Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session, Volume 147, Part 7 Page: 8,869
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May 22, 2001
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE
percent are reported to have nutrition prob-
lems, compared with about 3 percent of chil-
dren who have never changed schools. Simi-
larly, teachers report that 20 percent of chil-
dren who change schools frequently have
health and hygiene problems, compared with
8 percent of children who have never changed
schools.
For all children, those who have changed
schools frequently are more than twice as
likely to repeat a grade as those who have
never changed schools. Among children who
change schools frequently, about 20 percent
repeat a grade; in contrast, among children
who have never changed schools, about 8 per-
cent repeat a grade.
Children who change schools frequently
are less likely to receive educational support
from federal programs than those who have
never changed schools. For example, migrant
children who change schools frequently are
less likely to receive migrant education
services than those who have never changed
schools. In addition, low-achieving children
who change schools frequently are less likely
to get Chapter 1 services than those low-
achieving children who have never changed
schools; this is true for children achieving
below grade level in math as well as reading.
[From the CATALYST, Cleveland, Mar./Apr.
2001]
MOBILE STUDENTS SCORE LOWER ON STATE
TEST
(By Sandra Clark)
Cleveland 4th-graders who changed schools
one or more times during the school year
scored lower than their stable classmates on
all five sections of the Ohio Proficiency Test,
according to a CATALYST analysis of test
scores from 1997 to 1999.
On average, mobile students scored 5.12
points below their more stable counterparts.
The largest spread between the two was in
math and science. The smallest gap was in
reading. .
The analysis of test scores of 16,278 stu-
dents, 1,914 of whom changed schools at least
once during the school year, was conducted
for CATALYST by Joshua G. Bagaka's, as-
sistant professor of educational research and
statistics at Cleveland State University.
"Across all five parts of the Ohio 4th- and
6th-grade proficiency test, mobile students
consistently received lower scores than their
stable counterparts," Bagaka's says.
"I don't think we need to down play the
role of mobility here," Bagaka's says.
"Schools should find ways of giving mobile
kids special attention because they are at
risk of failing.".
Bagaka's analysis also showed that the
gardlesof th1e students'u fmily icomie r
whether they live with one or both parents.
The analysis also shows: The achievement
gap between stable and mobile students by
income is often widest for mobile students
who pay full price for lunch and smallest for
students on free lunch. In many areas, poor
mobile students do better than well-off mo-
bile students. (See chart page 5.)
Similar conclusions can be drawn when
comparing students from single-parent and
two-parent homes. Mobile students from sin-
gle-parent homes often do just as well as mo-
bile students from two-parent homes. (See
chart page 5.)
Mobility refers to students who change
schools one or more times during an aca-
demic year. Students change schools fre-
quently due to school choice, family moves,
poverty, hopelessness, changes in child cus-
tody and other problems.Cleveland's mobility rate has fallen from
19.5 percent in 1998 and 1999 to 15.8 percent in
1999 due in part to the end of desegregation,
says Peter A. Robertson, Cleveland Munic-
ipal School District's executive director of
Research, Evaluation and Assessment.
Individually, however, high-poverty ele-
mentary schools such as Willow, East Clark,
Bolton and George Washington Carver re-
ported rates nearing 30 percent during the
period.
Based on student demographics and test
scores from 1997 through 1999, the analysis
indicated an achievement gap that varied
little even as the test changed in difficulty
during the period.
The highest achievement gaps in math and
science were 7.5 points and 9.2 points, respec-
tively. The average gap in reading was 3.5
points. Reading is something children can
learn at home, says Russell W. Rumberger,
education professor at University of Cali-
fornia, Santa Barbara. Families rely on
schools to teach math and science, which is
why the achievement gap in those subjects is
largest, Rumberger says.
CATALYST's findings come as no surprise
to Robertson. The district has not targeted
mobile students for any special help, Robert-
son says. However, he adds that districtwide
initiatives such as establishing standards
and periodically assessing students'
strengths and weaknesses should help them.
(See story page 9.)
"Beyond that," Robertson says, "we are
trying to make sure they have access to good
teaching and what we need to do for all
kids."
Cleveland findings reflect studies done
elsewhere that linked student mobility to
lower achievement.
For example, the Minneapolis Public
Schools, the Family Housing Fund and other
groups studied mobile students in the city.
