Integrating Students Who Change Schools When students change schools often, and particularly when they enter and exit schools at times other than the actual starting and ending dates, they can experience academic, psychological, and social setbacks. When a student body is in a relatively constant state of flux, the impact is felt by all students in the classrooms, and not just by students who are referred to as frequent movers. While the size of the stable core of students ranges widely, the mobility of frequent movers generates a chaos factor -- a term used to identify the inevitable disruption that occurs from having to constantly adapt to the unexpected change.

The literature shows a negative correlation between school switching and academic achievement; a correlation that is evident in schools that have experienced multiple years of non-compliance with federal academic achievement regulations due to high numbers of students who are frequent movers. There is general recognition that high rates of mobile students result in the sort of upheaval and change that contributes to student stress and demoralized staff. Yet schools appear not to have risen to the task of establishing practices geared toward ameliorating transitions to new school ecosystems. Teachers are left to pick up the pieces as best they can, striving to assist new students with social and academic integration....

As new students enter a classroom ecosystem, teachers must adjust their focus and the time spent with students at different levels and with needs that are not a good fit for the current instruction or curricula. Routines are disrupted to accommodate the learning needs of students new to the classroom. As teachers work to bring the new students to the same level as the rest of the class, or to figure out how to meet the needs of new students who are more advanced, the teachers are unavailable to instruct the rest of the class.
As evidence accumulates that school switching is a problem for individual highly mobile students, for the stable core of students, and for faculty in schools, education policy makers are turning their attention to feasible solutions that do not focus on a pie-in-the-sky wish to lower rates of mobility. Indeed, the economic crisis of the last decade points to the futility of such a policy approach. Educational systems must look for ways to reduce the impact of school switching that are within their sphere of influence.

Research Questions

The fields of education, counseling, and social work are replete with guidelines and coalitions for improving the transition experiences of students from military families who routinely experience frequent moves and school changes. A majority of this information is geared toward…