The push and pull of school performance: Evidence from student mobility in New Orleans

We investigate student mobility in a choice-based system that has gone tNew Orleans, to gain insight into an underlying improvement mechachoice-based reform and its potential equity-related consequences. In contypical analyses of mobility, this study distinguishes incumbent school teristics that can cause students to search for a new school (“push” factorthose features that can draw families to a new school (“pull” factors). evidence consistent with school performance playing both push and puHowever, for low-achieving students, the push of low performance at incschools is stronger than the pull of high performance at potential destinatioplying that low-achieving students are more successful in exiting low-perfschools than they are in finding higher-performing schools to attend.