The Challenge:
Saint Louis schools suffer from a high rate of student mobility, upending classroom stability, school community, and students’ academic progress. In the 2018-2019 school year, on average, 37% of students withdraw or transfer from the school they began the year in before summer break. This is the highest rate in the state.
That movement can be disruptive to the schools, students, and educators. Children in schools with mobility rates have poorer outcomes than in ones with a more stable student body.
The Approach:
SKIP brought together educators and leaders from St. Louis’ largest public school systems along with education researchers at the region’s most prestigious universities to study this problem and provide rigorous data analysis to help practitioners better serve their students.
The St. Louis Research-Practice Collaborative is modeled off of research-practice partnerships that exist in many of the largest cities in the country. RPPs are long-term collaborations between school districts and higher education institutions to help improve education. It’s a mutual relationship in which university researchers get access to education data and the districts benefit from the analysis.
The Result:
The SRPC has completed an initial round of data analysis to gauge the current context of student mobility in public schools in St. Louis city. Over the next year, researchers will undertake more complex data analysis, mapping, and interviews in order to finish painting the picture of how mobility affects students, families, teachers, and our school system.
To learn more about the SRPC, visit its website.