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School Transfer: 

What are the unique problems that school transfer presents for children and what can we do to help?

 Shannon Wolf

Kent State University

Principles of Social Learning

May 9, 2001

 School transfer has been described in the literature as a major life event that can result in stress and dysfunction for the child if support services are not in place to ease the transition.  School transfer is unique for every child, and the result of the transition, positive or negative, depends on a number of variables that interact with and influence one another (Jason et al., 1992).

While school systems are becoming more aware of the difficulties that transfer students face, there is still a significant lack of understanding of the issues and the strategies and programs that can be used to help ease the transition process.  Many schools, including inner city schools where classroom turnover rates may be as high as 50%, do not currently have a program to help ease the transition of the transfer student.  What’s more is that even where programs are in place to orient the child to the school, they are usually not in place to monitor the student’s progress and to provide continued support (Alexander, Entwisle, & Dauber, 1996). 

School psychologists, as advocates for children, have a responsibility to help develop an awareness of the issues these children face, and to devise programs and strategies for helping to ease the school transition process.

Types of Transfers

Ø      Scheduled:  Occurs when entire groups of students enter school or graduate from elementary or junior high school.

Ø      Unscheduled:  Involve students in isolation changing schools.  Student transfer to a new school after summer break or during the middle of the year (Jason et al., 1992).

While scheduled transfers do present unique problems for children, the focus here will be on the unscheduled transfer, which presents a host of problems that are unique to a type of transfer in which the child is going it alone.

 Issues Children Face When Transferring to a New School:

Ø      Gaining peer acceptance

Ø      Achieving Academically

Ø      Complying with behavioral expectations and standards of the new school

Ø      Gaining acceptance from their teacher(s)

Ø      Adjusting to a new school climate

(Filippeli & Jason, 1992)

Transfer children deal with these issues at the same time as:

Ø      They are trying to adjust to a new home and community

Ø      Their parents are busy adjusting and may be temporarily preoccupied

Ø      They are dealing with feelings of isolation and grief resulting from the abandonment of their old way of life.

Ø      They may be dealing with other transitions such as puberty in adolescence or the transition from home to school in childhood.

Ø      They are dealing with other factors unique to their situation that are impacting the difficulties experienced in the transfer.

The relationship between mobility and student outcome is not a linear one, where the effects of mobility on children can be easily identified.  Instead, this relationship is a reciprocal person-environment transactional relationship where there are several factors involved in the resulting impact of the transition (Jason, et al., 1992).  Transition is unique for each child, and there are several variables that can positively and negatively impact the transition process.  The following presents both the environmental variables and the personal variables that have been identified in the literature as having an impact on the outcome of the transition process:

  Risk Factors: Environmental

Ø      The new school differs greatly from old school in regards to behavioral expectations, climate, curriculum, place in curriculum.

Ø      Parents have low levels of education, and family is of low socioeconomic status.

Ø      The support network within the family is absent.

Ø      The family environment is chaotic, disorganized and unstable.  The family has moved several times, the moves were forced rather than moves of choice, and they generally resulted in downward mobility rather than upward mobility.

Ø      The child may be a victim of abuse.  

Ø      The teacher develops a negative perception of the child

Ø      The child is experiencing stressors in their life in addition to the school transfer, which could include:  

·         Major life events: Examples may include serious illness in family, divorce of parents, other transfers etc.

·         Enduring life strains: Examples may include poor housing, few material resources etc.

·         Developmental transitions: Examples may include transitioning from home to school in childhood, or entering puberty in adolescence etc.

 Risk Factors: Personal

Ø      Low IQ and low achievement (In several studies it was found that the transfer of schools in itself does not have a substantial negative effect on achievement.  Rather those students who were achieving low previous to the transfer are those whose achievement sufferers subsequent to the transfer)

Ø      Problem Behaviors

Ø      Poor coping skills and problem solving skills

Ø      External locus of control and low levels of motivation

The child with the risk factors profiled above has been found to be the one most likely to experience several moves throughout his/her lifetime.  These children need services to address the many factors that are negatively impacting their lives in order to buffer the possible negative effects of the transfers.  In research, it has been found that when other factors were accounted for, mobility alone did not substantially account for the negative effects of student transfer.  The risk factors, both personal and environmental, that these children carry with them confound the stress of the transfer and result in negative outcomes for mobile students. 

