CB> Reposted with permission of the American Federation of Teachers
CB> By Albert Shanker
CB> Student mobility--kids moving in and out of a school--is something 
CB> teachers think about a lot, especially those who teach in 
CB> poverty-stricken neighborhoods, where it can be a big problem.  
    It's not just an issue in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.
    Any teacher at a school where a lot of the kids come from military 
families can tell Shanker that.
    Various studies in the 50s and 60s disputed what, if any, harm a kid 
"suffered" from being an "Army brat" in a career military family.  My 
personal observation is the kids do fine, suggesting that the problems of the 
poor urban kids Shanker talks about derive from something other than changing 
schools too often!
CB> What can be done? One approach the article suggests is to make sure 
CB> parents are aware of how changing schools can affect their children. 
    I'm not sure how successful that would be with the urban poor.
    Many are so troubled by their own problems (drugs, crime) that they just 
don't care about their own kids.  D.C. found that it couldn't even get 
expectant mothers in the projects to come in to health-dept. substations for 
free prenatal care, and it had to solve that problem of apathy by outfitting 
mobile homes as OB/GYN offices and taking them to the projects where the 
mothers lived to get them!
CB> educate parents and help them find housing within the attendance 
CB> boundaries if they had to move. Schools and school districts can do 
CB> the same thing. They can also relax their rules so students who have 
CB> moved out of their school's attendance area can complete the year 
CB> without changing schools-
    Bus route problems?
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