.1 Defining Mobility

Preview Question What would be the advantage to having standardized parts for automobiles than to having parts exclusive to only certain makes and models?

Today we will talk about mobility as a barrier to effective education. Why is mobility a barrier to education? Well one of the problems is that 20 percent of students in the U.S. move each year. Now this is not really a statistic in the sense of how a move is defined. Moving could be moving from one house to another house in the same school district. So when we talk about 20 percent of the people moving, the reason that is not a real statistic is because it all depends on what you mean by moving. If you move to another house in the same school district, the move is irrelevant, and part of that 20 percent includes those types of moves. If you move within the same school district but to a different school, it usually doesn't have a lot of impact, but it could. It is the mobility between school districts and most particularly between states that makes a big difference and that is still a large part of the traffic. Now five or six students out of a class of thirty each year are likely to be new students. This is what a 20 percent mobility rate means. In Tidewater, our mobility rate in some schools heavily populated by military children is even higher than five or six new kids a year. In some schools, it is, of course, more stable, but one of the reasons mobility kicks you is that even if you have one or two students that are new and that you are a conscientious teacher you are kind of left with the choice you ignore these kids that just moved in or you review for everybody. Most teachers opt to review for everybody and that is probably a good decision. The average teacher in American schools will spend up to six weeks reviewing at the beginning of the year. Up to 15 percent of curriculum time is used just to review, just to get everybody on the same wavelength. That is a horrendous price to pay for mobility. Just think of all the time being wasted and think of all the boredom that is on the other side of that for the kids that didn't need the review. It really wrecks the system of education to have kids appearing from nowhere with uncertain knowledge. It is interesting to notice that all socioeconomic levels move. In some parts of the country this is skewed in one direction or another. If we were in the Midwest or the South or in the far west, most of the mobility would come from migrant workers. This mobility problem is at its worst because migrant workers will appear and disappear in four to six week cycles. They come to town when they are harvesting the wheat or whatever crop, and then they move on to the next harvest. It is kind of a rotation that they follow and their kids just sort of randomly appear and disappear at schools. Can you imagine if you were in a school district with high migrant populations? This would just be absolutely mind boggling in terms of dealing with that in some sort of substantial way.

	What is the real problem with mobility?	Answer Here
	Brooke's father has decided to take a job that is clear across town from their family's home. The decision is made to move closer to his new job, which means that Brooke will begin attending a new school. When she reaches her new class, the teacher is three weeks ahead of the class that she left behind. How can her new teacher help her to keep up and catch up?	Answer Here