Addressing the Causes and Consequences of High Student Mobility:
The Role of School Systems and Communities

A Forum — March 1, 2002

Approximately one-quarter of this nation's students change schools three or more times over the course of a public school career. High student mobility has consequences for students, both mobile and non-mobile, and can threaten educational attainment, curriculum continuity and school stability. For students, the long-term effects of high mobility include lower achievement levels and slower academic pacing, culminating in a reduced likelihood of high school completion. For residentially unstable students, such as homeless, migrant and foster care children, high mobility is another barrier, among others, to an adequate education. Low-income and minority students are more likely to experience excessive classroom mobility, and the deleterious effects of this transience are most severe for such students.

For schools, high mobility rates can slow curriculum and place a strain on teachers and financial resources. The long-term effects and pervasiveness of mobility underscore the need to (a) continue research on effective strategies and underlying causes, and (b) require that school systems develop strategies and policies to improve school stability and support highly mobile students. Addressing mobility issues in a comprehensive manner can result in an improved school environment, better student engagement and parent involvement, and increased average daily attendance, student achievement and high school completion rates.

Chester Hartman, President/Executive Director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, introduced the panel. By the end of third grade, one out of six children in the U.S. have attended three or more schools, often changing schools more than once during the school year, he said. For students in low income, minority, farm worker, and homeless families, the problem is compounded. Clearly, high student mobility is a large problem for students and schools.

According to Hartman, since the vast majority of school mobility is the result of housing instability, there needs to be more focus on policies to improve the stability of people's housing (e.g., rent control, eviction controls, etc.).

David Kerbow, Research Associate at the Center for School Improvement, University of Chicago, presented findings of a long-term research project examining student mobility in Chicago. He stressed that education in an urban context is fundamentally unstable. It is not only students and their families that move, but superintendents, administrators, and teachers as well. Despite the size of the problem, school mobility generally falls off the education reform agenda, generally arising from two assumptions: (1) high student mobility is an intractable issue beyond the reach of schools and districts; (2) student mobility is an individual phenomenon affecting only the students who move.

Student mobility in Chicago is primarily localized: 80% of mobility in the Chicago Schools is within the district; 60-70% of student moves are related to a residential move, leaving 30-40% of student moves not related to a residential move. Students appear to move within networks of schools within the Chicago Public Schools. These networks are made up of schools that are highly similar in terms of student racial and income composition.

As a result of high student mobility, there are constant classroom changes. Teachers spend more time with new students to orient them, and materials are reviewed repeatedly for new students, leading to fewer topics covered over the course of a school year. Thus, student mobility influences the education of both mobile and stable students. Findings indicate that by 6th grade, highly mobile students fall behind about 2/3 of a year, but by 6th grade, stable students in schools which experience high student mobility fall behind about ½ year.

Kerbow concluded by calling for increased information for parents about the impact on children of changing schools, strengthened "social ties" between schools and families, and better coordination at the "local network" level within districts. To mediate the impact of mobility at the local school level, he suggested school-wide approaches to managing student information for mobile students, curriculum discussions within schools (and districts), and a focus on classroom practices responsive to student learning diversity.

Barbara Buell. Executive Director of the Chicago Panel on School Policy, presented "Staying Put," an awareness campaign plan designed to decrease mobility and improve student transfer processes throughout school systems. According to Buell, there is a large quantity of quality research on student mobility, yet it does not often get to the local level in a usable format. Providing information about the negative impact of moving on students helps to prevent many moves. It is important that school personnel are provided tools to help them educate families about the negative effects of mobility.

Carlos Azcoitia, Deputy Chief Education Officer for the Chicago Public Schools, discussed his experiences with high student mobility while Principal of John Spry Community School, a large neighborhood school in Chicago. Most schools and school systems have no specific strategy to address high student mobility. Most schools have no system for educating parents and the community about their school's boundaries. This type of education needs to happen as part of a comprehensive plan for involving families in their community's school. Such relational accountability strengthens a school's educational agenda.

Chester Hartman ended the presentation by offering a list of questions that need to be addressed:

• What is the impact of highly mobile classrooms on stable students?
• What is the impact of highly mobile classrooms on teachers?
• How do various welfare reform efforts impact student mobility?
• What is the foster care system's impact on student mobility?
• What are the financial costs to school systems of high student mobility?
• What are the experiences of parochial and Department of Defense schools?
• What litigation possibilities might force change?

During the question and answer portion of the forum, Major Rebecca Porter, Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Army, discussed some of the Army's efforts through the Secondary Education Transition Study to lessen the impact of high mobility on military children. For example, the Army has recently created a new policy that parents of children who are entering their senior year of high school are not required to accept transfers. The military's reforms in this area will hopefully serve as models for school systems as they begin to address the issue of high student mobility.

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