Bsb Mobility Final 1200X506

Bright Spots

Mobility Outliers – How Do Schools Support Mobile Students?


If you ever moved schools or classrooms as a young child, you may remember the anxiety and nervousness that went with leaving old friends, building new relationships, and getting used to a new environment. Given how difficult change is, it’s no surprise that the potential impact of mobility on students’ education is significant. Students who move often between schools may experience a range of problems such as:

  • Lower achievement levels due to discontinuity of curriculum between schools,
  • Behavioral problems,
  • Difficulty developing peer relationships, and
  • A greater risk for dropping out.

Across all Dallas County schools, those with an average mobility rate of 0-13% had a higher percentage (+18% more) of students performing on grade level in reading and math in 3rd and 4th grade, respectively, compared to schools with an average mobility rate at or above 20%.

The good news is that mobility is a challenge many schools are actively and creatively addressing. In fact, in Dallas County there are over 10 elementary schools with up to 30% mobility that are achieving outlier 3rd grade reading results.

These 10 schools are Richland, Merriman Park, Jess Harben, and Yale in Richardson ISD; Stephen Austin in Grand Prairie ISD, Freeman in Carrolton Farmers Branch ISD; Julius Dorsey, T.G. Terry and Jerry Junkins in Dallas ISD.

So, how are these schools supporting their mobile student population to achieve success in reading?

At Jerry Junkins Elementary (with 1 in 5 mobile students) in Dallas ISD, there are a few impactful strategies according to Stephanie Ellis, Junkins Reading Coach:

  1. Monitor Reading Progress: At Junkins, teachers use multiple reading assessments to measure a child’s reading proficiency, including Istation and fluency probes. Teachers use this data to create and deliver targeted instruction to students in small groups. Understanding a child’s reading strengths and weaknesses helps teachers diagnose and address gaps. Stephanie Ellis points to reading data as a foundational piece to the reading support the school provides to all students: “We take students where they are and build them up from there no matter where they come to us from. We’re able to do this based on students’ needs from their reading assessments.”
  2. Quality Personalized Instruction: According to the reading teachers at Junkins, purposeful Daily 5 stations based on students’ needs is critical to supporting students who are new to the school. Daily 5 is a self-management reading system that provides students with the opportunity to read to others, practice their spelling, write independently, and build their listening skills.
  3. After School Partnership: Junkins partners with Catch Up and Read, a nonprofit literacy organization in Dallas that partners with the school’s leadership and teachers to provide high-quality after school tutoring to students who are behind in their reading proficiency. “This intervention is critical to supporting reading proficiency, especially for students who are new to the school. It helps them catch up in their reading over time,” says Stephanie Ellis.

The staff at Jess Harben Elementary and Richland Elementary in Richardson ISD point to other impactful interventions for mobile students:

  1. Meeting With Families: Principal Good meets with every single family that is new to the school. “I sit down with every family, talk to them about the process and try to make that connection,” says Principal Good. Building that relationship with families who are new to the school helps build trust and lines of communication with parents.
  2. Using Information From Previous School(s): At Richland Elementary, teachers and instructional leadership are good about getting information immediately about a new student’s academic and behavioral history. This helps them understand a child’s background and differentiate their support.


  3. Small Group Instruction: According to the teachers at Jess Harben, meeting with students in groups of 3-5 is critical to building relationships with students who are new to the school. The face-to-face time gives students the opportunity to build a trusting relationship with their teacher.

A key goal of the Commit! Partnership is to use data to help identify outlier success in Dallas County schools. It is exciting to see that despite the significant challenges that schools with high mobility face, teachers and principals have found effective ways to engage families and students, resulting in higher than expected performance.

To learn more about best practices across Dallas County as they are published, visit http://commit2dallas.org/blog and follow the Commit Partnership on Twitter and Facebook.

To learn more about how you can get involved, contact Jonathan Feinstein jonathan.feinstein@commit2dallas.org. If you know of an outlier educational achievement, a ‘bright spot,’ in Dallas County please contact Carissa Grisham of the Commit! Partnership.

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