The Effect of Decreasing Enrollment Patterns in a Title I School Surrounded by Economic Decline on 5th-Grade Students’ Achievement, Behavior, Parent Involvement, and Teacher Mobility Rates

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of decreasing enrollment patterns in a Title I school surrounded by economic decline on 5th-grade students\u27 achievement, behavior, parent involvement, and teacher mobility rates compared to 5th-grade students\u27 achievement, behavior, parent involvement, and teacher mobility rates in a nearby Title I elementary school surrounded by economic improvement and increasing enrollment patterns. Overall, results indicated that 5th-grade students at posttest in the increasing enrollment pattern school in a neighborhood of economic improvement had statistically significantly higher (a) Reading Total, (b) Math Total, and (c) Language Total mean achievement NCE scores compared to 5th-grade students at posttest in the decreasing enrollment pattern school in a neighborhood of economic decline. Statistically significant pretest-posttest achievement score declines were also found for 5th-grade students in the decreasing enrollment pattern school in a neighborhood of economic decline. While no statistically significant differences between the groups were observed for the other dependent measure comparisons for grades, behavior, parent involvement, and teacher mobility rates, the achievement findings alone warrant relocation of all students to the most positive environments and neighborhoods as soon as school and neighborhood conditions are found to be in decline