Many Jacksonville classrooms experience this same problem. -cpg
From the Orlando Sentinel
by Lauren Roth
Beverley Bassett sees the turmoil every day in her classroom.
On the way out, good students realize they are going to be moving.
"They shut down," said the Osceola County fifth-grade teacher. Learning plummets, and sometimes they become a distraction to other students.
On the way in, kids arrive at Sunrise Elementary in the middle of the year. And it's a constant game of catch-up — for teacher and students — as Bassett tries to get to know their parents and make the children part of the classroom rhythm.
One student from two years ago sticks out in her mind.
Maria joined the class several months into the year. She lived in a hotel and didn't have a place to study, so Bassett tutored her every day.
After less than two months, Maria went home, thinking she would be back the next day.
But she never returned.
Bassett still has several of her folders, which she has held on to, just in case.
"That's a teacher's life," Bassett said. "They come and they go. You don't know how long you're going to have them. I want to be that teacher they remember and stay in touch with."
In Osceola County, the movement of students has left a permanent mark.
School Board Chairwoman Cindy Hartig said the instability "makes it very hard" for teachers.
"Your baseline is constantly changing. If you move a child up to level, they leave, and you get more in the bottom quartile," she said.
The district uses virtual school and extra classes during lunch block and the summer months to help students catch up, she said.
The influx has already begun for this year, with about 1,300 new students starting classes. Hartig said many are in families doubling up with relatives because they lost homes elsewhere. And many may leave when their families find permanent places.
But the problem of frequent moves is not unique to elementary schools or to Osceola County.
According to U.S. census data, 11.5 percent of families with at least one school-aged child moved in 2009 and 2010.
Turnover also makes it much more challenging for teachers to ensure all students meet the course and testing requirements they need to graduate. For younger students, they must meet basic levels of performance to move beyond third grade.
Orange and Osceola hold back about 6 percent of their third-graders, slightly more than the state average.
In Orange County, where students move even more frequently than in Osceola, English teacher Dan Hayes has seen as many as 50 kids pass through his class of 24 students during a school year at Evans High School.
Although Hayes, like Bassett, has seen more students stay in recent years, the struggling high school still has more student turnover than any other traditional high school in the county.
Hayes, who teaches English to non-native speakers of the language, said the focus on graduation at his school is helping students stick it out.
The new Evans campus under construction on Silver Star Road will have features that will help students on the move. In addition to giving them a place to study, which can be a challenge when families are sharing space or living in small accommodations, the school will have community resources to help students. The school is expected to open in January.
Schools such as Evans and Sunrise, where some frequently miss school or change schools often, usually are the same ones with high poverty rates. Poverty, in turn, tends to be associated with lower student progress.
In Orange, three high schools that have struggled with low performance for years — Evans, Oak Ridge and Jones — also have the highest turnover rates. At Oak Ridge and Jones, nearly 80 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, compared with about two-thirds at Evans.
The problem reaches across grade levels. In Orange, 413 students at Millennia Elementary joined during the school year. The school has only 750 students. The rate of movement is similar at Pineloch Elementary, near South Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando.
John Campbell, principal at A-rated Sunrise Elementary in rural Kissimmee, said his teachers have grown to expect turnover.
"It's not a surprise to see a class start with 20 to 22 students and to see seven to eight leave and seven to eight new ones," he said.
Teachers cope by separating students into three to four groups, based on ability, and spend the most time with the lowest performers. Often, that includes students who have moved a lot.
"There's an adjustment period for kids. That's why it's so important that they feel welcome."
Elaine Gruber, principal of Wekiva High School in Orange County, said student moves are one of her school's biggest challenges. Not only are there academic adjustments, but social ones.
Sometimes "students want to get involved in an activity, like a sport, but have missed the deadline," she said. Or they may be interested in a club or an elective that doesn't exist at their new school.
"The No. 1 reason students drop out isn't because it's too hard — it's because he or she doesn't feel connected to the school," Gruber said.
The state gives districts some leeway on mobile students, excluding from school-grade calculations those students who arrive after October.
But few schools have programs specifically for mobile, transient or homeless students, all of whom move frequently. Orange schools said their main efforts to help these students are by keeping the curriculum consistent throughout the district and by enlisting the help of social workers.
Several shelters offer tutoring for students, and a number of schools send food home with struggling students on weekends.
But many parents, despite tough economic times, are managing to move within a zone — or not moving at all — to help their children stay in one place.
And others, such as parent Tanya Hoskins, are taking matters into their own hands. She said she drove her son to Killarney Elementary School for several months during a period when they moved among several apartments and a hotel.
Few parents take advantage of a national law that requires schools to bus homeless children to their former schools, or they don't think they would qualify as homeless.
Hoskins said it's "not right" to make a child change schools during the school year. Her son knew the teachers and students at his school and was comfortable there. When they moved into the zone of a school that was not as good, "I just didn't tell them. I made sure he stayed."
lroth@tribune.com or 407-420-5120. Follow her on Twitter @RothLauren
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-student-turnover-high-teachers-20110904,0,110319,full.story
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