By Chester Hartman and Todd Michael Franke (UCLA) of winter 2003 issue of The Journal of Negro Education.
Excerpt: “High student mobility is a serious, under-recognized education problem. Classrooms, particularly those in low-income and minority areas, may have 50-75% turnover within the academic year. Homeless, immigrant, farmworker, special education, and foster children are especially impacted. The major education reforms put forward — smaller classes and schools, lower teacher/student ratios, better-trained teachers, improved physical plant and facilities, increased emphasis on testing and accountability, etc. — all are undermined, if not made irrelevant if the classroom is a revolving door. Stable students, teachers, administrators, and the school itself all suffer. This special issue of the JNE stresses the role of housing instability as the principal cause of school instability, focusing as well on internal school factors. Individual chapters treat the special conditions and needs of various student subpopulations affected. And a series of five “best practices” case studies — from Chicago, Minneapolis, Texas, California, and Department of Defense schools — illustrate the range of needed reforms.”
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