Why Students Switch Schools: Organizational Effectiveness and Student Mobility in Detroit

• In Event: Culturally Relevant Strategies: Implications for School Leaders

Abstract

Families in large urban school districts in America have more school options than ever before. However, when families choose to move their children to a new school, they risk the negative consequences of mobility on student performance. Therefore, it is critical to better understand why students make non-routine school moves and which schools they move to, in order to inform school improvement efforts and policy in a school choice landscape. This study combines school- and student-level data from one of the most active school choice cities in America – Detroit – to understand how school organizational effectiveness is associated with student mobility.

Authors

• Ben Pogodzinski, Wayne State University

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Wayne State University