Learning Curve: How Many Students Switch Schools Mid-year, Disrupting Their Education

Each year, tens of thousands of students in the Houston region unexpectedly change schools — and the moves represent a key, often overlooked factor playing into children’s learning.

Although being the new kid can be tough socially, the academic dangers may be even more profound. Changing campuses mid-year tends to spell a drop in test scores and a higher risk of dropping out later on, according to 2022 research from Rice University’s Houston Education Research Consortium.

The factors that prompt a family to change campuses — including eviction, divorce or parents getting a new job — are often outside a school’s control. 

But when the moves happen, school staff often have to scramble to assess their newly enrolled student’s learning needs, because the child may have been following different curriculums at their old school. For students, the moves often also mean the loss of trusted adult relationships, forcing them to start fresh getting to know an unfamiliar school staff.

A local look: The Texas Education Agency considers a student to be mobile if they spent six or more weeks enrolled at a school other than their primary campus. The TEA has published data on districts’ rates from 2018-19 through 2021-22. The numbers lag because the data are based on a full year’s worth of enrollment data, and therefore are calculated retroactively.

Search the database below, which includes all Texas districts with 20,000 or more students, to see the level of mobility in your district.

In the Houston area, at least 20 percent of students from three large school districts — Spring and Alief ISDs and Goose Creek CISD — were classified as mobile in 2021-22. Houston ISD reported about 35,900 mobile students, or 19 percent of the district. The statewide rate is 17 percent.

A slight rise: While the pandemic caused large numbers of parents and guardians to lose their jobs and put housing at risk, Texas’ student mobility rates didn’t dramatically increase.

State data shows about 806,400 students, or 15.3 percent of those in public school, were considered mobile in the last full academic year before the pandemic. The tally dipped the following two years, then increased to 893,000 students, or 16.8 percent, in 2021-22.

Supporting students: The TEA advises districts to keep close tabs on newly enrolled or mobile students and reach out to families if their attendance slips. Districts should have a team of staff trained to visit the families of disengaged students in person, the agency recommended in a 2020 guide.

The TEA holds quarterly online training sessions for educators on how best to serve “highly mobile” and “at-risk” students. The next webinar is scheduled for Nov. 14.

Asher Lehrer-Small covers Houston ISD for the Landing. Find him @by_ash_ls on Instagram and @small_asher on X, or reach him directly at asher@houstonlanding.org.

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