Section 1: Academic Achievement - National Center for School ...

As the ELL (English language Learners) teacher at Columbine Elementary for the past 11
years I have seen the changes first hand in the school. There are approximately 340 students
in grades 1 st through 4 th . The ethnic breakdown is 65% Hispanic, 45% Anglo. Sixty-five
percent of the students qualify for free and reduced lunches. Over 100 of the students are
second language learners and in the 2005-2006 school year, the school averaged 25 Homeless
and Highly Mobile (H&HM) students at any given point during the year. For the sake of this
study highly mobile was defined as two or more changes in school enrollment in the last
calendar year due to economic insecurity, not due to the structure of the school district. The
guidelines of the McKinney-Vento Act were used to identify students as homeless. These
changes in student population are all factors that can spell trouble for schools and education.
Columbine Elementary and Fort Morgan are currently experiencing struggles with student
achievement related to the changes in the student population. Hart-Shegos (1999) found that
school-age H&HM students may demonstrate health problems, academic problems and
behavior problems. Rumberger and Larson (1999) determined that mobility was related to
SES (socio-economic status) but not to ethnicity. Mobility was also shown to negatively
impact the classrooms and schools that have large amounts of student mobility including nonmobile
students. This research would suggest a connection between the changes in student
population and the decline of our student achievement.
This Web-Based Professional Development action research project is the second one I have
participated in around the topic of H&HM students. My first project centered around learning
what H&HM students looked like at my school, what resources were available, and using
those resources to keep a HM (highly mobile) student in the same school for the majority of
the school year. This time I was a participant in the Web-Based Professional Development
Action Research Project as part of a three-person team. I worked with my principal and an
active community member, who is also a business owner and parent, using the three domain
framework (James, 2004). The domains are 1) Access to educational services; 2) Welcoming
school culture; and 3) Flexible instructional strategies. The community member focused on
the access to educational services. My principal concentrated his efforts on the welcoming
school culture, and I chose to put my efforts into the flexible instructional strategies arena.
Action Research to Study Homelessness and High Mobility in School Communities 79