11.25.2012 - Schools plagued by 'epidemic' of student mobility

Schools plagued by 'epidemic' of student mobility

Saturday, November 25, 2012
by Jessica Brown

Of the roughly 24 students in Blake Barnett's third-grade class, four are new to the school this year, including 9-year-old Maurice Harris.

This is the third school he's attended since kindergarten. Mom Ericka transferred him here because his old school wasn't giving him enough individual attention, and she wanted to find a place where he would thrive.

New faces are hardly a rarity at North College Hill Elementary. In fact, four new students in a class is pretty typical, said Barnett. "You do have the core students that stay, but you're inevitably going to see four to six new faces in your class."

Leaders in the district know they have high "student mobility" due to either parents' economic circumstances or their desire, as was the case for Maurice's mom, to shop for a better school. But now they know just how big the problem is, and where their former students are going.

A first-of-its-kind statewide study on student mobility found North College Hill, a district of 1,600 students, has the least stable student population in the region. Fewer than half of the students in an NCH school at the beginning of one school year were still in that same building two years later, and one in three students had left the district entirely. (Study organizers say they took into consideration student promotions and new schools being built.)

High student mobility can be hard on kids because it forces them to play a constant game of catch-up, academically and socially. The study shows that the more often kids move, the lower they score on state tests.

It's also a problem for teachers and school systems. Teachers spend extra time figuring out the new students' history and academic needs, Barnett said, which can take time away from other kids. A revolving door of students also makes it hard for districts to plan how many teachers to hire. If students perform poorly on state tests, it can hurt districts' academic ratings.

North College Hill is by no means alone.

The study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Community Research Partners found that student mobility is common, even in suburban and rural schools. In poor city neighborhoods, it "verges on the epidemic," according to the study.

While the study didn't offer recommendations, authors hope reporting the extent of the mobility issue will prompt schools, communities and parents to talk.

Perhaps community leaders need to re-examine housing or economic policies to help stabilize families, said Terry Ryan, vice president of Ohio programs and policy for the Washington, D.C.-based Fordham Institute, a school-focused research group that maintains a strong focus on the Buckeye State's schools since it was founded in memory of an Ohio industrialist.

Perhaps school districts need more conversation with the districts with which they're constantly swapping students. For policymakers, it might mean considering an online student records system, so schools can get new-student data immediately instead of waiting for a file to be mailed. And for parents, even those who move because of situations out of their control, it might mean finding ways to keep their children in one school a little longer, especially if they are doing well there. "(Parents) need to understand there is a cost to serial mobility," said Ryan. "I'm not sure that parents understand that moving their kids from school to school a couple times a year comes at a cost to that student's future."

The study focused on more than 5 million student records from traditional and charter Ohio schools during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years. Charter schools are public schools run by independent organizations. The study included in-depth analysis for the Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo regions. It calculated the "stability rate" – the percent of students who were still in the same school building two years later, and the "churn rate" – the rate at which students transferred into and out of a school in a single school year.

Among the findings:

• More than a quarter-million K-11 students in Ohio who were eligible to stay in the same building two years in a row (in other words, those who weren't due to change schools for grade promotion or graduation) ended up leaving instead.
• Urban and high-poverty districts are generally less stable than low-poverty or small-town districts. Districts with high academic ratings tended to be more stable, too. There were some exceptions, including New Miami, a tiny "urban" district in Butler County. It was fairly unstable, especially in high school but also highly rated on the Ohio Report Card, which measures academic performance.
• In the least stable districts in Hamilton County, one in three students were not in the same building two years later. (That compares to one in 10 for the most stable districts).
• North College Hill was the least stable Hamilton County district. Only 47.6 percent of grade K-7 students and 49.8 percent of grade 8-11 students remained enrolled in the same building two years later.

  Other unstable districts for grades K-7 were Cincinnati, St. Bernard-Elmwood Place, Lockland, Mount Healthy and Reading. Unstable districts for grades 8-11 were Cincinnati, Norwood, Mount Healthy, St. Bernard-Elmwood Place and Reading.
  
  The most stable districts, where fewer than 10 percent of kids changed buildings, were those in traditionally higher-income areas like Madeira, Indian Hill and Wyoming.

• Charter schools had even more turnover than many traditional schools. Of the 37 charter schools in the Cincinnati area those years, 17 lost more than half of their students over two years. Only three had stability rates of 70 percent or higher.

When students transfer in and out of a school, "there are challenges on a lot of levels," said Barnett, the North College Hill teacher.

"First and foremost, getting to the bottom of what is their temperament like and what is their behavior like," he said. "It's important to find out quickly what motivates a student and get that relationship. Second is to find out what skills they bring with them from previous experiences."

Often Barnett must do that without the benefit of having the student's records or meeting with the parent. Record transfers sometimes take weeks. Parents sometimes aren't available for conferences immediately. Meanwhile he has to make sure he's still spending the same amount of time with the other kids in class so they don't fall behind.

Schools with high student mobility adopt strategies to keep the kids from falling through the cracks. North College Hill helps new kids adjust by offering tutoring and surrounding them with other students and adults who will make sure they feel comfortable and supported. These strategies not only help the student adjust, it helps them do better on state tests, which may translate into a higher academic rating for the school.

The region's largest district, Cincinnati Public Schools, also was fairly unstable, with only 65 percent of elementary-school students and 59 percent of high-school students staying in the same building for two years.

District officials weren't surprised about the findings. Superintendent Mary Ronan can point out specific examples: a student in ninth-grade this year, but who attended eight other schools since kindergarten; or a senior who has transferred 14 times between nine different schools since kindergarten.

Study leaders say part of a solution is to raise awareness about negative effects of moving. School shopping is OK, but too many transfers are not. Once parents find a good school for a child, they should keep them there.

That's what Ericka Harris, of North College Hill did. She had transferred her son, Maurice, three times by the third grade in efforts to find him a school in which he would thrive. He's now one of the new faces this year in Barnett's class in North College Hill. And that's where he'll stay, she said. "He's happy. I'm loving it," she said. "I want to stay there."

I cover stories and issues that matter in the Cincinnati Public School district and in the region's charter schools. Email me at jlbrown@enquirer.com.

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