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Churning chart illustrates the high levels of mobility in Providence schools Of the 2,149 Providence children who were first graders in the public schools in the fall of 1993, fewer than half of them were still with their peers by grade 7. By grade 12, that number fell to about 25 percent. Only 509 members of that original group graduated from a Providence public high school in 2005. Over the course of 12 years, more than 1,600 students from the initial group had moved to another community, transferred to a private or religious school, returned to their country of origin, repeated a grade, or dropped out of school altogether. The following graph, developed by The Providence Plan for the Rhode Island Department of Health, depicts the “churning” of the class of 2005 as it moved through the Providence school system. As the initial population dwindled, new students joined the class each year, particularly in grade 9 when many students leave private or parochial schools to attend Classical High School as freshmen.
 Demographers use the word “churning” to describe a process where one group of people replaces another. The colored bands above the blue band illustrate the high mobility of the Providence student population. Even the seemingly stable blue group includes children who left the system for some time but later returned. A report developed by ProvPlan in 2002 found that residentially mobile children are more likely to suffer academically than their more residentially stable peers. According to research cited in this report, common difficulties include poor attendance, lower test scores, and repeated grades. Among teenagers, mobile students are more likely to have skipped school, been suspended, or been expelled than other students.
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