A moving target: One in six Georgia students transfers schools each year

I can only recall a single classmate leaving my small elementary school midyear to transfer to another school, and she had good reason – her parents won the Irish Sweepstakes and bought a new house in a tony suburb.

An AJC report finds school transfers are far more common today as America becomes a more mobile society.

Credit: Maureen Downey

Credit: Maureen Downey

Here is an excerpt of a news story on the state's high transfer rate by AJC education reporter Eric Stirgus:

In most cases, the new school --- and teacher --- is held accountable for how the student performs on state proficiency exams. Not fair, some teachers say.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution review shows schools with high mobility rates are poor performers academically. The 25 metro Atlanta schools with the highest student mobility rates were an average of 20 points behind other schools on the state's College and Career-Ready Performance Index. Several studies show a similar trend in other states.

Clayton had the highest average student mobility rates in metro Atlanta, 31 percent, according to the report. That means 31 percent of the students who started the school year at one Clayton County school did not finish the year in the same school. Atlanta Public Schools, DeKalb County, Marietta and Rockdale County rounded out the top five.

Educators in high-mobility districts attribute the frequent movement among some students largely to economics. Parents or guardians lose their job and many suddenly move. Many of these communities have large numbers of apartment complexes offering "first month free" rent specials that entice some low-income parents seeking to save a few bucks. The five local districts with the highest mobility rates also have the highest student poverty rates.

Many teachers also complain that their evaluations are too tied to the academic performance of students that they don't have for large chunks of the school year. Georgia students who are enrolled for at least 65 percent of the school year are included in a teacher's effectiveness score.

Some administrators, like Morcease Beasley, DeKalb County's executive director for curriculum, instruction and professional learning, sympathize with teachers. He meets monthly with a group of about 150 teachers to discuss teacher evaluation issues. Beasley said he would support additional research into whether the 65 percent rule is fair to teachers. He also believes state lawmakers need to study the reasons for student mobility.

SWITCHING SCHOOLS

Here are the mobility percentage rates --- the percentage of students who don't finish the school year in the same school where they began --- of some metro Atlanta school districts.

Clayton County 31.0

Atlanta Public Schools 29.8

DeKalb County 27.9

Marietta 26.2

Rockdale County 22.0

Henry County 20.6

Douglas County 20.3

Fulton County 18.7

Gwinnett County 17.0

Cobb County 15.9

Cherokee County 12.4

Fayette County 10.4