Student Mobility Rates for Massachusetts Public Schools Since 2008

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) provides data on student mobility, intake, churn, and stability rates for public schools and districts. The dataset includes annual records from the 2008 school year onward, with columns for enrollment counts, percentages, and student subgroup identifiers. Data is published on the educationtocareer.data.mass.gov platform via Socrata.

Use Cases

• Analyzing school stability trends over time using STAB_PCT, SY, and ORG_NAME from 12 available columns.
• Comparing churn and intake rates across districts or student subgroups using CHURN_PCT, INTAKE_PCT, DIST_NAME, and STU_GRP.
• Modeling the relationship between enrollment size and mobility rates using STAB_ENROLL_CNT, CHURN_ENROLL_CNT, and ORG_TYPE.

Strengths

• Time series spans from 2008 to the present, offering longitudinal analysis potential.
• Includes multiple calculated rate metrics (stability, churn, intake) and raw enrollment counts.
• Data is officially sourced from the Massachusetts DESE and published on a state platform.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Mobility rates are not reported for enrollments of fewer than 6, which may exclude small schools.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)

Collection Method

Administrative data collection from public schools and districts.

Time Range

School years from 2008 onward

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-20 15:03:33; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Massachusetts, United States