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# [The Same High Standards for Migrant Students: Holding Title I Schools Accountable]{.smallcaps}

**Volume III: Coordinating the Education of Migrant Students: Lessons
Learned from the Field**

**[Final Report]{.smallcaps}**

**[2002]{.smallcaps}**

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height="1.632638888888889in"}

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| **[U.S. Department of            | **[Office of the Under            |
| Education]{.smallcaps}**         | Secretary]{.smallcaps}**          |
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| ####                             |                                   |
| ##### [Doc #2002-26]{.smallcaps} |                                   |
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**[Volume III: Coordinating the Education of Migrant Students: Lessons
Learned from the Field]{.smallcaps}**

##### 

[Submitted by:]{.smallcaps}

Alexander Goniprow

Gary Hargett

Nicholas Fitzgerald

George Washington University\
Center for Equity and Excellence in Education\
Arlington, Va.

[Prepared for:]{.smallcaps}

U.S. Department of Education\
Office of the Under Secretary

2002

# U.S. Department of Education

## Rod Paige

## *Secretary* 

# Office of the Under Secretary

Eugene W. Hickock

## *Under Secretary*

# Planning and Evaluation Service

Alan L. Ginsburg

## *Director*

# Elementary Secondary Education Division

Ricky T. Takai

## *Director*

September 2002

This report is in the public domain. Authorization to reproduce it in
whole or in part is granted. While permission to reprint this
publication is not necessary, the citation should be: U.S. Department of
Education, Office of the Under Secretary, *The Same High Standards for
Migrant Students: Holding Title I Schools Accountable,* Volume III:
*Coordinating the Education of Migrant Students: Lessons Learned from
the Field,* Washington, D.C., 2002.

To order copies of this report, write:

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Or via electronic mail, send your request to: <edpubs@inet.ed.gov>.

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To order online, point your Internet browser to:
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This report is also available on the Department's Web site at:
http://[www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/ed_for_disadvantaged.html#migranted](http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/ed_for_disadvantaged.html#migranted)

http://[www.ed.gov/offices/](http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/ed_for_disadvantaged.html#migranted)OESE/OME/pubs.htm

On request, this publication is available in alternative formats, such
as Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette. For more
information, please contact the Department's Alternate Format Center
(202) 205-8113.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

*Coordinating the Education of Migrant Students: Lessons Learned from
the Field* is the product of collaboration among educators concerned
with enhancing the educational continuity and academic progress of
migrant children. The ideas and experiences presented on these pages
reflect a significant array of promising practices from dedicated
educators working together in state education agencies, regional
education offices, local school districts, special resource centers,
universities, and summer programs. While every person involved in the
study helped to produce the results, I want to first thank the local and
state educators we visited who generously provided us with their time
and access to their programs and materials.

I especially want to acknowledge the work of Gary Hargett and Nicholas
Fitzgerald who were senior members of the research team that was
responsible for the design, analysis and report writing of the cases. I
greatly appreciated their professionalism and spirit of camaraderie. I
want to thank Barbara Hicks, a research associate at GW, who served as
the research team's information specialist. Barbara Hicks was
particularly helpful in researching and collecting documents for the
literature review. I would also like to thank Bob Levy, director of
ESCORT, who served as an informal advisor to the study and helped
provide insight and perspective on interstate coordination efforts.

A special thank you to Francisco Garcia, James English, and Jeffrey
Wilde of the Office of Migrant Education who worked with us to establish
the focus of the study, revise the study's data collection and analysis
plan, provide input on the selection of cases, and review the report.

I would like to thank our project liaison, Allison Henderson of Westat,
for her assistance with the study's design, counsel during the study's
implementation, and comments on our work. I also appreciate the input
and guidance of our ED technical representatives, Martha Chavez and
Robin Bouckris, and Beth Franklin in their efforts to make the study run
smoothly and in the critique of our report.

Alexander Goniprow

Project Director

CONTENTS

> [Page]{.underline}

Acknowledgments

Executive Summary i

I. Background 1

> Purpose of the Study 1
>
> Background and Selected Review of the Literature 1
>
> Study Questions and Methodology of the Study 6
>
> Organization of the Report 8

II\. Study Findings: Cross Case Analysis 10

> Conditions Leading to Discontinuity of Education 10
>
> Educational Consequences of Discontinuity 11
>
> Selection of Strategies to Promote Coordination across Sites 12
>
> Promising Approaches Used to Enhance Continuity of Instruction 13
>
> Implementation Problems or Obstacles 20
>
> Cross-cutting Themes 21

III\. Conclusions and Implications 28

References

Appendix A: Case Studies

EXHIBITS

[Page]{.underline}

Exhibit 2.1 Conditions That Led to Educational Discontinuity for Migrant
Students 10

Exhibit 2.2 Range of Promising Approaches Used to Enhance the Continuity

of Instruction 13

Exhibit 2.3 Examples of "Alignment of District Policies" as a Means

of Enhancing Continuity of Instruction 14

Exhibit 2.4 Examples of "Improved Student Information Access & Exchange"

As a Means of Enhancing Continuity of Instruction 15

Exhibit 2.5 Examples of "Staff Resources to Promote Credit Accrual"

as a Means of Enhancing Continuity of Instruction 16

Exhibit 2.6 Examples of "Opportunities for Supplemental Instruction"

as a Means of Enhancing Continuity of Instruction 17

**EXECUTIVE SUMMARY**

### Background

A growing body of research has documented the detrimental effect that
changing schools has on students' academic performance. Migrant students
are among the most mobile of all students, since they must change
schools to accompany their families as they move to pursue seasonal
agricultural employment. One of the roles of Title I, Part C, the
Migrant Education Program (MEP), is to implement strategies to redress
students' educational disruption. To contribute to the knowledge base on
effective practices for promoting educational quality and continuity for
migrant students, the U.S. Department of Education's Planning and
Evaluation Service supported this study, conducted by researchers at the
George Washington University's Center for Educational Equity and
Excellence, in cooperation with Westat, Inc.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate a range of approaches used to
promote continuity of instructional service for migrant students and to
identify promising practices tailored to promote instructional
continuity. The study entailed case studies of district migrant
education programs, chosen on the basis of nominations from state
directors. Four groups of two or three districts that share students who
move back and forth between them were chosen for study (referred to as
Trading Partners).

> The researchers selected four cases for the study:
>
> **Case Study One**: Weslaco Independent School District, Weslaco,
> Texas
>
> & Pasco School District, Pasco, Washington
>
> **Case Study Two:** Eagle Pass Independent School District, Eagle
> Pass, Texas
>
> & Sidney School District, Sidney, Montana
>
> **Case Study Three**: Donna Independent School District, Donna, Texas;
> Van Buren Intermediate School District, Lawrence, Michigan; & Manatee
> County Office of Education, Bradenton, Florida
>
> **Case Study Four**: Yuma School District #1, Yuma, Arizona
>
> & Alisal School District, Salinas, California
>
> A member of the research team visited each site between June 1998 and
> December 1998. The researchers conducted interviews with key staff;
> observed service delivery and coordination mechanisms; and inspected
> relevant documents, which included available achievement data. This
> report is a cross-case report on the findings relative to the six
> research questions and illustrates several cross -cutting themes.
> Appendix A contains detailed case studies.

[[Key findings]{.underline}]{.smallcaps}

-   The case studies revealed that the Trading Partners shared a set of
    common themes that led to the development of successful solutions
    for migrant students: shared vision of the role of migrant
    education, emphasis on program alignment between trading partners,
    use of technology, value of personal relationships, and importance
    of leadership.

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-   Across the case study sites, migrant educators shared a vision about
    their goals for their shared students and the role of migrant
    education. This vision embodied the notion that migrant students had
    unique needs and that the MEP should supplement the basic education
    program to meet those needs.

-   All of the case study sites were committed to aligning local
    instruction between programs that shared migrant students. In
    particular, they were committed to aligning with the students'
    home-base schools for curricular content and course requirements.

-   The use of technology provided solutions to the problems of
    accessing information and providing instruction to
    difficult-to-reach students. Technology was used to transfer
    information on students' academic records between trading partners,
    provide individualized instruction, and provide access to another
    state or district's assessments and standards.

-   Personal meetings and relationships furthered solutions for migrant
    students in all sites. They helped the districts to understand each
    other's needs, policies, and problems in educating migrant students.

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-   The case studies displayed a consistent set of conditions that led
    to educational discontinuity for migrant students.

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```
-   There was a lack of timely and reliable information about students'
    achievement levels, immediate enrollment history, and educational
    needs.

-   Differences in school curriculum requirements and instructional
    methods between districts and states sharing migrant students (e.g.,
    block vs. traditional schedules, language assistance programs, and
    graduation requirements) led to instructional discontinuity and
    credit accrual problems for secondary migrant students.

-   Migrant students experienced conflicts between the need to work and
    to attend school.

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```
-   Migrant education programs focused on four areas to promote the
    continuity of education for migrant students: alignment of district
    policies, improved student information exchange and access, staff
    resources to promote credit accrual, and opportunities for
    supplemental instruction.

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```
-   Some examples of alignment policies included the following: LEP
    students were placed in the same type of English acquisition program
    as their homebase school; trading partners compared their individual
    language assessments scores to place migrant students in the same
    types of coursework; and trading partners agreed on common grade
    placement policies.

