[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-587910-105":59,"doc-detail-587910-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","distance-and-disengagement-in-middle-school-does-transportation-make-a-difference","Distance and Disengagement in Middle School - Does Transportation Make a Difference?","","The move to middle school often increases the distance between students’ homes and schools, which can intensify disengagement. Using New York City data, the study provides descriptive and credible causal evidence linking distance, transportation, and student engagement. Greater distance correlates with lower attendance and higher chronic absenteeism, alongside higher participation in school breakfast, while showing no support for relationships with other engagement outcomes. Transportation subsidies, via school buses or full-fare MetroCard, raise attendance by 1.5 percentage points and leave other engagement measures unchanged.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/distance-and-disengagement-in-middle-school-does-transportation-make-a-difference/587910/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/distance-and-disengagement-in-middle-school-does-transportation-make-a-difference/587910.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Bintang","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does distance relate to student engagement in middle school?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Living farther from school is associated with lower attendance and higher chronic absenteeism. There is also evidence of higher participation in school breakfast, but no evidence for other engagement forms mentioned.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What transportation assistance is evaluated in the study?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The paper evaluates transportation assistance through school buses and full-fare MetroCard subsidies, using NYC data from 2011-2017.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Does subsidized transportation improve outcomes beyond attendance?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Subsidized transportation increases attendance by about 1.5 percentage points, but it has no effect on other engagement measures reported in the abstract.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},587910,1792166820,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962085564381,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Distance and Disengagement in Middle School: Does Transportation Make a Difference?  \nSamantha Trajkovski, Saint Michael’s College Amy Ellen Schwartz, University of Delaware SarahA. Cordes, Temple University  \nTechnical Report Published August 2025  \nDistance and Disengagement in Middle School: Does Transportation Make a Difference?  \nby  \nSamantha Trajkovski  \nSaint Michael’s College  \nAmy Ellen Schwartz  \nUniversity of Delaware  \nand  \nSarah A. Cordes  \nTemple University  \nAugust 6, 2025  \nAbstract  \nThe increased distance between school and home that typically characterizes the move to middle school may exacerbate student disengagement, which may (or may not) be ameliorated by school buses or transit subsidies. Using data from New York City, we provide both descriptive and credibly causal evidence on the relationship between distance, transportation, and student engagement. We find a negative relationship between distance and engagement: living farther from school is associated with lower attendance and higher chronic absenteeism, but higher rates of participation in school breakfast. There is no evidence that distance is related to other forms of student engagement. Transportation assistance in the form of either the school bus of full-fare MetroCard increases attendance by 1.5 percentage point, which is roughly equivalent to 3 days, but has no effect on other engagement measures. Overall, our results suggest that increased distance to school may help to explain increased disengagement among middle schoolers and that one potential policy lever to address this is through subsidized transportation.  \nThe research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C180025 to The Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.  \nWe would like to thank the NYCDOE and the Office of Pupil Transportation for data access and their continued support for this project, Meryle Weinstein, Willy Chen, and Chris Rick for their wisdom and support.  \n1. Introduction  \nDisengagement among middle school students is a well-documented and widespread problem. The transition to middle school decreases student engagement in multiple ways, including lower attendance and higher chronic absenteeism and suspensions (Bauer et al, 2018; Schwerdt & West, 2013; Rockoff & Lockwood, 2010, Cook et al, 2008) . Further, disengagement in middle school has longer-term consequences, including increased high school dropout, and delinquency and substance abuse in later adolescence and early adulthood (Wang & Fredricks, 2014; Henry et al, 2012; Hirshfield & Gasper, 2011) . Some argue that puberty and its negative effect on attitudes, self-esteem, and motivation explain heightened levels of disengagement among middle schoolers (Eccles et al, 1993; Eccles et al, 1984), while others suggest it may be due to changes in school structure, such as larger schools or cohort sizes or a more diverse student body than found in elementary school (Jacob & Rockoff, 2011; Rockoff & Lockwood, 2010) .  \nAn underexplored alternative explanation for this disengagement is the longer distance students travel between home and school when they transition from elementary to middle school (Urban Institute, 2018) . As shown in Figure 1, there are notable differences in the distance to school from 5th to 6th grade. Roughly 60 percent of 5th grade students live within a half mile from school, while only 30 percent of 6th grade students live within a half mile. These longer distances are due, in part, to larger catchment areas for middle schools which serve multiple “feeder”elementary schools. Another contributing factor is that there may be more “choice” schools for middle school students – charters or magnets, for example – farther from home than their neighborhood zoned schools.  \nWith increasing distan","cbCaisNTbNDPGrq1","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisNTbNDPGrq1","pdf",3095692,56,"English","# Introduction\n## Disengagement in middle school\n## Distance between home and school\n## Transportation as a potential mechanism\n## Study design and data","[{\"question\":\"How does distance relate to student engagement in middle school?\",\"answer\":\"Living farther from school is associated with lower attendance and higher chronic absenteeism. There is also evidence of higher participation in school breakfast, but no evidence for other engagement forms mentioned.\"},{\"question\":\"What transportation assistance is evaluated in the study?\",\"answer\":\"The paper evaluates transportation assistance through school buses and full-fare MetroCard subsidies, using NYC data from 2011-2017.\"},{\"question\":\"Does subsidized transportation improve outcomes beyond attendance?\",\"answer\":\"Subsidized transportation increases attendance by about 1.5 percentage points, but it has no effect on other engagement measures reported in the abstract.\"}]","Distance and Disengagement in Middle School - Does Transportation Make a Difference? | PDF",1792063689,141]