State Level Mobility Report

Overview

This short report summarizes trends in student cohorts and mobility, focusing on participation in the state mathematics assessment during the 2023-2024 academic year. While 2023-2024 serves as the primary lens, the dataset spans from 2019-2020 to 2023-2024, allowing for the identification of longer-term patterns across academic years. The analysis is based on the presence or absence of individual student assessment records in each year, which serves as a proxy for enrollment or participation. However, it may not fully capture students represented in the system in other ways—such as through partial-year enrollment or administrative records without assessment data—and therefore may underrepresent true enrollment. Future analyses may benefit from incorporating dedicated enrollment records for more complete insights. This report draws on 67,406 unique students from the sgpData_Long dataset.

Student Population

This section provides an overview of the available student data, including enrollment counts by grade and year. These figures establish the foundation for understanding cohort patterns, mobility trends, and the scope of analysis in subsequent sections.

The table below provides the number of students by year and grade levels based on the available data. In 2023-2024, total enrollment was 37,965, an increase of 0.9% from the previous year. 2023-2024 had the highest enrollment on record. On average, enrollment by grade changed about 4% compared to the same grade’s feeder level in the prior year. The largest change was in grade 9 with a 10.3% increase. Grades with consistently higher enrollment across years included 9. Changes in enrollment were fairly consistent across grades. No unusual enrollment patterns were detected in any grade. Enrollment varied by about 939 students across years.

Student enrollment summary by grade and year. Diagonals may be interpreted as cohorts.
Grade Level 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023 2023-2024
3 4323 4502 4477 4695 4863
4 4405 4444 4574 4575 4792
5 4282 4498 4532 4646 4618
6 4462 4370 4518 4598 4756
7 4579 4673 4541 4538 4634
8 4427 4703 4742 4536 4598
9 4894 4808 5104 5231 5001
10 4248 4460 4553 4821 4703
Total 35620 36458 37041 37640 37965

Definitions

A student has a mobility status of:

  • Leave: Enrolled last year but not enrolled this year.
  • Stay: Enrolled in both last year and this year.
  • Join: Enrolled this year but not last year.
  • Repeat: In the same grade two years in a row.
  • Advance: Skipped one or more grades between years.

In cohortED, a trajectory is defined as:

  • Trajectory: A student’s observed sequence of grade-level placements across academic years, starting from their first appearance in the dataset. In cohortED, trajectories assume linear grade progression (one grade per year). Students who skip or repeat a grade are treated as exiting the cohort at the point of deviation, unless handled by specialized functions.

Enrollment and grade transitions are classified as follows:

  • Enrolled: Student appears in consecutive academic years or for the first time.
  • Return: Student reappears in the dataset after missing one or more years.
  • Stay: Advanced one grade level over one year (typical progression). Synonymous with the definition of “Stay” for Cohorts.
  • Repeat: Remained in the same grade across two consecutive years.
  • Skip: Advanced more than one grade level in a single year.
  • Drop_Back: Moved backward in grade level or regressed after a gap.

Deep Dive into Student Mobility and Cohorts

Mobility from Grade 4 ( 2022-2023 ) to Grade 5 ( 2023-2024 ) was analyzed by gender and ethnicity. The alluvial diagram highlights how those patterns intersect with key demographic groups. Differences by gender were most pronounced among Gender: Female students. Larger differences emerged by ethnicity, particularly for Hispanic students. Across gender groups, the largest observed gap in mobility rates was 76.2 percentage points. Gender: Female students were most likely to be categorized as ‘Stay’ (83.4%), and least likely as ‘Leave’ (7.2%), indicating notable variation. Among ethnic groups, the largest gap was 79.5 percentage points. Hispanic students had the highest share in the ‘Stay’ category (86.3%), and the lowest in ‘Leave’ (6.8%), reflecting meaningful variation across groups. When examining intersections of gender and ethnicity, the highest observed mobility rate was among Gender: Male African American students who were classified as ‘Leave’ (24.4%). This suggests that certain demographic subgroups may experience elevated levels of mobility.

When comparing mobility patterns, non-White students were, on average: Leave 13.4%, Stay 75.8%, Join 10.8% . In contrast, White students were: Leave 7.8%, Stay 82.6%, Join 9.6% . These differences may reflect broader trends in how student mobility intersects with race and ethnicity. The difference in ‘Stay’ rates alone was 6.8% which may warrant further exploration of systemic or contextual factors. Mobility rates varied across ethnic groups, with Hispanic students showing the greatest differences across categories. This suggests that ethnicity may be associated with meaningful variation in student movement.