-   The districts implemented information systems including the Texas
    Migrant Interstate Project, the New Generation System, the Red Bag
    Transfer Packet System, and an email system to improve student
    information exchange and access. These systems relied on a
    combination of information technologies and technical assistance and
    staff support.

-   To promote secondary credit accrual, particular staff members were
    charged with communicating with other districts to determine
    appropriate courses for credit accrual purposes, calculating and
    awarding partial credit, and following up on attendance data, grades
    and credit accrual information sent to other districts.

-   Two basic strategies were used in developing supplemental
    educational opportunities. The first strategy entails flexible
    courses of study that assist secondary students to accelerate course
    completion or to finish incomplete courses. The newest versions of
    these courses use technology (e.g. desktop computer labs, portable
    laptop computers, and satellite technology) to deliver instruction.
    The second strategy provided migrant students with additional
    instructional time, either in the summer, in the evening, or during
    the school day.

    There was limited evidence on the effectiveness of the innovations,
    but most of them are fairly new or are still being developed.

**I. BACKGROUND**

**Purpose of the Study**

The Migrant Education Trading Partners Study was requested by the U.S.
Department of Education's Planning and Evaluation Services and
contracted through Westat and the Center for Equity and Excellence in
Education at The George Washington University. The study examined the
coordination mechanisms used between migrant education programs in
different states and school districts to mitigate and overcome the
negative effects of educational disruption caused by migration in
pursuit of seasonal work in agriculture. The study's design encompassed
a set of case studies of migrant education entities that had promising
coordination mechanisms in place to overcome educational disruption.
Such entities were referred to in the study as "trading partners."

The study had two primary objectives:

1.  To illustrate a range of approaches used to promote continuity of
    instructional services for migrant students; and

2.  To identify promising practices tailored to promote instructional
    continuity.

The study's purpose was to share promising practices with the field and
to inform it of innovations that would be useful to both policy and
practice.

**Background and Selected Review of the Literature**

The United States Congress first authorized federal support for migrant
students in 1966 through an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA) of 1965; that support was most recently reaffirmed
through enactment of Title I, Part C, of the ESEA, as amended by the
Improving America\'s School's Act (IASA) (PL 103-382). The legislation
defines a migrant child as one:

> \...who is, or whose parent, spouse, or guardian is, a migratory
> agricultural worker, including a migratory dairy worker, or a
> migratory fisher, and who, in the preceding 36 months, in order to
> obtain, or accompany such parent, spouse, or guardian in order to
> obtain, temporary or seasonal employment in agricultural or fishing
> work; has moved from one school district to another; in a State that
> is comprised of a single school district, has moved from one
> administrative area to another within such district; or resides in a
> school district of more than 15,000 square miles, and migrates a
> distance of 20 miles or more to a temporary residence to engage in a
> fishing activity (Sec. 1309 (2)).

The law establishes that the purpose of assistance given to migrant
students pursuant to Title I, part C, is to help them, among other
things, to:

> overcome educational disruption, cultural and language barriers,
> social isolation, various health-related problems, and other factors
> that inhibit the ability of such children to do well in school, and to
> prepare such children to make a successful transition to postsecondary
> education or employment and ensure that migratory children benefit
> from State and local systemic reforms (Sec. 1301(4)(5)).

The law also states clearly that funds allocated to migrant education
are supplemental and should not duplicate services or resources already
provided by an educational agency. The federal government's role in
migrant education is to administer grants to state education agencies,
which then distribute the funds according to their own policies and
procedures and in ways that best address the needs and service
priorities of migrant children.

Migrant students' profound and varied needs have been documented in both
journalistic and scholarly literature. Helge (1991) listed difficulties
that beset migrant children and their families, including dropout rates,
low parent literacy, poverty, and low academic achievement. Rumberger
and Larson (1998) cited findings that students who have changed schools
even once within two years score significantly lower on achievement
tests, and mobility by itself appeared to account for half of the
differences in achievement. Even when controlling for poverty, Rumberger
and Larson found that even one non-promotional school change doubled the
likelihood of not completing high school.

Serrano (1983) listed eight specific migrant student problems: "lack of
credit reciprocity, lack of fractional credit transfer, lack of course
continuity, language barriers, inconsistent grade placement,
inaccessible vocational and special programs, inaccessibility of
mandated competency tests, and absence of alternative instruction" (p.
19), with mobility identified as the key disruption factor, even for
"return to the same schools in a routine way." (p. 9).

Migrant education programs carry out their mandate to remedy a wide
variety of student needs in many ways, ranging from pre-school to summer
programs to night school. They also provide an array of social and
health services. However, for these efforts to be effective, they need
to be coordinated with the other regular and supplemental education and
health services---both within school districts and across them.

For this reason, within the U.S. Department of Education, the migrant
education program statute specifically calls for coordination
activities. During the 1980s, the Office of Migrant Education funded
numerous coordination projects under Section 143 of the existing ESEA,
Migrant Education Interstate and Intrastate Coordination. These projects
had varying degrees of success (Adelman & Cleland, 1987).

The best-known federally funded coordination effort was the Migrant
Student Record Transfer System (MSRTS). Serrano (1983, p. 11) described
MSRTS as the "first massive interstate cooperative effort to address
mobility and continuity." MSRTS was a computerized migrant student
record system; records clerks at local migrant programs entered student
data that included their test scores, immunizations, and placements in
grade for transmittal to the central data storage site in Little Rock,
Arkansas. A migrant student's new school could request the information
from MSRTS in order to save time assessing the student for initial
instructional placement. The Migrant Student Record Transfer System also
included a Credit Accrual and Exchange Section for high school students
to improve credit transfer for graduation.

The success of MSRTS in expediting migrant student information has been
argued among migrant educators. The Interstate Migrant Education Council
(IMEC), (1992), for example, found increases in the identification of
migrant students for special education services from 1980 to 1990 and
said that these increases "may be attributable, in part, to migrant
educators' awareness, the inclusion of the special education code as
part of the MSRTS training, and heightened understanding among special
educators" (p. 8). However, IMEC also concluded that "any analysis of
MSRTS data is bound to yield tenuous, fairly inconclusive information"
(p. 11). Due to the mixed results of MSRTS, the contract was terminated
in 1995 and it was discontinued.

The federal government reaffirmed its interest in coordination
activities among educational agencies with the enactment of the
Improving America's Schools Act (IASA). This law acknowledges that it is
important to coordinate student information and records exchange, but
individual states or consortia of states are left to devise their own
systems. Currently, few of these systems have the capacity to transfer
or provide appropriate users the student information they need.

Migrant education can play a role in articulating common services
between educational agencies, but the manner in which that role is
played can vary and probably must vary according to the situation. Most,
if not all, supplemental programs have encountered problems in
coordinating their services with those provided by the basic educational
program. While the term "coordination" has been used to describe the
role in a broad sense, the word may communicate different things to
different people and encompass several different levels of mutual
effort.

Walp and Walmsley (1989) described congruence between programs "in terms
of the coordination between classroom and remedial instruction" (p. 364)
within a school or district. Allington and Johnston (1986) also
discussed the importance of coordination between different programs that
serve the same children in order to achieve curricular congruence; they
emphasized congruence in what is to be taught and the methods of
instruction.

Stone (1993) defined coordination as "the additional procedures used by
people to do an activity with others" (p. 6). The procedures include
"how people find each other, arrange to carry out an activity together,
locate a suitable setting, schedule the activity, and get there on time"
(p.6). He posits three major categories of coordination procedures. The
first, termed recurrent routines, are customary procedures that carry
out well-established routines (e.g., the monthly staff meeting). The
second type of coordination procedures are premised on "centrally
directed control of people, activities, and resources" (e.g., military
maneuvers or assembly line production). The third type is "negotiated"
procedures, whether it be an informal arrangement or a well-specified
contract (e.g., planning family weekends together or discussing how to
improve work conditions).

All three sources of coordination procedures need to be in place to
coordinate effectively interstate educational services. Recurrent
routines are valuable because daily decisions about every act of
coordination are disruptive and inefficient. Centrally directed
coordination, in turn, makes it possible to set up complicated new
routines and to select, refine, optimize, and preserve existing
routines. The main advantage of negotiated coordination "is that it
provides alternatives when routines conflict or are unsatisfactory, or
when top-down, centralized control is not appropriate" (Stone, 1993, p.
11).

Kadel (1992) offers a complementary framework by distinguishing
cooperation from coordination and collaboration, explaining that
cooperation occurs when agencies have an "informal understanding" that
they will help each other without "losing their autonomies";
coordination is seen when a few agencies work on a specific task
together but have a limited relationship; and collaboration infers that
resources and authority are shared to a considerable degree (pp. 6-7).

Melaville and Black (1991) also differentiated between cooperation and
collaboration. In a "cooperative arrangement at the service delivery
level, partners help each other meet their respective organizational
goals" (p. 14). In contrast, "collaborative partnerships establish
common goals. In order to address problems that lie beyond any single
agency\'s exclusive purview, but which concern them all, partners agree
to pool resources, jointly plan, implement, and evaluate new services
and procedures, and delegate individual responsibility for the outcomes
of their joint efforts" (p. 16).