What Can We Do as School Psychologists to Minimize These Risk Factors?

 Environmental:

Ø      The new school differs greatly from old school in regards to behavioral expectations, climate, curriculum, and place in curriculum.

• Establish contact with the child’s old school to determine where they are in their instruction, and to get a sense of the expectations for the child at that school.  Explain to the child the expectations of the new school and provide assistance to help the child bridge the gaps in the academic material.

Ø      Parental and family factors

• Contact the parents of the child.  Meet with them and try to get a sense of the unique factors that the child has had to face and is still facing.  Try to gain some understanding of the reasons for the move and of any family issues that you may be able to provide assistance or resources for.

• Implement a school transition program that will bring organization and stability to the transfer, and that will provide for social networks, and an outlet for stressors.
• Provide counseling to the child if necessary.

Ø      Child experiences stressors in addition to the transition.

• Provide counseling or some kind of outlet for stressors, make the transition as smooth as possible by providing a transition program, be aware that at different points in the child’s life they are experiencing stressors resulting from developmental stages.

Ø      Poor teacher perception of child

• Make the teacher aware of the unique issues the child is facing, the impact of the transfer, and provide him/her with strategies to help.  Research has shown that simple awareness isn’t enough.  Strategies must be provided.

 Personal:

     Ø      Low IQ and low achievement

• Make sure the child is in the right educational placement.  Provide them with a peer mentor who can help in the classroom and with tutoring if possible. 

Ø      Problem Behaviors

• Let the child know what is expected of him/her up front and establish a behavioral contract if necessary.

Ø      Poor coping and problem solving skills

• Match child up with a peer mentor who can provide modeling and direction.
• Provide an outlet for the student to discuss difficulties and to get guidance in problem solving.
• Teach the child strategies for problem solving and coping.

Ø      External locus of control and low levels of motivation

• Get the child involved in the school community immediately through the transition program.  Help to involve them in projects where they experience success and a feeling of accomplishment.

Many of these activities that we can engage in translate into roles that the school psychologist can and should play in these children’s lives. 

 The following are some of those roles:

      Ø      Gather and Provide Information

• Help to establish an exchange of information from the old school to the new. 
• Disseminate that information to school officials who will be working with the child including classroom teachers, school counselors etc.
• Help teachers to develop an understanding of the unique issues that transfer students face, and provide them with strategies to address those issues

Ø      Ensure proper placement

• Review records and determine past service needs and placements, including the need for special education services.
• If there is a lack of information on the child, assess where they are at in the curriculum by using informal measures, and provide intervention to help them catch up where necessary.
• If there is a suspected disability, conduct an assessment to determine needed services and proper placement

Ø      Develop systematic, researched-based programs to help ease the transition of new students.

Ø      Provide guidance and counseling services if needed.

Ø      Develop a monitoring system to track the progress of new students.

 Many of the risk factors experienced by transfer children can be addressed in transfer programs.  The school psychologist, as child advocate, has a responsibility to help create these programs and to help facilitate them when they are in place, so that the possible negative effects of student transfer can be minimized.  Since much of the research has not demonstrated that significant academic gaps result from relocation, and instead have demonstrated poor social adjustment of mobile students, transfer programs must incorporate social support for these students, as well as academic support.

 The following is an example of a research-based program that resulted in success when used with seventh and eighth grade transfer students.

       Ø      Same sex children were selected as mentors and were each          paired up with one transfer student.

Ø      Mentor children met with a therapist during the first week of school.  The therapist explained the purposes and processes of the Orientation-Treatment program.  The therapist and mentor students discussed which aspects of the school and community should be presented to the new students.  These topics included the physical layout of the school, general school policies and rules, courses available, school and community activities, clubs and athletic teams, and community facilities.

