Student Mobility- A Regional Challenge

In St. Louis City, 1 in 10 students will not finish the school year in the class where they started.

Many of St. Louis City students will change schools during the school year. More will show up at a different school next August. It takes a toll: on learning, on school community, on teachers, students, and families. Even one move before the natural end to a grade-level can reduce elementary school achievement in reading and math and increase high school dropout rates––with the most pronounced effect for students making three or more moves. Student mobility doesn’t only impact students, it also affects teachers and the classrooms in the schools they attend.

The seriousness of student mobility’s effects on student and school outcomes is especially relevant in St. Louis — a region sometimes described as ‘“hyper-mobile.”

Effectively addressing student mobility issues requires a nuanced understanding of its patterns and causes. Understanding who, how, when, and why students are likely to leave their schools can be helpful to target the development of resources and services.

The St. Louis Research-Practice Collaborative is taking on this problem through a rigorous, research-based approach. School educators and university researchers have teamed up to learn more about student mobility to develop targeted strategies to reduce the unwanted impacts of churn.

“Our partnership and the subsequent findings of this study mark a significant step forward in our understanding of student mobility and its effects on educational outcomes. By leveraging these insights, we are committed to implementing evidence-based strategies that address the root causes of mobility and foster a more stable, supportive educational environment for all students.”

– Dr. Candice Carter-Oliver, CEO of Confluence Academies

Key Findings

The findings of this research underscore the profound impact of student mobility on educational continuity, particularly in critical areas of literacy, mathematics, and science. During the course of the study, researchers also found that the COVID-19 pandemic interventions inadvertently had stabilizing effects on student mobility, with eviction moratoriums and reduced disciplinary measures contributing to fewer school transfers. This insight highlights the complex, nuanced nature of student mobility and its far-reaching consequences on student engagement and attendance.

What Does Mobility Look Like at the Regional & School-Level?

National research shows:

  • Moving between schools frequently can cause students to fall behind by up to a year’s worth of learning.
  • Mobility affects the students who leave and the students who stay, negatively impacting all students’ ability to learn, classroom engagement, and connection to school

In Saint Louis City:

  • In the 2018-19 school year, a third of Saint Louis City’s school population was mobile on average.
  • Student mobility is high in Saint Louis City compared to surrounding counties and similar-sized cities, but the city’s mobility has been declining over the last 10 years.

Who is Transferring?

Our analysis of data from 2007–2022 found the following characteristics of St. Louis City students made a student more or less likely to transfer:

  • Housing Stability: Students with unstable housing were significantly more likely than their stably housed peers to transfer. Also, the transfer odds were nearly two-times higher for students in shelters than housed students, higher than other unstable housing situations, such as doubling up or staying in a hotel.
  • Grade Level: Odds of transferring were lower for students in 1st through 8th grades. They increase in high school, peaking in 9th and 10th grades.
  • Race: Black students had a significantly higher chance of transferring schools than white students. Hispanic and Asian students were less likely than white students to move schools.
  • Neighborhood: Students living in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of Black residents were more likely to transfer.
  • Special Services: Students receiving special education services were slightly more likely to transfer, while English Language Learners were less likely to transfer.

When, Why, and What are the Outcomes of transferring?

  • Students move all over the St. Louis metropolitan region — not only within the city boundaries.
  • Transfer patterns follow historical racial segregation patterns in St. Louis.
  • By third grade, a little less than 60% of students who are performing below-basic will transfer schools at some point during their K-12 educational career.
  • Not all transfers had a negative impact. Students who moved to high-performing schools initially are set back academically but catch up with students in their new school by the second year. This is not true for students moving to lower proficiency schools.
  • Educators coined the term “invisible mobility” as a challenge masked by traditional student mobility rates: rapid transfer in and out when shopping for schools, chronic absenteeism, and transferring related to housing insecurity, though not formally designated.

Explore the Research

December 2022

TechnicalBrief_SRPCDownload

January 2023

Educator-Brief_Jan-2023Download

Brief2.1-TechnicalReport-6.6.2023Download

September 2023

CopyofSRPCSchoolBriefingWhoTransfersDownload

SRPCBrief2.2-WhereWhenandWhathappensafterTransferDownload

Explore Mobility in Context

Geospatial mapping helps visualize mobility in the social end economic context of communities.
Explore interactive maps of mobility in schools and neighborhoods.

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