The simple transfer of student information is a cooperative activity
rather than a coordinated effort among school districts and the states.
However, exchanging student records for credit accrual purposes
certainly could be viewed as coordination. More intensive efforts that
require resource allocation, such as providing facilities and personnel
for another state\'s curriculum, might qualify as collaboration. However
these terms are defined, reaching consensus about the precise meanings
of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration may not be as critical
as clearly defining the roles of the agencies involved, the extent of
their involvement, and the extent of their resource and time
commitments.

Migrant education is cross-jurisdictional by its very definition,
between school districts and between states. Local programs operate
within the parameters of higher jurisdictions, from the district level
to the federal government, and need the support of state and federal
efforts to execute successful coordination and collaboration.

Conditions must favor coordination and collaboration for agencies to
succeed in achieving mutual goals. Melaville and Black described the
environment for change: "The most supportive climate is one in which the
solution to a problem with multiple causes and consequences\...is a top
priority of the community, key decision makers, and service providers,
and where previously established working relationships exist among
potential partners" (p. 20). Also required is a "communication and
problem-solving process participants use to establish goals and
objectives, agree on roles, make decisions, and resolve conflicts. The
process establishes the working relationships and defines the
operational rules necessary to guide the partnership initiative" (p.
21). Kadel pointed out that one of the roles to be agreed on has to do
with leadership; the cooperating partners must reach agreement on who
will lead.

This study describes how migrant education programs in local education
agencies have found ways to promote the continuity of their agencies\'
instruction for migrant students. It shows how their efforts have dealt
with or continue to deal with critical issues: leadership, turf,
definition of roles, resources, cooperation, coordination,
collaboration, and communication. It also illustrates how the programs
that were the foci of the study functioned in the context of local and
state hierarchies.

**Study Questions and Methodology of the Study**

The research team identified six research questions to guide the
study\'s primary objectives:

1.  What were the conditions that led to discontinuity of education for
    migrant students?

2.  What were the problems, issues, and concerns at the school site
    level that resulted from discontinuity of education?

3.  How and why was a particular approach adopted as a strategy to
    promote continuity of education?

4.  What range of approaches are used in migrant education programs to
    promote continuity of education for migrant students, and how are
    those approaches implemented?

5.  What impact have these innovations demonstrated, and what problems
    or obstacles were encountered in implementing these approaches?

6.  What cross-cutting themes emerged from the study?

In order to identify sites to comprise the case studies, all State
Directors of Migrant Education received a letter in January, 1998 asking
them to nominate sites within their states for inclusion in the study.
They were given the following criteria to guide their nominations:

-   The site should have coordinated with another site for at least
    three years in order to promote continuity of educational services
    for the migrant students they share.

-   The site should have in place identifiable coordinating mechanisms
    (e.g., shared curricula, teacher exchange), which promote continuity
    of services.

-   The site should serve significant numbers of migrant students which
    are shared with the trading partner.

-   The site should have demonstrated success in prompting positive
    outcomes for migrant students.

+---------------+---------------+---+---------------+---+---------------+
| # Tradi       |               |   |               |   |               |
| ng Partners I |               |   |               |   |               |
| ncluded in ea |               |   |               |   |               |
| ch Case Study |               |   |               |   |               |
+---------------+---------------+---+---------------+---+---------------+
| **Case Study  | Weslaco       | & | Pasco School  |   |               |
| One:**        | Independent   |   | District,     |   |               |
|               | School        |   | Pasco,        |   |               |
|               | District,     |   | Washington    |   |               |
|               | Weslaco,      |   |               |   |               |
|               | Texas         |   |               |   |               |
+---------------+---------------+---+---------------+---+---------------+
| **Case Study  | Eagle Pass    | & | Sidney School |   |               |
| Two:**        | Independent   |   | District,     |   |               |
|               | School        |   | Sidney,       |   |               |
|               | District,     |   | Montana       |   |               |
|               | Eagle Pass,   |   |               |   |               |
|               | Texas         |   |               |   |               |
+---------------+---------------+---+---------------+---+---------------+
| **Case Study  | Donna         | & | Van Buren     | & | Manatee       |
| Three:**      | Independent   |   | Intermediate  |   | County Office |
|               | School        |   | School        |   | of Education, |
|               | District,     |   | District,     |   | Bradenton,    |
|               | Donna, Texas  |   | Lawrence,     |   | Florida       |
|               |               |   | Michigan      |   |               |
+---------------+---------------+---+---------------+---+---------------+
| **Case Study  | Yuma School   | & | Alisal School |   |               |
| Four:**       | District #1,  |   | District,     |   |               |
|               | Yuma, Arizona |   | Salinas,      |   |               |
|               |               |   | California    |   |               |
+---------------+---------------+---+---------------+---+---------------+

A researcher visited each site between June 1998 and December 1998.
Researchers visited sites that receive migrant students primarily in the
Summer months, the time of highest migrant student enrollment.
Researchers visited sites that primarily send migrant students during
the regular school year. These visits were timed so that the researchers
could observe the impact of the arrival of large numbers of migrant
students and also determine the degree to which educational services
were disrupted at the sites of origin. The same researcher who visited
the receiving site also visited the corresponding sending site.

During these site visits, the researchers gathered information through a
variety of means, including interviews with key personnel and inspection
of relevant documents. They also observed services as they were
delivered to students. Semi-structured interviews formed the primary
source of information. During the course of the site visits, it became
apparent that a large part of the story of migrant education
coordination could be found in the context of systems set in place by
state agencies acting alone or in partnerships, rather than in the
reciprocal activities of local education agencies. Therefore, the
research team also investigated those systems that seemed to provide
programmatic "glue" to local efforts. Those systems included the Texas
Education Agency's Division of Migrant Education (TEA), the Texas
Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP), the Florida Migrant Interstate
Program (FMIP), the Texas Regional Education Service Centers I and XX
(for the New Generation System (NGS) and Project SMART respectively),
Project Estrella, the University of Texas Migrant Program, and the
Florida PASS Program.

Researchers interviewed migrant program coordinators, directors of
federal programs, counselors, teachers, migrant home visitors, school
principals, technical support personnel, personnel associated with
interstate coordination projects, growers, and migrant students and
their parents. The individuals interviewed were too numerous to list in
this study; moreover, they were assured confidentiality to encourage
candor. However, the primary contact persons for each site and project
are listed in the appendix.

Each case was analyzed from the perspective of the educational problems
migrant students faced and the districts' strategies for resolving those
problems. The districts' solutions, which form the heart of this study,
were analyzed according to the levels of coordination they required (as
defined by Kadel and Melaville and Black), who distinguished among
cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. However, the researchers
also found cooperative mechanisms that receiving districts use which are
locally initiated or "unilateral" adaptations to their own services to
provide a match to the migrant students' home district. Since those
accommodations figured prominently in the cases that formed this study,
the "unilateral" level was added to the coordination continuum for
purposes of analysis. The researchers made every effort to distinguish
coordination in its broader sense (referring to the whole continuum)
from its narrower sense (as defined above).

**Organization of the Report**

Chapter Two of this volume consists of the cross-case analysis and
findings relative to the six research questions. It provides a
discussion of the cross-cutting themes that relate to coordination.
Chapter Three presents conclusions and implications drawn from the
cross-case analysis. The detailed case studies are presented separately
in Chapter One of Volume II of this report. That chapter presents the
four cases and describes the promising practices implemented to enhance
the continuity of education for migrant children. It provides important
contextual information on the circumstances of educational disruptions
and the details of the coordination mechanisms that were adopted. Volume
II, Chapter Two describes the special coordination resources the sites
drew upon to support their local solution strategies.

**II. STUDY FINDINGS: CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS**

In this chapter, we discuss the findings of the Trading Partners Study
as they relate to each of the study's six research questions.

Conditions Leading to Discontinuity of Education for Migrant Children

  --------------------------------------------- -------------------------
  **Exhibit 2.1 Conditions That Led to          
  Educational Discontinuity for Migrant         
  Students**                                    

  Condition                                     Cases Reporting Condition

  Lost instructional time due to early          Weslaco -- Pasco\
  withdrawal, while families relocated, and due Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
  to late re-entry                              Donna -- Van Buren --
                                                Manatee\
                                                Yuma -- Alisal

  Lack of information to place students         Weslaco -- Pasco\
  properly                                      Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
                                                Donna -- Van Buren --
                                                Manatee\
                                                Yuma -- Alisal

  Loss of course credits due to lack of         Weslaco -- Pasco\
  information about courses taken elsewhere or  Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
  inappropriate placements                      Donna -- Van Buren --
                                                Manatee

  Missed opportunities to prepare for and take  Weslaco -- Pasco\
  the TAAS                                      Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
                                                Donna -- Van Buren --
                                                Manatee

  Different high school course offerings        Weslaco -- Pasco\
                                                Donna -- Van Buren --
                                                Manatee

  Conflicts between need to work and to attend  Weslaco -- Pasco\
  school                                        Donna -- Van Buren --
                                                Manatee

  Dissimilar language assistance programs for   Weslaco -- Pasco\
  LEP migrant students                          Yuma -- Alisal

  Dissimilar grade placement policies           Weslaco -- Pasco

  Different graduation requirements between     Weslaco -- Pasco
  schools and states                            
  --------------------------------------------- -------------------------

The cases displayed in Exhibit 2.1 show a consistent set of conditions
that led to educational discontinuity for migrant students:

-   Instructional time was lost due to leaving school before the end of
    the school year, time in transit, and returning to school after the
    beginning of the school year;

-   There was a lack of timely and reliable information about students'
    achievement levels, immediate enrollment history, and educational
    needs (e.g., level of English proficiency); and

-   Differences in school curriculum requirements and instructional
    methods between districts and states sharing migrant students (e.g.,
    block vs. traditional schedules, language assistance programs, and
    graduation requirements) led to instructional discontinuity and
    credit accrual problems for secondary migrant students.

