes in the New York City moving to opportunity demonstration.
Data from the Moving to Opportunity Program, a randomized mobility experiment in which a subset of low-income minority families living in public housing in high-poverty neighborhoods were given vouchers to move to low-poverty neighborhoods, were used to evaluate 1 policy approach for improving children's educational outcomes. Four hundred twenty-five New York City children were seen 2 1/2 and 5 years following relocation (mean age=14.64 years, SD=3.21 years). Analyses examining program effects on 5-year educational outcomes, accounting for 2 1/2-year outcomes, revealed that program effects on adolescent boys' achievement found at 2 1/2 years were not sustained at 5 years. Rather, male and female youths 14-20 years of age in low-poverty neighborhoods reported lower school grades and engagement relative to youths in high-poverty neighborhoods. From a policy standpoint, the complexity of enhancing low-income minority children's educational outcomes is underscored by the multiple dynamics involved--family, neighborhood, housing, and school.
Leventhal
Tama
T
Institute of Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. tleventhal@jhu.edu
Fauth
Rebecca C
RC
Brooks-Gunn
Jeanne
J
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D009519:New York City; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011203:Poverty; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011640:Public Policy; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012931:Social Environment