The year-long study, called the Kids Mobil-
ity Project, found that students who moved
three or more times earned reading scores
that were half that of students who stayed
put.
David Kerbow, a University of Chicago re-
searcher who has studied mobility in Chi-
cago Public Schools, says constant move-
ment slows the learning pace for not only
mobile students but also their stable class-
mates. An analysis of math in highly mobile
classrooms shows teachers frequently stop
and start to integrate new students with
varying achievement levels into the class,
Kerbow says. Introduction of new material
slows as the teacher begins keeping lessons
basic. And, over time, students in highly mo-
bile schools get instruction that is about a
year behind that of students in more stable
schools, Kerbow reports.
MILES PARK FINDS ANSWERS
(By Sandra Cark)
A tour of Miles Park Elementary School
offers a snapshot of mobility-its causes, its
impact and even a way to minimize its harm.
Any staff member can guide the tour. They
all have stories.
Clerk Ella Kirtley can explain what a task
it is to keep pace with the rapid student
turnover. Librarian Jeanne Irvin says she
spends countless hours and dollars retrieving
books from students who leave. Second-grade
teacher Jane E. Rodgers can demonstrate
how she tries to teach an ever-changing
class.
The Cleveland Municipal School District,
like most in the country, has no official pol-
icy for mitigating the impact of mobility.
The district has been pushing schools to im-prove proficiency test scores without taking
mobility and its drag on achievement into
account, Miles Park Principal William J.
Bauer says. So the school struck out on its
own, making the needs of mobile students a
schoolwide focus.
"The area superintendent says 'You did
good [with proficiencies] last year. How
much are you going to improve this year?' "
Bauer says. "There's a new student, there's a
new student, there's a new student with
grades lower than an LD [Learning Disabled]
student. You're a teacher and you're respon-
sible for increasing scores every year."
The staff is fluent in mobility because en-
rollment shifts dramatically here. The
school's 1999 mobility rate, the most recent
available, of 14.7 percent is below the district
average for elementary schools, about 16 per-
cent.
Yet, staff sees a constant churning of stu-
dents in and out of the school. To date, the
school's enrollment shifted from 530 stu-
dents, to 510 and then 571 for a total change
of 81. That means about four whole class-
rooms full of kids have come and gone this
school year. The impact the movement has
on learning at the school is huge, Bauer says.
Mobility's influence on behavior and
achievement becomes clear one day when
Kenneth returns from speech lessons to Rod-
gers' 2nd-grade class. The tenor of the class
shifts. A slight rumble of discord replaces
the chatter of children constructing a pic-
ture graph.
Kenneth, not his real name, is the most re-
cent of eight new students in Rodgers' class
this school year. Kenneth rarely follows
school rules and is functioning below grade
level, Rodgers says. His classmates know
this and give him grief. Little shoves are
sent his way, to which he responds by glaring
at the tallest kid in class.
He stands out, Rodgers says. Kenneth is
the only student not wearing the school's
blue and white uniform.
"My students are starting to write para-
graphs, and he can't write a sentence," Rod-
gers says. "I don't have time to work with
him.
"I move quicker," Rodgers says. "I'm a 25-
year teacher. He had a first-year teacher."
Students like Kenneth are in danger of
failing. A 1994 General Accounting Office re-
port on mobility said 3rd-graders who have
changed schools frequently are 212 times as
likely to repeat a grade as 3rd-graders who
have never changed schools.
A CATALYST analysis of mobility in
Cleveland schools also showed a link be-
tween mobility and retention.
The analysis also showed average pro-
ficiency test scores of mobile students are
aout S points below scores of stable stu-
Janice Smallwood's 4th-grade class at
Miles Park has 24 students. Seven are new.
When Smallwood tested reading and math
levels, students scored between 4.66 and 1.68.
Six of the mobile students are at the bottom
of the list, scoring below those labeled
Learning Disabled. Tianna scored 3.84, the
highest of all new students, to rank 11th in
the class.
BAD BEHAVIOR
Behavior is high on the list of areas af-
fected by mobility. The GAO report said that
children who move frequently are 77 percent
more likely to have four or more behavioral
problems than those with no or infrequent
moves.
This constant movement, loss of friends
and the effort it takes to make new ones can
be "a social nightmare," says Ted Feinberg,8869
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United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session, Volume 147, Part 7, book, 2001; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc31062/m1/28/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.