**Educational Consequences of Discontinuity**

Migrant students faced the same problems at different sites that
resulted from discontinuity in their education due to their migrant
status:

-   Their academic achievement was lower than that of other students.

-   They had problems building on either the native language or the
    language of acquisition due to placement in different kinds of
    language assistance programs.

-   They lost credits because they frequently were not placed in
    appropriate classes, especially at the high school level.

-   They became discouraged because of their lack of high school credit
    accrual for on-time graduation which, in some cases, led to dropping
    out.

-   They sometimes failed to attend school at all.

**Selection of Strategies to Promote Coordination across States**

Cases examined in the study provide clear examples of efficient and
direct responses to problems. Pasco School District opened a night high
school because older migrant students need to work in the morning; it
placed LEP migrant students in sheltered English classes because they
would not continue studying in Spanish when they returned to the family
home; its counselors communicated intensively with counterparts in
districts such as Weslaco Independent School District because that is
the surest way to get information needed for appropriate class
placements. Yuma School District #1 and Alisal School District
inaugurated e-mail-based information exchange because timely information
was the most critical need; they determined equivalence of their
language proficiency assessments because they needed to understand each
other's language proficiency scores to make immediate decisions about
program placement. Migrant staff from Van Buren Intermediate School
District in Michigan visited schools in Texas to find out more about
their migrant students and also to ascertain to whom they should speak
in order to get that information. Donna Independent School District,
Eagle Pass School District, Weslaco Independent School District, and
Alisal School District began extended day, extended week and extended
year programs to make up the time migrant students were not in school.

The strategies that were available to the migrant programs were often
those that were created beyond the local program level as universal
responses to common problems. Several of the programs used the Portable
Assisted Study Sequence (PASS), a program that was developed in
interstate collaboration as a solution to the problem of credit accrual.
Sidney, Montana Summer Migrant Education Project; and Eagle Pass, Donna,
and Weslaco, I.S.D.s in Texas adopted technology-based solutions such as
Project SMART, Project Estrella and NovaNET, which resulted from efforts
among state directors and regional consortia to collaborate for the good
of their migrant students. Project SMART (Summer Migrants Access
Resources through Technology) is a national distance learning
instructional program that is broadcast via satellite from Texas for
eight weeks over the summer. Project ESTRELLA supports interstate
coordination through the use of laptop computers. NovaNET is a
nationwide computer‑based curriculum. Several of those districts also
utilized the New Generation System (NGS) as a solution to the problem of
timely information (with mixed results), but NGS was made available to
the districts because of collaboration among a consortia of state
directors following the termination of MSRTS. NGS is a comprehensive
database of education and health information on more than 200,000
migrant children that can be accessed by subscribers through the
Internet. Pasco was able to establish its pre-registration system in
Texas because growers had set in place their own early hiring system.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) was able to develop Project SMART
because Texas's Education Service Center (ESC) 20 had already developed
the technology through related distance learning applications.

**Promising Approaches Used to Enhance Continuity of Instruction**

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **Exhibit 2.2 Range of Promising Approaches Used to Enhance the       |
| Continuity of Instruction**                                           |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1.  Alignment of District Policies                                    |
|                                                                       |
| 2.  Improved Student Information Access and Exchange                  |
|                                                                       |
| 3.  Staff Resources to Promote Credit Accrual                         |
|                                                                       |
| 4.  Opportunities for Supplemental Instruction                        |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Four basic approaches were identified to enhance the continuity of
instruction: 1) alignment of district policies, 2) improved student
information exchange and access, 3) staff resources to promote credit
accrual, and 4) opportunities for supplemental instruction.

The alignment of district policies and improved information exchange
systems were strategies that were favored to, among other things,
surmount the lack of timely and reliable information about migrant
students. Strategically placed migrant education program staff was key
in helping migrant students overcome problems due to "differences in
school curriculum and in difficulties of accruing course credits." Not
surprisingly, the problem of "lost instructional time" was addressed by
a wide array of opportunities for migrant students to receive
supplemental instruction.

[Alignment of District Policies]{.underline}. To reduce instructional
discontinuity for migrant students who move back and forth between the
partners in two cases (Weslaco-Pasco and Yuma-Alisal), decisions to
align the educational policies were made. In the Weslaco and Pasco case,
for example, Pasco adjusted its policy concerning language of
instruction and grade placement. Coordination of this type, once the
decisions are made, is very efficient as it becomes a "recurrent
routine" (Stone, 1993) that staff automatically implement on behalf of
migrant students.

+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| **Exhibit 2.3 Examples of "Alignment of      |                       |
| District Policies" as a Means of Enhancing   |                       |
| Continuity of Instruction**                  |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| ## Solutions                                 | Site(s) Reporting     |
|                                              | Solution              |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Limited English Proficient students placed   | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
| according to homebase school's practices     | Yuma - Alisal         |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Agreement on grade placement policies        | Weslaco -- Pasco      |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Determined equivalencies of local language   | Yuma -- Alisal        |
| assessment instruments and information to    |                       |
| ensure mutual understanding                  |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Decision not to adopt a year-round school    | Yuma                  |
| schedule                                     |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+

[Improved Student Information Access & Exchange]{.underline}. This study
documented five very different strategies for exchanging student
information. The most frequently mentioned strategy was the use of the
Texas Migrant Interstate Program. Since its inception in 1981, the Texas
Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP) has provided technical assistance to
migrant education programs across the United States. TMIP facilitates
interstate coordination of services to maximize the full use and
delivery of available resources to migrant students. TMIP's primary goal
"is to increase the graduation rate of migrant students by promoting
coordination/cooperation of migrant education programs that provide
services to migrant students."

The staff of TMIP often serve as the strategy of last resort for migrant
educators who are having difficulty getting information about a
particular migrant student. In contrast, three evolving information
systems (i.e., NGS, Red Bag, and Teacher-to-Teacher e-mail) were
documented as a means of gaining easier access to student data or
exchanging student information. Finally, the pre-registration process
used by Pasco is an uncommon but seemingly effective method of
generating information that facilitates the timely enrollment and proper
placement of migrant students in the district's schools.

+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| **Exhibit 2.4 Examples of "Improved Student  |                       |
| Information Access & Exchange" as a Means of |                       |
| Enhancing Continuity of Instruction**        |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| # Solutions                                  | Site(s) Reporting     |
|                                              | Solution              |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Texas Migrant Interstate Program             | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
|                                              | Eagle Pass -- Sidney\ |
|                                              | Donna -- Van Buren -- |
|                                              | Manatee               |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| New Generation System                        | Weslaco\              |
|                                              | Eagle Pass -- Sidney\ |
|                                              | Donna                 |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Red Bag (Green Bag) Transfer Packet System   | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
| where Texas puts all pertinent               | Eagle Pass -- Sidney  |
| documentationtranscripts, withdrawal slips, |                       |
| test scores and vaccination and medical      |                       |
| informationinto a red bag which the         |                       |
| students and families pick up from the       |                       |
| school before leaving Texas.                 |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| E-mail transfer of student information using | Yuma -- Alisal        |
| Student Identification Cards with e-mail     |                       |
| addresses of teachers and a electronic       |                       |
| student record "template."                   |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Pre-registration program to facilitate       | Weslaco -- Pasco      |
| enrollment in receiving schools              |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+

[Staff Resources to Promote Credit Accrual.]{.underline} In each of the
three cases where the partners were concerned with helping secondary
migrant students graduate, strategically placed staff (e.g., guidance
counselors, migrant resource teachers, or program specialists) were a
common and crucial resource needed to facilitate credit accrual. Given
the nature of the problem (e.g., differences in school curriculum
requirements, partial credits from multiple schools/programs, and the
high caseloads of most regular guidance personnel), additional staff are
needed to attend to and negotiate coordination between the education
received by migrant students and the requirements of the school, school
district, and state from which the student intends to graduate.
Information tools and strategies (such as those discussed above) are
important, but without a person who uses the data appropriately, the
primary goal of credit accrual and graduation will not be achieved.

