Dropout Rates Linked to School Transfers

In a new look at the harmful effects of student transiency, a team of University of California researchers has concluded that teenagers who change schools--particularly if they are Latino--are far more likely to drop out than those who remain at one school during their high school years.

The study, covering two groups of students in California over six years, found that more than half of all who dropped out had changed schools. Many of those had switched more than once, apparently “to try several schools before dropping out.”

“We found that the consequences of school changes were profoundly negative,” said Katherine A. Larson, a researcher at UC Santa Barbara’s Graduate School of Education.

Among Latinos, 89% of those who stayed at one high school graduated, compared with 60% of those who changed schools once or more. The rates were considerably lower for urban Latinos, whose graduation rate fell to 30% for those who made one or more school change.

Although they were higher, graduation rates for whites also differed based on transiency: 96% of those who did not transfer graduated, compared with 83% of those who transferred once and 62% of those who transferred more than once.

Despite the mobility of California’s population, the study provides evidence that schools can do more to cut down on student transfers as well as to buffer students from the negative effects of changing schools, said principal researcher Russell Rumberger, director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute.

Only half of all transfers resulted from a change of residence, the researchers found. The other half were for school-related reasons, either disciplinary problems or the student’s desire to change schools.

“Some schools actively encourage student transfers without considering the educational consequences,” the authors wrote. “Schools may also do little to help integrate transfer students and improve their prospects for academic success.”

The problem is especially pronounced in California and among Latinos, Rumberger said.

The research found that three times as many California students changed schools because of disciplinary problems as students in other states.

Rumberger said a new research project to be published by the same team in January will show that some schools have much higher transfer rates than others.

He said the research suggests that school transfers can be a symptom and a cause of problems that lead to dropping out: a symptom of a student’s disengagement from school, but also a cause if the transition goes poorly.

Either way, school officials should pay attention.

The report recommends several remedies.

Schools should be required to report their mobility rates as an accountability measure, it said.

Also, the California Department of Education should produce handbooks for parents and schools offering information on the disadvantages of school changes and suggestions on how to ameliorate them.

Richard Whitmore, a spokesman for the department, said the monitoring of mobility rates will improve as schools adopt the new California School Information System over the next several years.

The system will allow all schools to transfer student records by computer.

Also, recent state legislation has provided funds for school districts to use in setting up community day schools for students who have disciplinary problems, he said.

A summary of the UC Santa Barbara report is posted on the UC California Policy Seminar’s World Wide Web site at https://www.ucop.edu/cps/mobility.html