For much of the past decade, educators have pointed to student mobility as a factor in low test scores and underachieving students.
But a new study suggests that students who hop from school to school have less effect on a school’s standardized test scores than previously believed. Family income status and ethnicity played greater roles in student CSAP scores than mobility, according to “Dispelling the Myths of Student Mobility,” a study done of Denver Public Schools by the Fund for Colorado’s Future.
That may be true. But a very important distinction needs to be made: While mobility may not be a leading contributor to a school’s performance rating, it can affect an individual student’s ability to learn.
“We know that students in stable environments do better because they don’t miss huge gaps in curriculum,” said Terri Rayburn-Davis, executive director of the fund.
About 30 percent of DPS students moved two or more times during the study’s three- year period. Half the time they moved to another DPS school.
The study didn’t specifically look at the impact of students that move several times during a school year.
However, the study did wisely recommend that the state come up with a standard formula for determining mobility rates while creating a statewide student record system that would allow a student’s new school to tap into any information it needs about that child.
In Colorado, each child is now given a unique student identifier number so schools can track that student’s academic growth over time through test scores. But that student identifier shouldn’t just be used for CSAPs. Children who move could be helped immensely if their new schools had early access to their previous test scores and other data.
The DPS superintendent candidates lamented the district’s high mobility rates this past week during their public appearances, but also had some innovative solutions.
For example, Michael Bennet, chief of staff to Mayor John Hickenlooper, asked whether schools could work with public- housing authorities to make sure low-income families have housing vouchers for homes or apartments close to the schools their children already attend, thereby reducing the number of kids who change schools.
Whether student mobility affects schools’ overall test scores is less important than ensuring individual students get the education they need at new schools, and any efforts to help those pupils are welcome.
