Reading and listening to the news, the huge bet in the education world is how many teachers and other staff are going to the unemployment office in June due to layoffs in each state and school district.

superintendent with students at a Los Angeles elementary school

Worst of the worst, 300,000 teachers laid off will certainly clear the board of its latest spread of new teachers at low-performing schools just as those schools are identified as turn around targets.  How will it help any school when young committed new teachers who have been acknowledged as creative, innovative, self-confident, highly educated, and technologically competent are the first to be laid off when the roulette ball lands in their slot?

More pink slips than really needed are often sent out so as not to litigate layoffs that are identified too late in the school year, a no-no nationwide negotiated by unions and part of most state’s education code.  But even 100,000 is a huge number and leads to the problem to be addressed in this post-TRANSIENCE.

Begin with student transience.  In most states and definitely in California high transience in low-performing schools practically guarantees that few students will have proficient or advanced levels on the state tests given in May.  Generally, students who make strategic moves like those because of school safety issues, overcrowding, class size reduction, even suspension do not necessarily lead to worse academic achievement.  On the other hand, reactive transience due to financial stress, family dysfunction, and housing instability often lead to negative results in student achievement.  The more moves in a school year and over several school years generally indicate a worse outcome.  For more detail see the Urban Institute’s 2009 study “Student Transience in North Carolina.”

Like truancy, student transience can be reduced with relentless determination.  When a student moves to another attendance area, the child stays in the original school for the remainder of the year, a procedure dependent on buses and parent permission.  Speaking of parents, the district can educate parents on the short and long-term consequences to student achievement with constant movement.  In addition, within a school district, the speedy transfer of student records can be improved, especially with data being established on servers that can be accessed by every school.  Of course, over time in a city or region, the availability of low-income housing would ensure that students remain at the school.

Students coming and going increases teacher anxiety as each is preparing to be evaluated on student test scores.  Think, though, about the anxiety for children as teachers go and come and go again when layoffs are the way to balance the school district’s budget.

Students in low-performing schools usually need steady well-structured learning time.  One school in Los Angeles was described recently as losing half its teachers due to last year’s layoffs, and even now six months after school opened for the 2009-2010 school year, some classes are taught by a series of substitutes instead of full-time regular employees.

Teachers need to be in place in the school for an average of five years for the most effective teaching to take place.  What is going to happen in June 2010 as students see new teachers take home all their materials, still unsure of the location or grade level they will be called to teach when 2010-2011 begins?  If they get rehired.  Before the school year begins.

Last, in the Fall it’s a sure thing that some teachers laid off in the Spring will be assigned to a school when the enrollment is stabilized.  Think about the time that will be needed to train the new staff in the strategies, special programs, student discipline procedures, and myriad other details that make each school unique.  In the meantime, students review and wait for the real teaching to start.

Let’s hope student transience doesn’t begin until the transient teachers have had time to lay down the rules of the game.