Scheduling, Student Mobility, and the Military

Literature ReviewEDRS 801

Schedules Different Types of Schedules

Traditional

Since early 1900s

5-8 classes a day, 40-60 minutes,

Yearlong classes

4x4 Block

4 90-minute classes per semester

8 classes a year

A/B Day

4 90-minute classes on one day and 4 more on the next day

8 classes a year

Hybrid

A mix of these

Student Mobility Defined as “making a school

enrollment change at a time no required by the grade structure of the school system.” (Abbot, Catalano, Fleming, Gruman & Harachi, 2008)

US General Accounting Office (1994) claims that one of six US children has attend three or more schools by the end of third grade.

Larson & Rumberger (1998) state that 50% of all school age children in the US move at least twice before the age of 18.

Student mobility is more common in the most vulnerable children in our society. This is especially true of homeless, foster youth, SED children, single-parent households, youth in juvenile correctional facilities, migrant students and children of military families.

Military Mobility Military children are:

3 times more likely to move than their civilian counterparts (Park, 2011)

Attend between 6 and 9 different schools between Kindergarten and 12th grade (Weisman, 2012)

Only about 8% of military students attend a DOD school (Weisman, 2012)

The practical problem of practice

Student mobility is especially stressful for military families.

Students are forced to move at a moment’s notice.

Because many military instillations, such as Fort Bragg do not even provide a DOD school for high school, students must attend local, public schools.

Because of a lack of standardized schedules, students cannot easily be scheduled into their classes, and often lose credits when they move. Thus they struggle to meet the various graduation requirements.

Conclusion“Military Brats” are known for their resilience. However, this particular problem of practice makes the difficulties of frequent PCS (permanent change of station) moves even more stressful for a student and their families. In this time of patriotism and the call to Support our Troops, it is amazing how little literature there is to highlight this issue. In this age of NCLB, it seems that it is the military students, who, because of issues of scheduling and student mobility, are left behind.