+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| **Exhibit 2.5 Examples of "Staff Resources   |                       |
| to Promote Credit Accrual" as a Means of     |                       |
| Enhancing Continuity of Instruction**        |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| # Solutions                                  | Site(s) Reporting     |
|                                              | Solution              |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Staff who are charged with communicating     | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
| with other districts to determine            | Eagle Pass -- Sidney\ |
| appropriate courses for credit accrual       | Donna -- Van Buren -- |
| purposes                                     | Manatee               |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Staff who calculate, award and/or accrue     | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
| partial credit                               | Eagle Pass -- Sidney\ |
|                                              | Donna -- Van Buren -- |
|                                              | Manatee               |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Staff who send and follow-up on attendance   | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
| data, grades, and credit accrual information | Eagle Pass -- Sidney\ |
| sent to other districts                      | Donna -- Van Buren -- |
|                                              | Manatee               |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| TMIP and Annual Credit Accrual Workshop      | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
|                                              | Eagle Pass -- Sidney\ |
|                                              | Donna -- Van Buren -- |
|                                              | Manatee               |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Alternative Graduation Plan                  | Pasco                 |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+

[Opportunities for Supplemental Instruction]{.underline}. Two basic
strategies emerge from the array of supplemental educational
opportunities that are supported by Migrant Education Programs to combat
the problem of lost instructional time. In the first strategy, flexible
courses of study are developed that assist secondary students as they
work to accelerate course completion (before withdrawing from school) or
to finish incomplete courses (while on the road or upon return to the
home base school). The newest versions of these flexible courses of
study often use technology (e.g., desktop computer labs, portable laptop
computers, and satellite technology) to facilitate the delivery and
individualization of the courses of instruction. Older formats (e.g.,
correspondence courses and teacher-made study packets) are perhaps less
costly and more widely available. They also may be considerably less
effective. A key for these strategies in moving from "promising" to
"effective" is support for an on-going process to improve continuously
the quality of materials and align them to the appropriate content
standards.

In general, the second strategy revolves around developing a set of
"environments" in which the instructional services are delivered. Almost
all of the school districts supported summer programs as a place and
time in which instructional services could be provided to migrant
students of all grade levels. Originating Texas school districts, for
example, implemented in-school tutorial programs to provide a time and
space for secondary-level migrant students to work on their independent
courses of study or prepare for the TAAS. Similarly, the receiving
states often supported "evening programs" for secondary youth to
complete coursework. Project Estrella provides a "virtual" classroom to
migrant students---wherever they may reside---as long as they can access
a telephone line.

Many of the supplemental educational opportunities were developed by TEA
or by TEA in partnership with other states. TEA has accepted its
leadership role and assumed a large share of the responsibility to
reduce the harmful effects of educational discontinuity on students who
migrate from Texas. It has supported strategies such as TMIP, University
of Texas correspondence courses, PASS, Project SMART, NGS, the Red Bag,
NovaNET, and Out-of-State TAAS testing---all to make it easier for a
state receiving migrant students to coordinate with Texas schools.
Adapting local policies, programs, and procedures is a responsibility
that is incumbent on the states receiving migrant students, but Texas
has made it easier for them if they choose to coordinate services by
adopting and implementing solutions supported by Texas.

  ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------
  **Exhibit 2.6 Examples of "Opportunities for   
  Supplemental Instruction" as a Means of        
  Enhancing Continuity of Instruction**          

  **Solutions**                                  Site(s) Reporting
                                                 Solution

  Summer Program (includes Pasco and Yuma that   Weslaco -- Pasco\
  pay tuition costs for migrant student          Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
  enrollment in district's summer program)       Donna -- Van Buren\
                                                 Yuma

  Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS) is a   Weslaco -- Pasco\
  nationally recognized program offering mobile  Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
  secondary students an alternative means of     Donna -- Van Buren --
  earning full or partial course credits through Manatee
  the completion of self-directed courses.       

  University of Texas (UT) correspondence        Weslaco -- Pasco\
  courses                                        Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
                                                 Donna -- Van Buren

  Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS)     Weslaco -- Pasco\
  preparation                                    Eagle Pass -- Sidney\
                                                 Donna -- Van Buren
  ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------

+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Exhibit 2.6 (continued)                      |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| NovaNET Labs and other Computer-based        | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
| Instruction Tutorials                        | Eagle Pass -- Sidney\ |
|                                              | Donna                 |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Night High School or Evening                 | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
| Classes/Programs for Secondary Students      | Sidney\               |
|                                              | Van Buren             |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Project SMART                                | Weslaco -- Pasco\     |
|                                              | Eagle Pass -- Sidney  |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Project Estrella                             | Weslaco\              |
|                                              | Eagle Pass -- Sidney  |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| In-School Tutorial Programs (to accelerate   | Weslaco\              |
| academic progress and/or to help students    | Eagle Pass\           |
| catch up on worked missed, includes UT       | Donna                 |
| credit-by-exam courses, teacher-made study   |                       |
| packets)                                     |                       |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Out-of-state TAAS administration             | Pasco\                |
|                                              | Sidney\               |
|                                              | Van Buren             |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Academic counseling services-ESL services    | Yuma -- Alisal        |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| After-school/Saturday tutorials              | Eagle Pass\           |
|                                              | Alisal                |
|                                              |                       |
|                                              | Weslaco               |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+
| Inter-session study packets                  | Alisal                |
+----------------------------------------------+-----------------------+

####### **Levels of Coordination Observed.** The methods through which each of the individual strategies were implemented also can be considered in terms of the levels of coordination outlined earlier in this report. Each of the cases presented numerous examples of unilateral accommodations for migrant students; those accommodations took many forms, some of them requiring systemic changes at the institutional level. For example, Weslaco, Eagle Pass, and Donna have implemented special guidance counseling and tutorial programs in recognition of the fact that many of their students simply are not present for significant portions of the school year. Van Buren ISD offers a summer program, which reflects a unilateral decision on its part to provide remedial instruction and enrichment to migrant children during the time they are in residence. Pecan Grove Elementary School in Yuma, Arizona decided not to adopt a year-round school calendar out of consideration for its migrant students. If a migrant student from Texas is not likely to pass the TAAS, Pasco tries to find ways to graduate them from Washington. In implementing each of these solutions, no direct interaction with the trading partner is absolutely necessary.

Cooperation often means the sharing of information in order to make
local decisions and/or to help another district with their tasks.
Weslaco and Pasco, Donna and Van Buren, Eagle Pass and Sidney, all have
staff that calculate partial credit; they also work to accept each
other\'s credits and grades on the basis of what they know about each
other\'s course content and grading systems. Often this cooperation was
facilitated by TMIP and ESC-1, because they have organized visitations
and face-to-face meetings for staff. Migrant staff from Michigan have
visited schools in Texas and Florida to gather information on migrant
students and establish relationships with other migrant educators. The
visits were initiated unilaterally, but they were made possible through
the information resources of TMIP and FMIP, and the cooperation of local
district staff. Efforts in Pasco and Sidney to support the "red bag"
transfer packet system also characterize cooperative behavior. At a
minimum, these practices require more than an awareness of the migrant
students' needs: They require cooperation in information-sharing to
learn what kinds of local actions are needed.

Activities that fit Kadel's (1992) definition of "coordination," which
is one point along the broader continuum of activities generally
subsumed under coordination, include the joint efforts of districts
(both districts of origin and districts that receive migrant students)
working to help migrant students start and complete PASS programs,
University of Texas correspondence courses, and TAAS preparation
activities. Communications between districts to resolve and award course
credits require interactions and negotiations that create coordination.
District agreements to adopt a consistent grade placement policy and
place LEP students in language assistance programs according to the
home-base school's practices are also examples of coordination.
Melaville and Black (1991) would place these practices at a higher level
than cooperation because in each case the districts made "substantial
changes in the basic services they provide."

The Yuma-Alisal case provides a clear example of district-level
collaboration. Personnel from both districts have met and shared
information in an ongoing way; on the basis of that information, they
created a new e-mail system to share information that has implications
for both program placement and classroom instructional practices. In
each of the other three cases, there are examples of state-level
collaboration that work to assist the delivery of local educational
services. For example, Project SMART, NGS, the Out-of-State TAAS
Administration, and Project Estrella all require the pooling of
resources and sharing of authority among multiple partners to design,
test, and implement these activities.

**Implementation Problems or Obstacles**

Evaluating the impact of the approaches and innovations remains
tentative. The researchers found limited evidence about the
effectiveness of the innovations, but most of these innovations are
still being developed. The research team saw examples of students who
were granted credit based on partial credit calculation or courses
completed through distance-learning strategies. Pasco reported that most
of the migrant seniors graduated, but whether this was attributable to
its night school is hard to say.

Attribution of effects in education is difficult because of the number
of impinging variables. Moreover, even if the innovations described in
this study have positive outcomes, when migrant students travel, they
are not enrolled exclusively in schools that implement the innovations.
The high school student from Weslaco may enroll in Pasco's night high
school but leave to follow a new crop before the term ends, and enroll
in another school district without any or the same migrant education
services. The basic facts of migrant life mean that if coordination is
to succeed, it must involve more than a few exemplary sites. The effects
of coordination should be evident on a large scale and involve many
migrant programs.

The problems or obstacles encountered through the implementation of the
innovations chosen for this study were as varied as the innovations
themselves. In Yuma and Salinas, the barriers to implementing the e-mail
information exchange were two-fold: time for planning and
implementation, and equipment limitations for migrant programs in
California. Since NGS cannot be directly accessed by all persons who
need the information, its effectiveness is limited. Coordination with
the purpose of sharing individual student information is especially
difficult given the lack of a national information system and a national
identifier for migrant students.

Technology-based approaches, while promising, present a challenge in
terms of their cost. Texas has found Project SMART to be a good
investment with relatively high start-up costs that drop off once it
enters the maintenance phase. On the other hand, a model such as
Estrella, which issues a laptop to every child, may not be feasible on a
larger scale. Limited access to telephone lines affects the
effectiveness of the laptop computer approach. Computers and software
are costly, especially when factoring in salaries for technical staff to
maintain the systems. This expense may cost more than a local migrant
program may be able to spend. If the basic education program will not
dedicate resources for technology, that coordination mechanism may
remain unavailable or limited in application.