Ø      Orientation Treatment groups composed of the new and old students met each day for one 45 minute to hour-long session each week for six weeks.

Ø      The sessions were informal, information-giving, and problem-solving groups, with a focus on assisting the new students to adjust to the school and community.  The groups tried to help new students form peer relationships, and to discuss and hopefully resolve any adjustment problems or interpersonal conflicts that emerged.  Emphasis was placed on the expression of feelings and the development of adaptive coping mechanisms.

Session I—Introduction:  Rules were outlined for the group, and the group was broken down into dyads.  Each dyad, consisting of one new and one old student, interview each other for five minutes and introduced one another to the group.

Session II and III—Orientation:  Presentations were given by the mentor students, which focused on orientation to the school and the community.  New students were encouraged to ask questions.

Sessions IV through VI—Treatment:  New students were asked to come up with a list of good and bad aspects of moving to a new school.  These lists were used to facilitate discussion about the transfer students’ feelings about being newcomers to the school and the community. 

 * This program provides an example of a successful attempt at easing the transition of transfer students.  It is by no means the only path to follow when developing assistance for transfer students.  There are many ways in which transfer programs can be set up to accommodate the unique environment of each school.  

Annotated Bibliography

Jason, L.A., Weine, A.M., Johnson, J.H., Sohlberg, L.W., Filippelli, L.A., Turner, E.Y., & Lardon, C. (1992).  Helping transfer students: Strategies for educational and social readjustment. San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass Publishers.               

This book provides a detailed discussion of the problems that transfer students face when trying to adjust to a new school.  This discussion is centered around an ecological and transactional model that looks at the multiple individual and environmental variables that can have an impact on the outcome of student transfer.  Effective intervention strategies are presented through a discussion of a particular school transition project. 

 Lash, A. A., & Kirkpatric, S. L. (1994). Interrupted lessons: Teacher views of transfer student education.  American Educational Research Journal, 31, 814-843. 

This research study presents valuable information about teacher perceptions that can be used when designing intervention programs for transfer students.  Teachers’ perceptions were examined from agricultural, military, urban, and stable schools.  It was found that although teachers are aware of the unique issues that transfer students face, they do not use this knowledge to design intervention for these students.  When designing programs for transfer students, it would be important to keep this information in mind, so that the development of strategies for teachers to use with these students in the classroom, rather than the development of awareness of the issues these children face, could be the focus when attempting to get teachers involved in easing the transition process.

 Wright, D. (1999).  Student mobility:  A negligible and confounded influence on student achievement.  The Journal of Educational Research, 92, 347-353. 

This research article discussed the impact of student mobility on achievement.  While mobile students were found to generally have lower achievement, mobility was found to be subordinate in magnitude to other factors such as ethnicity and family income when predicting low achievement.  This study points out the complicated interaction of variables that can either increase or decrease the transfer student’s chances for academic success in their new school.  It is important when attempting to ease the transition of a student to be aware of all of the variables that may or may not lead to a successful adjustment to their new school.  These variables can then be addressed through incorporating them into a transition program aimed as successful transition for mobile students. 

References

 Alaxander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Dauber, S. L. (1996).  Children in motion:  School transfers and elementary school performance.  The Journal of Educational Research, 90, 3-11.

 Berg-Cross, L., & Flanagan, R. (1988).  Effects of an orientation program on mobile transfer students.  Journal of Early Adolescence, 8, 311-324.

 Filippelli, L. A., & Jason, L. A. (1992).  How life events affect the academic adjustment and self-concept of transfer children.  Journal of Instructional Psychology, 19, 61-65.

 Nelson, P. S., Simoni, J. M., & Adelman, H. S. (1996).  Mobility and school functioning in the early grades.  The Journal of Educational Research, 89, 365-369.

 Weine, A. M., Kurasaki, K. S., Jason, L. A., Danner, K. E., & Johnson, J. H. (1993).  An evaluation of preventive tutoring programs for transfer students.  Child Study Journal, 23, 135-139.