Teachers whose classrooms seem to have revolving doors with students entering, withdrawing, and even re-entering throughout the school year, face a variety of challenges in meeting the needs of such highly mobile students and their more stable peers. This information brief highlights some of those challenges and offers recommendations to teachers based on our exploration of the literature and case studies of award-winning teachers with a variety of students in their classrooms who moved frequently.

Teachers whose classrooms seem to have revolving doors, with students entering, withdrawing, and even re-entering throughout the school year, face a variety of challenges in meeting the needs of such highly mobile students and their more stable peers. This information brief highlights some of those challenges and offers recommendations to teachers based on our exploration of the literature and case studies of award-winning teachers with a variety of students in their classrooms who moved frequently.

This study, designed jointly by the National Center for Homeless Education and The College of William and Mary, explores the critical role of the classroom teacher in contributing to the education of at-risk and highly mobile students. The study includes a review of the literature on the effective teaching of at-risk and highly mobile students and an exploration of the beliefs and practices of six teachers who won national and/or state awards for working with these populations.

This NCHE bibliography, updated in December 2010, provides a comprehensive listing of research studies addressing the issue of mobility and its effects

Reading on the Go! is a two-volume project that explores reading instruction for students experiencing high mobility as a result of high poverty.

Reading on the Go! (Vol 1): Students Who Are Highly Mobile and Reading Instruction, reviews the characteristics of highly mobile students and provides a literature review of reading instruction, with a focus on the research on reading and high poverty in an effort to help practitioners better understand the needs of highly mobile students and inform their selection and structure of programs by making research-based decisions.

Reading on the Go! (Vol 2) A Handbook of Resources discusses the implementation of reading programs. Volume 2 is based on the literature reviewed in Volume 1 but was also shaped by the voice of practitioners captured through focus groups and site visits. Volume 2 focuses on supplemental instruction and children experiencing homelessness in preschool and elementary grades.

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This literature review was developed as part of an unpublished study conducted in 2004 by Dr. Beth Garriss Hardy and Dr. Cheryl Vrooman. The review examines the current body of research on mobility and how it may apply to the school performance of children and youth experiencing homelessness and makes recommendations for further research.

This handbook, a joint publication of the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, synthesizes research on the education of various subpopulations of students who tend to be highly mobile and explores commonalities and differences among these groups. Subpopulations explored include migratory children and youth, children and youth experiencing homelessness, children of military families, and students experiencing mobility on a global scale.

The brief from Project Forum focuses on a subset of the population of mobile children: children with disabilities and their families who are highly mobile. The document begins with a background section that provides information about policies and practices developed for mobile children at the federal level. The second section is an analysis of interviews with five state directors of special education and their corresponding McKinney-Vento program coordinators regarding how states are addressing the needs of this population. Interviewees discussed causes of mobility; how they locate mobile children; the number of mobile children and costs of services; features of state programs under McKinney-Vento; how they track outcomes; challenges they have encountered; and policy recommendations.

Educational achievement of students can be affected negatively by their changing schools often. The recent economic downturn, with foreclosures and homelessness, may be increasing student mobility. To inform the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked: (1) What are the numbers and characteristics of students who change schools, and what are the reasons students change schools?; (2) What is known about the effects of mobility on student outcomes, including academic achievement, behavior, and other outcomes?; (3) What challenges does student mobility present for schools in meeting the educational needs of students who change schools?; and, (4) What key federal programs are schools using to address the needs of mobile students? This December 2010 publication provides the results of the GAO's analysis of federal survey data, interview with U.S. Department of Education officials, site visits to eight schools in six school districts, and review of federal laws and existing research.

This report by the Metropolitan Housing Coalition (Louisville, KY) examines the link between education and housing.

Students in Department of Defense schools have similar mobility rates, parental education levels, and low-income status to students in inner-city schools; yet, they consistently demonstrate higher academic achievement than the national average. This digest presents the results of a 2001 study by researchers from Vanderbilt University on the consistent high achievement of African American and Latino students in Department of Defense schools and identifies policies and practices that may contribute to the success of these schools.

This Summer 2008 article from the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota examines protective factors and intervention methods that may promote school success among homeless and highly mobile students.

This report from the National Housing Conference examines the role that residential stability plays in child development. The report finds that low-income families move much more frequently than the general population. While reasons for moving vary, the data and interviews of low-income families show that moves resulting from unplanned or involuntary circumstances, such as an eviction or foreclosure, and moves that occur one after another as part of a pattern of frequent mobility, tend to have negative impacts on child and family welfare, such as increased school absenteeism and a higher incidence of neighborhood problems.

This article, published in November 2002 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) outlines several family involvement strategies that schools can use to provide stability and support for children made vulnerable by disruptions in their education and home lives.

This Spring 2008 brief from First Focus discusses the effects of the U.S. mortgage and foreclosure crisis on school-aged children and their education. Useful statistics related to mobility and school achievement, an overview of the effects of mobility on children's behavior and health, and policy recommendations are included.

This brief from Project HOPE discusses what schools can do to support the education of highly mobile students.