Coordination also requires continuing commitment. It comes at high
personal costs in terms of time and energy, especially in models that
rely on individual effort and outreach. Even when coordination is
institutionalized, it requires ongoing interagency communication. For
example, states that tailor their curricula to match that of Texas need
to remain informed of changes in content standards or other
requirements. Initial adoption is not sufficient to maintain
effectiveness; other states need communication with Texas-based
specialists. Institutional efforts are easier to marshal and maintain
when a sizeable number of migrant students demand attention, and when
those students also bring in dollars through the Title I, Part C,
Migrant Education Program state allocation. Efforts are more difficult
to implement and sustain when numbers of migrant students are small.

**Cross-cutting Themes**

The case studies revealed four different approaches to coordination as
it applies to enhancing educational continuity. This study also isolated
a set of cross-cutting themes related to the solution strategies that
addressed the problems facing migrant students. Those themes, as much as
the coordination strategies, reveal how migrant educators perceive and
address the problems inherent in migrant education. Those themes
recurred throughout the cases:

-   Shared vision of the role of migrant education;

-   An emphasis on program alignment;

-   Challenge of secondary credit accrual;

-   Appropriate use of technology;

-   Maximizing the value of personal relationships; and

-   Importance of leadership.

####### Shared Vision of the Role of Migrant Education

Across the case study sites, migrant educators shared a vision, not just
about their goals for their shared students, but about the role of
migrant education. They viewed the Migrant Education Program as an
educational service that keeps migrant children effectively connected to
the educational reforms being implemented throughout the regular school
year. Their vision supported the federal requirement that migrant
education supplement, not supplant, the basic education program. They
saw migrant students' needs in terms of what they were missing in basic
education, and they saw the MEP as a resource to get information about
those needs to the right people, such as teachers and counselors. They
saw their own roles as facilitators to leverage changes that fit the
needs of migrant students, such as new policies affecting the language
of instruction, provision of supplemental instruction (sometimes through
MEP funds), and counseling that supported students' education in their
home-base states or districts. In states receiving migrant students,
migrant educators often must provide supplemental interventions when
they are not available locally---but with a focus on those services that
best support progress in the homebase school. Although the trading
partners selected different innovations, all of their strategies reveal
their commitment to a shared vision.

####### Emphasis on Program Alignment

Alignment was a consistent theme among all the sites, even if not
identified by local project staff. Each of the cases provided examples
of efforts to align local instruction or instructional methods between
the programs that share migrant students. In particular, they were
committed to alignments with the students' home-base schools for
curricular content and course requirements at the high school level.
Projects that used Project SMART automatically provided the Texas
curriculum for their Texas-based migrant students. Pasco analyzed
courses taken in Texas to ensure local placements were aligned for
content and for credit. It adapted PASS when necessary to ensure its
offerings matched the school of origin's curriculum. At the elementary
school level, trading partners sought alignment in the language of
instruction.

####### Challenge of Secondary Credit Accrual

Every district that serves both elementary and secondary students
reported that secondary education presents a greater challenge because
of the problem of credit accrual. Migrant students at elementary grades
need instructional continuity, but the instructional demands of
elementary-level migrant students can be met through appropriate basic
education services and such supplemental services as after-school,
Saturday, and summer programs. The crisis comes at the high school
level, and stems partially from the lack of access to information that
will guide timely placement and awarding of credit. The crisis also
stems from lost instructional time; distance learning and individualized
programs such as NovaNET and correspondence courses seem to hold the
most promise to overcome this problem.

####### Appropriate Use of Technology

The appropriate use of technology also emerged as an important theme.
Using technology in certain ways provided solutions to the problems of
accessing information and providing instruction to difficult-to-reach
students. Technology also was used in ways that can be described as both
low- and high-tech. At the low-tech end, classroom teachers provided
instruction based on another state\'s curriculum or gave another
state\'s graduation test; counselors picked up the telephone and called
other counselors to find out what classes a migrant student was enrolled
in and what his grades were; tutors worked one-on-one with migrant
students after school to help them make up course credits; and students
studied at home through independent study courses. Further up the
spectrum, migrant data clerks entered current information into the NGS
data base. However, sometimes it took a phone call to TMIP or another
district to discover the facts and/or who to call to access the needed
information. At a higher level, migrant students in Illinois used laptop
computers to study interactively through a mainframe computer at the
University of Illinois, and also interacted by modem with their teachers
in south Texas.

Technology was an effective way to access information in the Yuma-Alisal
e-mail project, the New Generation System, and in local student
databases observed in Van Buren and Weslaco. It figured prominently as a
means for instruction in Montana through Project Estrella, Project
SMART, and NovaNET. Telecommunications and computer technology support
both effective access to information and instructional uses in migrant
education.

Information access came up as a problem in every case, and technology
consistently recurred as a solution. Personnel in districts receiving
new migrant students had a host of questions that sometimes parents
could answer and sometimes were contained in hand-carried documents such
as the green envelopes and red bags. However, too often the questions,
such as what grade the child belongs in, had no immediate answers. If
the answers to many of these questions cannot be obtained quickly and
accurately, the child may lose instructional time undergoing further
assessment. At every site visited, migrant educators needed better
access to information. At every site, respondents said there is a need
for a national system of migrant student identification and access to
appropriate information. One person commented, "The biggest problem now
is the lack of a national data base. Students with multiple moves do not
show up in the records of a state that is not in a shared system. There
is no central reporting of credit accrual." The same person said that
the problem with MSRTS that led to its termination was not the system
itself but its implementation. People simply did not use it properly,
and "ultimately, funding determines what people do. If there is no money
for transferring information, there is no incentive to do it." NGS has
emerged as a technological successor to MSRTS but still does not provide
complete information access even to those projects whose states have
adopted it.

####### Value of Personal Relationships

Another cross-cutting theme centered on the value of personal
relationships. This report has provided several examples of the value
and power of personal relations as they can resolve many of the problems
of migrant education. At nearly every site, the respondents pointed out
that it is important to give migrant educators the opportunity to meet,
learn about one another\'s situations, explore problems, and then set
about to find solutions to the problems. Examples from this study
include: personal meetings and conversations led to additional staff at
Weslaco and Pasco, Donna, and Van Buren; the ability to make appropriate
placements, determine grades, and award credit; they led to Yuma and
Alisal devising an innovative e-mail system for information-sharing
purposes; they led to Project SMART, Project Estrella, and NGS.
Respondents lamented the reduced opportunity for such collegial meetings
due to lack of funding. Before the reauthorization in 1994, migrant
directors often had opportunities to meet under auspices of MSRTS or the
three Migrant Education Program Coordination Centers.

The Office of Migrant Education has funded a series of interstate
projects over the years, as noted earlier in this report, that were
geared to increasing coordination of programs, and there was a strong
communication component. There had to be support for travel for
communication to happen. Now migrant educators at many sites say that it
is difficult to get people out of their own districts and states for the
purpose of talking to one another face-to-face. Part of the solution is
a commitment of federal dollars, and part is communication to states
that coordination is important.

####### 

####### 

####### 

####### Importance of Leadership

The solutions to migrant students' problems also involved different
levels of personal leadership, from near-heroic efforts at the
individual level to profound institutional commitment. Ultimately,
nearly all of the innovations began with personal initiative on the part
of someone who cared, who had an idea, shared the idea with others, and
gained support to bring the idea to fruition. At the personal level,
individuals in Michigan took the time and went to the expense of
visiting programs in Texas and Florida. A project director in Arizona
picked up the phone, called a migrant director in California, and said,
"Let\'s talk," then, "Let\'s meet." Individual state directors and
associated educators met to devise and implement the concepts of SMART,
Estrella, and NGS. However, the innovations would be meaningless without
institutional commitment. NGS is only effective if local districts
dedicate personnel, time and facilities to its use. NovaNET can be
effective in Weslaco because the district recognizes that a large
percentage of its students have to miss part of the school year, and the
district accepts responsibility for helping them keep up and has
dedicated staff, facilities, and time.

Many of the individuals interviewed for this study who articulated the
importance of personal connections also talked about the importance of
state leadership. They said, "You see a person who is clearly designated
as the contact person, who takes care of whole state, ...consistently
participates in interstate coordination activities and communicates
regularly." Solutions to problems were devised when leaders brought
\"people along from all levels\" because then they are committed to
becoming part of the solution.

The state director's role needed to be stable, a fact also cited by
several respondents because there are "lots of agendas within a state
education agency, and even if a state director wanted to collaborate
he/she might not be able to because of those other agendas and pressures
\[and\] it is difficult to maintain a relationship and establish
initiatives that are sustainable when the job rotates through people,
for short periods of time." Currently, most state directors have
multiple responsibilities for multiple programs, and when state migrant
directors do not serve long tenures, it becomes increasingly more
important to reach institutionalized agreements among states so the
coordination does not disappear when the director moves on to another
position.

The researchers met many individuals who have exercised effective
leadership, at state and local levels. Several explicit and implicit
stories of leadership emerged, and it became clear that leaders in
migrant education innovations demonstrated a consistent set of
qualities:

-   A personal vision and commitment to interstate migrant children.

-   Understanding of the migrant experience or of discrimination in some
    form.

-   A position that allocates a significant amount of time to MEP tasks.

-   Positive personal relationships with other State Directors,
    especially those with whom students are shared.

