Discussion Topic: “Stay Put Policy” and/or Other Solutions to Mobility I’ve been puttering about with Mobility data recently. I am sharing this, now, because of Christine Pulle’s good questions about mobility (albeit, her key question: “How many kids are moving INSIDE EN and how many are coming/going from outside EN?” is left unanswered, as I do not know where to find that data). MNPS defines mobility as the % of a school’s student body that exits or enters a school after the first two weeks. If a school has 100 students, and during the year 5 leave, and 5 new ones come in, Metro considers that 10 moves and a mobility rate of 10%. For reasons that seem intuitively easy to grasp (though that I have never seen data, which explicitly proves) it is theorized that a child who changes schools mid-year is educationally disadvantaged, and a child who does it multiple times is profoundly harmed. It is also theorized that students at schools with high mobility rates suffer due to the chaos and confusion, and due to the constant drains on their teachers’ time as they must address new students. In East Nashville our allegedly most “successful” schools have low to very, very low rates of mobility (and this is whether you define “success” by test scores, by full-capacity + wait lists, or by intangible parental love and bumper stickers). However, most of our schools have high to staggeringly abysmal levels of mobility, which may be a significant factor in reducing those schools’ level of “success. Here are some numbers (for the last years for which this data was made available, which were 2008-09 through 2011-12): Lockeland Design 0.7% 0.7% 1.3% 2.1% Dan Mills 26.2% 28.4% 15.6% n/a Warner 27.4% 29.2% 34.7% 43.8% Kirkpatrick 49.7% 51.7% 49.4% 41.0% Litton MS 37.6% 34.3% 33.1% 34.7% Bailey MS 46.0% 48.6% 49.6% 50.2% East MS/HS 9.6% 6.1% 5.1% 4.9% Stratford HS 63.4% 63.4% 70.0% 60.8% Maplewood HS 79.3% 58.5% 72.9% 72.4% (I have no data on Charters). At our two magnet schools, Lockeland and East, absent some radical exception, mobility is entirely one-way: children can leave, but none are admitted during the year. Thus, at LDC with a population of 300, somewhere between 2 and 6 children left during a school year. At Maplewood out of 900, presuming exists and entrances are balanced, somewhere between 216 children left and 216 children arrived in a good year, and 355 children left and 355 children arrived in a bad year. To put it in a different way, at LDC the odds were, out of 15 separate classrooms, most classes had no mobility at all. At Maplewood, every single “classroom” of 25 students (I know many classes are yet bigger) would see an in-year outflow of between 6 and 10 students, and an equal inflow (accepting ins = outs): recognizing that children are attending multiple different classes, each child at Maplewood could “lose” dozens of classmates during a year, and have to learn about and integrate another few dozen into their social structure. Dr. Register has proposed a “Stay Put Policy,” where children who enroll in an EN school in the Fall, will be allowed to stay there for the entire school year, regardless of whether their guardian must move (or whether they must change guardians). He says that transportation would be provided WITHIN EN so that these children could continue to attend. He has not said whether students who could otherwise access transportation could continue to attend if they left EN entirely. Personally, I would like to “lock” Dr. Register into this policy, and make it as comprehensive as possible, so that kids who move to Antioch CAN (though not necessarily WILL) stay at their original school. I’d also like to see this be “two-way,” so that EN children cannot be unwillingly transferred from one EN school (Magnet or Charter) to another EN school in-year (but, I do not want to prevent a student who NEEDS a transfer, for their own emotional good, to be denied such). I realize that the devilish details will almost certainly not end all mobility. As Christine has asked, how many kids will actually be affected, out of the total mobility population? Clearly, the District cannot prevent children from moving to Davidson County from elsewhere. Certainly, some children will need hardship transfers out of a local school. Even if an Antioch child could stay, I doubt many would stay. But, IF the inner-EN mobility numbers are significant, I personally think this is a morally important policy. I sincerely believe that “forcing” children to change schools, mid-year, when they are already suffering the other traumas of moving (moves that are usually not “willing” and are the product of foreclosure, parental imprisonment, DCS removal and a host of other unpleasantries) makes this a very good idea. I think of the heavy burden that is put on teachers at Maplewood and Stratford, when they are constantly having to integrate new children into their classes (do any teachers in this group have some insights? Parents from high-mobility schools? Am I right, or am I missing something?). I also acknowledge that this policy is probably dependent on the “new busing system,” which would enable children in EN to attend multiple other EN schools, and not just their zoned school. I.e., this could be a “stalking horse” (or is it “Trojan Horse?”) to also justify buses running from Cayce Homes to Lockeland Design and Rosebank, and to allow another bus to run from Cayce to Bailey and then Litton (and a host of other multi-school routes). I am favorably biased towards that busing, so that doesn’t bother me, but I respect that lots of people are opposed to such a plan, and I honor your opinions. Thus, I don’t want to hide this. Merely having a “Stay Put Plan,” without the EN-wide busing, would (I guess) be inordinately expensive (especially at the start of the year, when it might be only a dozen children who were impacted, but who had to be hauled all over EN in little buses or taxi cabs, or??). Again, I am very, very interested in the opinions of parents and teachers from schools where mobility is high, and I am interested in thoughts from parents who have had to change schools during the school year (and of course, I am interested in everyone else, too). FYI-I need to take a breather and work at things that pay $, so I am putting this “out there,” but then I will wander off for a while. I will try to avoid my pavlovian impulses to even read responses for a solid five-days, while I clear off my overloaded desk. Maybe when I return a group of brilliant souls will have “solved” this whole issue (while another brilliant group figures out the right plan for East Magnet and Bailey). Peace, RT
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 16:47:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015