All kinds of reasonsDebra WilliamsPointing to the letter posted on her wall, Principal Laura Williams of Harvard Elementary says it was written by a former student. The student and his cousin John lived in the same apartment building, but the student's family was evicted when they couldn't pay the rent. "This is only one example of why schools lose their students," says Williams. "With every transfer, there's a different story."
Most involve housing, according to a recent report on mobility by the Center for School Improvement at the University of Chicago and the Chicago Panel on School Policy. Referring to a 1994... > Read More |
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The patterns of stability and mobilityJennifer RandallIn studying student transfers from spring 1993 to spring 1994, the Chicago Panel on School Policy and the Consortium on Chicago School Research identified nine patterns. Schools in category 1 retained a stable core of students while attracting new students. At the opposite end of the scale, schools in category 9 saw about a third of their students leave during the one-year period but failed to attract enough students to replace them; as a result, they suffered declining enrollment. Small schools, especially those with magnet programs, tended to be the most stable. Schools printed below in... > Read More |
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4 schools, 5 years: One family's moving storyDebra WilliamsFour schools in five years. That's how many times Edra Sanders transferred her children to escape random shootings, break-ins and environments that fueled her drug addiction. Then one day, she discovered that her children had learned how to light up.
"I was so upset, I cried. I stopped smoking PCP, smoking cigarettes, drinking, everything."
With the help of social service agencies, Sanders brought stability into her family's life. With the help of a firm but compassionate school principal, she then got her children under control.
The Sanders children—Marcus,... > Read More |
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Kids, schools suffer from revolving doorDebra WilliamsAs any principal or teacher will tell you, there's a whole lot of moving going on in many Chicago public schools. Thousands of children change schools every year—often in the middle of the school year—putting themselves at greater risk of failure and detracting from their classmates' education.
Until recently, the problem was viewed much like the weather: Educators complained about it but felt they couldn't do anything about it.
But that's beginning to change. A number of schools, including those in the Orr School Network and Spry Elementary in Little Village, have taken... > Read More |
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Dropped into new school, 'Adam' plays catch-upDebra WilliamsThe morning of Oct. 4, the 20th day of school, Adam arrives with his parents at Swift Elementary in Edgewater, some 15 miles away from where he began the school year. He is assigned to Kara Staggs' 1st-grade classroom, and Staggs assigns him a buddy—a Swift "veteran"—who will show him the ropes, like how to line up to go to the bathroom, how to get lunch and how not to "flip your card." Under the disciplinary system set up by Staggs and her team teacher, Donna Wojcik, a flipped card means trouble.
But five weeks later, Adam (not his real name) still doesn't know what's going on.... > Read More |
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Tips for helping transfer studentsDebra WilliamsIn her 26 years as a classroom teacher, Laura Williams, now principal of Harvard Elementary School in Englewood, never got any advice on how to ease new students into her classroom.
"No one ever told me what do with these kids," she says. "There was no official policy and no direction from the school on what to do for them."
DePaul University Professor Leonard Jason seeks to remedy that situation through the book Helping Transfer Students: Strategies for Educational and Social Readjustment. Jason is the lead author.
"In the worst of situations, all schools need is... > Read More |
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The revolving door at Swift SchoolCatalystSwift Elementary School in Edgewater has one of the most unstable enrollments in the city, with a constant flow of students in and out.
Between the start of this school year and Jan. 31, 170 students newly enrolled at Swift, not counting 96 kindergartners. In addition, parents of another 177 students came to Swift to enroll their children, but the children transferred again before being assigned to a classroom.
During the same period, 198 students left Swift, dispersing to 39 Chicago public schools as well as to schools in the suburbs and other states and countries. Of those... mobility> Read More |
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