What Drives Nonstructural School Mobility? An Analysis of School Push and Pull Factors in California

Purpose: This study provides a comprehensive portrait of nonstructural student mobility in California, examining its overall incidence, how it varies across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups, and which school-level characteristics function as “push” and “pull” factors driving school changes. Research Methods/Approach: Using rich longitudinal administrative data from a sample of large, diverse California school districts, we employ a sending-school incidence framework to distinguish summer nonstructural moves from midyear moves and structural transitions. We model the school-level and student-level predictors of each move type and estimate predicted probabilities of mobility as a function of differences in school achievement, racial congruence, and residential mobility across race/ethnicity and free and reduced-price lunch eligibility subgroups. Findings: Low school achievement, high school poverty, elevated absenteeism, and other markers of poor school quality function as significant push factors. High achievement acts as a pull factor for all students, as does moving toward a less racially congruent—typically more diverse—school. Summer nonstructural mobility appears more strategic than midyear mobility, which rarely leads to better schools for any group. Residential mobility enables moves into higher-quality schools for all families, but this effect is substantially stronger for Asian American, Filipino or Pacific Islander and White students than for Black and Latinx students. Implications: Systemic barriers—including residential segregation, restrictive attendance zones, and historical housing discrimination—appear to limit the ability of low-income Black and Latinx families to leverage residential and school mobility into improved academic conditions. Policies aimed at reducing inequitable mobility patterns should attend to these constraints.