Military School Mobility Study

rate of teacher turnover, as instructors at these schools often tire of dealing with more daily obstacles than their counterparts at more stable schools (Cooter, 2003, p. 121). Further studies have shown that students who attend these schools with a high transient population and do not move suffer the consequences of being part of an unstable school environment (Gasper et al., 2010; Parke & Kanyongo, 2012). The research has shown that students who attend schools with a high mobility rate also are more apt to be taught by teachers who are less effective. In essence, more stable schools are able to attract more qualified candidates when they have an open position. This leaves unstable schools (those with a high mobility rate) having …show more content…
Essentially, the research showed that mobility was a given, so those who were mobile were not part of any sort of “outlier” group and therefore were not thought of differently than anyone else in school (Stronge, 2007). Overall, students from military families attain higher academic achievements than their non-military peers, even though they are quite mobile. The work of Cramer & Dorsey (1970) was an early source of data that suggests the normal trends for school mobility to negatively affect academic performance may not apply to armed services families. In fact, their work showed correlations between switching schools and reading proficiency, as those students who switched schools more often tended to have higher reading scores than students who were more …show more content…
One reason was illustrated in research conducted by Bridglall & Gordon (2003). These minority, mobile students reported in this study that their teachers had higher expectations for them and held them to higher standards. Two entities – the Community and Family Support Center of the United States Army and the Military Child Education Coalition – worked together to examine the impacts of switching high schools upon children of military families. This seminal study resulted in a Memorandum of Agreement among Department of Defense schools that certain best practices would be invoked in these schools to foster a culture of mobility and academic success. The areas included in the agreement included record keeping, reciprocal graduation requirements, and the timely sharing of student records. These practices foster a culture in Department of Defense schools where mobility is the norm and the effects of said mobility