-   Sufficient tenure to have the freedom to work on interstate issues
    and have the time to build relationships.

-   Support of superiors for the district or state's role in migrant
    education and interstate coordination.

-   Staff persons or team with a clear assigned responsibility for
    interstate coordination.

-   Encourage and model collaboration by involving other stakeholders in
    the design and implementation of initiative.

-   Willingness to build on work that others have started in the
    students' home-base state.

-   Support for staff travel to face-to-face meetings with partners at
    conferences, on committees, or in training sessions.

-   Direct experience in implementing and sustaining interstate
    coordination activities with others.

-   Allocation of sufficient funds to address interstate issues.

The degree of authority that local migrant leaders may have depends on
what the state requires. The Office of Migrant Education funds state
migrant programs; it does not directly fund local programs, which must
apply to states for their money. The state migrant education plan may
include a strong interstate or intrastate coordination component, but
its success depends on the commitment of local leadership to implement
it.

Impact (on the extent and quality of services offered to children and
families) at both the state and local levels is imperative for
successful coordination; however, interagency efforts at the state level
are irrelevant if local implementation is not addressed. Long-term
resources and staff allocations must be committed to perpetuate
collaboration. If agency staffs do not follow through at the local
level, little progress may occur and long-term collaboration may
ultimately fail. Interagency coordination at the state level facilitates
interagency work at the local level.

Several of the case study sites were of particular interest because they
had implemented mechanisms developed at the state level. Where state
plans do not include strong coordination components, local leadership
can still explore and implement coordination strategies. Some of the
sites in the study had gone beyond the mandates of their state migrant
education plans and taken advantage of the latitude those plans allowed.
In the field, coordination occurs through the combination of a shared
vision, a commitment to align work and clear priorities, efforts that
make negotiations and program implementation more efficient, personal
relationships that support cooperative attitudes, and leadership to get
the job started and completed. Nudging coordination to a point where all
is working effectively is one matter; sustaining it as an on-going
routine way of doing business presents other difficulties. The migrant
educators who have initiated coordination mechanisms at local levels
retire or are reassigned, and the same is true of leaders beyond the
district level. The mechanisms, though, must be modified continually to
respond to new needs, resources, and opportunities. This modification
requires ongoing orientation and involvement of staff and procedures to
guide their improvement. Otherwise, the mechanisms may outlive their
purposes or even become part of the problem.

**III. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS**

The overarching purpose of this study was to find examples of promising
practices in interstate coordination among migrant education "trading
partners" that help overcome the negative effects of educational
disruption caused by the need to migrate for temporary or seasonal work
in agriculture. The study identified numerous practices, and four
general strategies emerged along, with common themes that recurred
across the Trading Partner sites. The general approaches documented in
this study are:

-   Alignment of district policies;

-   Improved student information exchange and access;

-   Staff resources to promote credit accrual; and

-   Opportunities for supplemental instruction.

The cross-cutting themes discussed in this study illuminated the
conditions, resources, and issues that encourage and make coordination
possible. Those themes included:

-   Shared vision of the role of migrant education;

-   Emphasis on program alignment;

-   Challenge of secondary credit accrual;

-   Appropriate use of technology;

-   Value of personal relationships; and

-   Importance of leadership.

Many of the specific coordinating mechanisms can be replicated and/or
adapted for use by other migrant programs. The procedures, strategies,
and practices involve various levels of coordination, and nearly all
required local accommodations in the basic education program to take
into account the other educational systems with which migrant students
are shared.

The findings of this study, including the crosscutting themes that
emerged, lead to several conclusions about the challenges facing migrant
students and migrant education programs' responses to those challenges.
The conclusions and their implications are:

-   ***Secondary credit accrual poses the most critical challenge for
    interstate coordination.***

The entire school career should progress toward high school graduation,
but graduation cannot occur without adequate credit accrual. Strategies
to address the problem of credit accrual demand the greatest efforts in
time, money, and allocation of resources. These strategies also require
more communication across programs to resolve differences in course
offerings and graduation requirements.

While elementary migrant students also face disruptions due to lost
instructional time, they encounter less disruption due to
dissimilarities in educational programs. However, differences in
language assistance programs for LEP migrant students often require
coordination efforts for migrant students in the elementary grades.
Other strategies to overcome lost instructional time, however, can be
devised locally, such as extended day programs, Saturday school,
inter-session study packets, and summer school.

-   ***Strategically placed staff (i.e., guidance counselors, migrant
    resource teachers, or program specialists) are a crucial resource
    needed to facilitate credit accrual.***

Given differences in school curriculum requirements and the high
caseloads of most regular guidance personnel, additional staff are
needed to attend to and "negotiate" coordination between the education
experiences of migrant students and the requirements of the school,
school district, and state from which the student intends to graduate.
Information management systems are important, but without a person to
use the data, the primary goal of credit accrual and graduation will not
be achieved.

The Office of Migrant Education's policies should emphasize use of
migrant funds for activities that leverage local resources on behalf of
secondary migrant students, reinforcing the supplemental role of migrant
education.

-   ***Flexible courses of study for secondary students are particularly
    promising innovations.***

The development of flexible courses of study are a promising means of
assisting secondary students either to accelerate course completion
(before withdrawing from school) or to finish incomplete courses (while
on the road or upon return to the homebase school). Key factors in
determining the ultimate effectiveness of these strategies are on-going
processes to continuously improve the quality of materials, ease of
access to the courses, and the use technology and training to facilitate
their implementation.

Currently, incentives for states or districts to conduct rigorous
formative and summative evaluations of their instructional innovations
appear nonexistent. Most program staff report being consumed by "just
getting the job done" and do not have the time or resources to
systematically collect and analyze data that would inform the
development of their practices or measure program outcomes. The Office
of Migrant Education should consider options to encourage greater
evaluation efforts by the states.

-   ***The Internet is an emerging means for student information access
    and exchange---but data management capabilities remain a significant
    obstacle.***

While the promise of student information access and exchange via the
Internet was demonstrated by several sites in this study, problems with
data entry, access to hardware, and allegiance to local information
systems continue to be significant obstacles to developing a functional
interstate system.

Moving forward in developing an interstate information access and
exchange system will be difficult. Leadership at both the state and
federal level will be needed to forge a national consensus on how the
disparate systems and interests can be connected or replaced. One means
of moving forward would be to target a priority task or goal for which
widespread demand of a solution is high, such as secondary credit
accrual, and start there to seek common ground. The Office of Migrant
Education is the logical entity that could support a process through
which states can agree on a method to share information electronically
that results in measurably higher levels of credit accrual.

-   ***Interstate coordination takes time and must be nurtured.***

Interstate coordination requires patience, hard work, leadership,
vision, commitment, and institutional support. It takes time to engage
in activities that require building collaborative attitudes, personal
relationships, attention to detail, and substantial effort. It takes
strong and consistent leadership to support, guide, and nurture
coordination mechanisms to maturity and adapt them to new challenges.
Texas's long-term support of TMIP and its Annual Credit Accrual Workshop
is an example of the kind of nurturing that leadership must provide to
introduce best practices, create an ongoing opportunity to orient and
get "buy-in" from new participants, update and re-energize veteran
staff, and help individuals form the important personal connections and
work groups.

The Office of Migrant Education should promote on-going opportunities
for migrant educators to meet to discuss solutions to the kinds of
problems that this study showed migrant students continue to face. The
value and benefit of these meetings will be increased if State directors
also encourage participants to share "hard" data that examines the
strengths, weaknesses, and effectiveness of the strategies advanced to
solve problems related to migrant education.

-   ***Interstate coordination is not just a process. It requires people
    who are committed to solving problems collaboratively.***

Interstate coordination occurs when personnel believe in it and view
coordination as essential to their tasks and student goals. Changes to
programs and systems do not occur without staff members who hold the
attitude and belief that the outcomes will be better for migrant
students if colleagues, schools, districts, and states work together.

In Texas, state staff believe that they need to work with other states
if migrant students are to be served effectively by the education
system. They have acted on this belief by creating mechanisms that make
it easier for any of the 44 states that shares migrant children with
Texas to work with Texas. Similarly, it is the attitude of staff in
states that receive migrant students---whether in Montana, Washington,
or Michigan---of willingness to adapt and align their local programs to
the needs of students who migrate from Texas. Such action fulfills the
possibility of interstate coordination.

[References]{.underline}

Adelman, N.E. & Cleland, C.P. (1987) Descriptive study of the Migrant
Education Section 143 Interstate and Intrastate Coordination Program.
Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates.

Allington, Richard L.; Johnston, Peter. \"The Coordination among Regular
Classroom Reading Programs and Targeted Support Programs.\" in Designs
for Compensatory Education: Conference Proceedings and Papers
(Washington, D.C., June 1986).

Helge, Doris. (1991) Problems and strategies regarding reducing
America\'s migrant student dropout rate. Congressional testimony
delivered in response to a request from the National Commission on
Migrant education. Bellingham, WA: National Rural Development Institute.

Kadel, Stephanie. Interagency Collaboration: Improving the Delivery of
Services to Children and Families. Southeastern Regional Vision for
Education (SERVE), Tallahassee, FL. July 1992. ED 349511

Melaville, A. I. & Black, M.J. (1991) What it takes: Restructuring
interagency partnerships to connect children and families with
comprehensive services. Washington, D.C.: Education and Human Services
Consortium.

