How Does Student Mobility Affect New Orleans Students?

This observational study, by Beth Glenn, seeks to determine the characteristics of students in New Orleans who move schools to understand whether the school choice policies in New Orleans might lead to even higher rates of student mobility, especially among more disadvantaged students. The author compares mobility rates among K-9^th grade students in Orleans Parish and Jefferson parish from 2014-2015 through 2018-2019 and mobility rates among New Orleans students by race/ethnicity, economic disadvantage, and achievement. The findings suggest that students in the charter district of New Orleans had similar levels of mobility when compared to students in the more traditional school district of Jefferson Parish. Within New Orleans, however, the study found that students who were black or economically disadvantaged moved more frequently than their other New Orleans peers and that New Orleans students who moved one or more times during the studied time frame had lower academic performance prior to moving than their peers who never moved.