Additional Initiatives to Address Mobility

Several initiatives to lessen the negative effects of student mobility on academic achievement are currently underway in a variety of schools and/or districts. For example, The Kids Mobility Project, a program of the Minneapolis Public Schools, strives to make information available to parents and families through outreach, community forums, workshops, printed information, and staff development. After identifying attendance as the strongest predictor of performance (an obvious component of mobility), the district began setting attendance goals for each student. Outreach to the family begins after a certain number of absences occur in an effort to determine the underlying reasons for the absences and to create strategies for improving attendance (Biernat & Jax, 2000). The Minneapolis school district has also adopted a districtwide curriculum to ensure that a child making frequent in-district moves will find his/her new classroom and curriculum about the same as the ones he/she left (Stover).

The Indiana State General Assembly adopted legislation, effective July 2001, that requires every school to include the mobility rate in their School Corporation Annual Performance Report. Focusing on the mobility rate, rather than the stability rate, shows a greater impact on all teachers, students, and schools (Fowler-Finn, 2001).

The Victoria Independent School District in Victoria, Texas, has coordinated strategies to ensure that homeless and mobile students are supported academically, socially, and emotionally. A district parent center is open to any parent in the attendance area. The project also provides neighborhood-based homework centers—staffed by qualified teachers' assistants, and located in safe and clean environments—with free snacks and small computer labs. A certified teacher at each school site serves as a parent liaison responsible for monitoring student attendance, identifying and assisting homeless students, initiating interventions for students with attendance problems, giving parents training seminars and workshops, conducting home visits, and providing parents and students with referrals to community and social services. The parent liaison creates a link between the student, teachers, parents, and community resources (Biernat & Jax, 2000).

The Chicago Panel's "Staying Put" mobility awareness campaign is designed to decrease mobility and improve student transfer processes throughout school systems. The program has been adopted by the Chicago Board of Education and strives to (1) make educators, students, parents, and other community members aware of the academic and social consequences of student mobility; (2) promote the establishment of school-based programs and the dissemination of information about school boards' enrollment policies as an alternative to student transfers to other schools; and (3) ensure that the transfer process, when necessary, reduces the disruptions to student learning and achievement (Chicago Panel on School Policy, 2002).

In Dallas, Texas, where schools are experiencing up to a 40 percent student turnover rate, several resources have been put into place. One particular program focuses attention on the children of migrant workers. Program staff members track children, counsel families, provide tutoring, oversee a summer school for migrant families, and put needy parents in contact with charities and social service programs. In addition, the schools are connected to the New Generation System, a national network that stores academic information on migrant students so that teachers can quickly assess a new child's educational history (Stover, 2000).

Community schools in Fort Wayne, Indiana, have adopted several practices to address the needs of families moving into or within the school district. Some examples include the following: Families Helping Families is a program at the elementary level that matches new families with volunteer families who have had children in the school for at least two years; every attempt to keep a child in the same school is made when a family moves within the district; new students and families have an opportunity to meet and get to know other students and families at a parent/partner picnic that is held during the summer; many elementary schools offer multiage classes, as well as looping, where the same teacher stays with the class for two or three consecutive years; principals arrange get-togethers over coffee for newly arrived parents and small-group lunches for new students, to foster a smooth transition into the school culture; and individual mentor and tutor programs at all grade levels make personal connections with students (Fowler-Finn, 2001).

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