Demographics of Students from Grade 4 in 2022-2023 to Grade 5 in 2023-2024
Native American Asian African American Hispanic White
Leave 17.8% 7.7% 21.4% 6.8% 7.8%
Stay 64.4% 83.4% 69.0% 86.3% 82.6%
Join 17.8% 8.9% 9.7% 6.8% 9.6%

Among students who remained in the system from Grade 4 ( 2022-2023 ) to Grade 5 ( 2023-2024 ), Among ‘Stay’ students, gains and declines in achievement were fairly balanced, with 21.2% improving, 12.2% declining, and 66.7% experiencing no change. Among students who stayed, the percent scoring at or above proficient decreased from 76.3% in 2022-2023 to 68.2% in 2023-2024 . The most common achievement level in 2022-2023 was proficient , shifting to proficient in 2023-2024 . Students who stayed ( 68.2% ) performed better than those who joined ( 63.0% ), while those who left ( 72.6% ) performed similarly to stayers in the prior year.

Data Notes

Note: This report is based on a demonstration dataset derived from the sgpData_Long dataset in the SGPData R package. The data has been subset to include only mathematics content area records. While it does not reflect actual student attendance, it preserves realistic patterns of student entry and exit. This allows the analysis to focus on student mobility, including those who join or leave the dataset over time.

Appendices

Summary of student cohorts by grade and year.
Cohort 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023 2023-2024 2024-2025 2025-2026 2026-2027
Grade 3 in 2019 4323 3881 3634 3391 3215
Grade 4 in 2019 4405 3964 3581 3374 3252
Grade 5 in 2019 4282 3794 3547 3372 3273
Grade 6 in 2019 4462 4064 3816 3639 3262
Grade 7 in 2019 4579 4145 3850 3465
Grade 8 in 2019 4427 3914 3493
Grade 9 in 2019 4894 4003
Grade 10 in 2019 4248
Grade 3 in 2020 4487 4042 3808 3553
Grade 4 in 2020 552 449 390 350
Grade 5 in 2020 529 422 359 333
Grade 6 in 2020 553 440 381 360
Grade 7 in 2020 588 470 396 332
Grade 8 in 2020 533 409 316
Grade 9 in 2020 751 565
Grade 10 in 2020 400
Grade 3 in 2021 4455 4056 3792
Grade 4 in 2021 508 408 345
Grade 5 in 2021 425 324 276
Grade 6 in 2021 478 382 332
Grade 7 in 2021 487 374 329
Grade 8 in 2021 407 302 252
Grade 9 in 2021 673 508
Grade 10 in 2021 361
Grade 3 in 2022 4682 4237
Grade 4 in 2022 491 394
Grade 5 in 2022 398 309
Grade 6 in 2022 454 358
Grade 7 in 2022 373 286
Grade 8 in 2022 347 262
Grade 9 in 2022 617 430
Grade 10 in 2022 355
Grade 3 in 2023 4853
Grade 4 in 2023 536
Grade 5 in 2023 391
Grade 6 in 2023 510
Grade 7 in 2023 382
Grade 8 in 2023 347
Grade 9 in 2023 569
Grade 10 in 2023 294
Grade transitions are not reported for the first year in the dataset (2019-2020), as no prior data exists for comparison.
Academic Year Grade Transition Frequency Total Percent
2020-2021 Drop Back 2 28065 0.0
2020-2021 Repeat 281 28065 1.0
2020-2021 Skip 17 28065 0.1
2020-2021 Stay 27765 28065 98.9
2021-2022 Drop Back 12 29247 0.0
2021-2022 Repeat 372 29247 1.3
2021-2022 Skip 29 29247 0.1
2021-2022 Stay 28834 29247 98.6
2022-2023 Drop Back 24 29923 0.1
2022-2023 Repeat 374 29923 1.2
2022-2023 Skip 49 29923 0.2
2022-2023 Stay 29476 29923 98.5
2023-2024 Drop Back 7 30083 0.0
2023-2024 Repeat 274 30083 0.9
2023-2024 Skip 34 30083 0.1
2023-2024 Stay 29768 30083 99.0
Academic Year Enrollment Transition Frequency Total Percent
2019-2020 Enrolled 35620 35620 100.0
2019-2020 Return 0 35620 0.0
2020-2021 Enrolled 8393 8393 100.0
2020-2021 Return 0 8393 0.0
2021-2022 Enrolled 7794 8176 95.3
2021-2022 Return 382 8176 4.7
2022-2023 Enrolled 7717 8239 93.7
2022-2023 Return 522 8239 6.3
2023-2024 Enrolled 7882 8450 93.3
2023-2024 Return 568 8450 6.7