White Flight Not Evident in 18 Year Longitudinal Analysis of the Hoboken Public School District Despite Claims by Advocates

Figure 1: Percentage of Students Defined as White in
Hoboken School District (1998-2016)
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According to Merrian-Webster dictionary white flight is the departure of whites from places (as urban neighborhoods or schools) increasingly or predominantly populated by minorities. 
Are charter schools having a segregative impact on the Hoboken Public Schools causing "white flight" as claimed by a number of Hoboken Board of Education members? 


One way to determine if white flight is taking place is to document the decrease in white students in the school district. It would make sense that if white flight was occurring, white students would be leaving the district and would be making up a smaller and smaller percentage of the student enrollment in the district. 

When we look at the data over an 18 year span, we find the percentage of students designated as white is actually increasing in the Hoboken Public School District...and significantly(!)

In fact, the percentage of white students in the Hoboken Public School District has risen from 14.98% in 2000-01 to 33.2 % in 2015-16- an increase of over 120%. Moreover, since the Hola Dual Language School was founded in 2010-11 the percentage of white students in the Hoboken School District has risen from 22% to 33%.

The trend line (dotted arrow- Figure 1) clearly shows the percentage of white students in the Hoboken Public School District has been on the rise for the past two decades with no evidence of a plateau. White flight, as measured by the decline in the percentage of white students in the Hoboken School District, is not taking place in the Hoboken School District and in fact, has seen a steady increase since 1998-99. 

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