Rumberger, R.W. & Larson, K.A. (1998) American Journal of Education, v.
107, no. 1, pp. 1‑35.

Serrano, V.Z. (1983) Mobility and continuity: New Ways of lowering
dropout rates for migrant students through credit accrual and exchange.
Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States. (ED 261 851)

Stone, P.J. (1987) Strategies for Negotiating Coordination (Unpublished
Manuscript).

Walp, T.P. & Walmsley, S.A. (1989) Instructional and philosophical
congruence: Neglected aspects of coordination. The Reading Teacher,
364-368.

**[Appendix A: Case Studies from *Coordinating the Education of Migrant
Students: Lessons Learned from the Field*]{.smallcaps}**

APPENDIX A

TABLE OF CONTENTS

> [Page]{.underline}

Introduction A-1

Case Studies A-2

### Weslaco Independent School District, Weslaco, Texas and 

### Pasco School District, Pasco, Washington A-2

> Eagle Pass School District , Eagle Pass, Texas and
>
> Sidney, Montana Summer Migrant Education Program A-19
>
> Donna Independent School District, Donna, Texas;
>
> Van Buren Intermediate School District, Lawrence, Michigan;
>
> and Manatee County Schools, Bradenton, Florida A-41
>
> Yuma School District #1, Yuma, Arizona and
>
> Alisal School District, Salinas, California A-60

Coordinating Mechanisms: "The Rest of the Story" A-72

INTRODUCTION

The first two case studies described in this appendix focus on migrant
students whose home base lies in Texas. This emphasis on Texas, which
permeates the study, is deliberate for several reasons.

First, Texas originates more migrant students than any other state.
Although California enrolls the largest number of migrant students, most
of those students migrate within the same state, while migrant students
from Texas travel to at least 44 other states. Second, Texas is also
noteworthy because it has pioneered coordination strategies for the
delivery of educational programs and services for migrant students
across sites. In fact, the researchers discovered that many of the
existing coordination mechanisms used by the trading partners profiled
in this study were initiated in Texas or involved interstate planning
between Texas and other states. Third, migrant students from Texas share
a state requirement: They must pass the 10th grade level of the Texas
Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). This requirement is not
insignificant, nor should the TAAS be considered as solely a state test
because it has had an impact on school districts throughout the nation.
Many districts outside Texas that receive migrant students from Texas,
including districts included in this study, incorporate preparation for
the TAAS to further instructional continuity.

The third case study involves migrant children who travel to Michigan
with both Texas and Florida as the sending states. The fourth case study
focuses on migrant education in two other states: California and
Arizona.

These case studies describe each trading partner, list the specific
problems migrant students faced at each site, describe how these
problems provoked innovations, and detail each site's unique and shared
solutions. Each case concludes with a discussion of the coordination
approaches selected and implemented by the trading partners.

**Weslaco Independent School District, Weslaco, Texas**

**and**

**Pasco School District, Pasco, Washington**

The experiences of the Weslaco Independent School District (ISD) and its
trading partner, the Pasco School District, illustrate several problems
that confront migrant students when they change schools as well as
strategies that combat those problems. In particular, this case study
shows how a district that receives migrant students can accommodate its
own services to fit the basic education programs of the migrant
students\' home-base schools. This case also demonstrates how a district
that originates migrant students can modify its procedures to fit the
needs of a large percentage of students who depart to follow seasonal
agricultural work for a significant part of the school year. The
Weslaco-Pasco case is representative of many districts throughout Texas
and the upstream states.

## *The Partners*

[Weslaco Independent School District (ISD), Weslaco, Texas]{.underline}

Weslaco Independent School District (ISD) lies in the lower Rio Grande
Valley near the Mexican border. It consists of one high school, three
middle schools, and seven elementary schools. In 1997‑98, the Weslaco
ISD student enrollment numbered 13,271, pre‑K through 12. Of those,
5,769 (43 percent) were identified as migrant. Weslaco ISD has the
largest number of migrant students among districts in Texas, according
to the Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP). Approximately 40 percent
of Weslaco's students miss part of their schooling due to migration. In
the 1997-98 school year alone, over 75 percent of migrant students left
Weslaco schools for destinations within central stream states. In that
year, Michigan received the largest number of migrant students from
Weslaco (1,342), followed by Minnesota (500), and Ohio (353). Weslaco
ISD sent 724 students to eastern stream states and 481 to western stream
states, including 147 to the state of Washington.

Migrant families usually head north for work in April, a few in March.
They begin returning in September, and some do not return until
November. They go to destinations all over the country‑‑Washington,
Florida, Missouri, Michigan, California, and other states. Of the
migrant students, 2,482 were classified LEP, 278 Talented and Gifted
(TAG), 3,469 at risk (economically disadvantaged), and 371 special
education. Most of the LEP students are not Spanish‑dominant, although
their English is sufficiently limited to warrant special services.

The majority of migrant students who travel between Weslaco and Pasco
consider Weslaco their home. They are accustomed to migration because
most migrant families are multigenerational migrants, although the great
majority now only migrate for the summer months so the children can stay
in school. In part, this change is due to the Weslaco ISD's efforts to
educate families and in part to the students\' desire to remain in
school. Frequently, migrant students who are high school juniors will
stay with relatives so that they can finish the school year and then
will join the rest of the family to help with their work. The number of
students eligible for migrant education services in Weslaco dropped with
the 1994 reauthorization of ESEA because of the decreasing from five
years to two years on the length of time one can maintain MEP
eligibility with "former" migrant student status.

When in Weslaco, migrant families are employed in agricultural work,
working with carrots, cabbage, onions, cucumbers, and squash. This work
includes everything from planting, tending, and harvesting to processing
and packing.

About 80 percent of Weslaco ISD students are classified as low income,
and all schools in the district are Title I schoolwide projects.
Migrant‑funded instructional assistants give first priority to migrant
students who are most in need. Therefore, the Migrant Education Program
still functions according to the targeted assistance model. Migrant
education dollars are not folded into schoolwide projects but instead
are targeted for specific services at the elementary and secondary
levels.

[Pasco School District, Pasco, Washington]{.underline}

Pasco, Washington is located in southeast Washington in the tri‑cities
area, which is comprised of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland. Of the three
cities, Pasco is the smallest and its population's socioeconomic status
is the lowest. Area migrant workers are employed by four corporations in
addition to independent farmers; these workers plant, harvest, prune,
and process crops that include asparagus, apples, potatoes, and
cherries. Pasco receives migrant students from school districts
throughout Texas, including Weslaco.

Pasco\'s Migrant Education Program has undergone funding shifts,
including transferring primary responsibility from supplemental,
categorical funds such as Migrant Education or State Transitional
Bilingual Education Program funds to basic district funds. Special funds
are used to support supplemental positions, but all language development
and academic instruction is provided by certified teachers employed
through basic district funds. Pasco School District does not adhere to a
concept of \"regular\" students for whom the district is responsible
versus \"special needs\" students for whom a special program is
responsible.

## *Problems Facing Migrant Students*

Migrant students who leave Weslaco often share unhelpful experiences
related to their schooling:

-   Some do not enroll in other schools because of difficulties in the
    enrollment process;

-   Some attend schools that make inappropriate placements regardless of
    information provided by Weslaco High School;

-   Some attend schools that do not share information with the Weslaco
    ISD upon the student's return to the home district.

Counselors at Weslaco High School agreed that Migrant Education programs
are a key part of the solution to these problems because districts with
migrant programs ensure that migrant students are enrolled in schools.
Schools with migrant education programs also are much more likely to
make appropriate placements and exchange information. As one counselor
observed, "If there is a migrant program, kids are more likely to go to
school. Whether there\'s a migrant program is the big difference."

Weslaco and Pasco experienced particular problems that sparked their
efforts to coordinate their educational services between sites. These
included:

-   Lost instructional time due to families' moves;

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-   Lost instructional time due to the search for work and housing;

-   Reluctance of older youth to enroll in school when time could be
    spent working in the fields;

-   Dissimilar placement practices between school districts;

-   Dissimilar high school course coverage between school districts;

-   Credits lost because of a lack of student information.

> Each of these problems is discussed below.

*The Loss of Instructional Time*. Until the early 1980s, migrant
students lost instructional time not only during travel from Texas, but
also upon arrival in Pasco. First, the family needed to search for work
and housing. Then, they tried to access Pasco's schools and find support
services such as child care. When these students returned to Weslaco,
they also lost instructional time because they generally arrived six
weeks after the start of the school year.

*The Need for Migrant Students to Work*. Migrant students over the age
of 16 often want to or need to work. Work schedules conflicted with
school hours; if students tried to attempt work and school, they were
often too tired to study with any degree of efficacy. Of course, failure
to attend school leads to academic failure; the fatigue and stress that
results from simultaneously attempting work and school often leads to
poor academic performance.

*Different Placement Practices and Their Effects on Migrant Students*.
Different placement practices used by school districts present another
difficulty for migrant students. For example, the Pasco School District
places students at age‑appropriate grades and endeavors to provide
instruction that meets the student\'s needs. Some districts that
originate students refuse to accept Pasco\'s age‑appropriate placement
if the student did not complete the grade sequence set by the district
of origin. When districts do not accept Pasco\'s placements in grade,
students may have to repeat material they have already studied. As a
result of this relatively common practice, they become bored or
discouraged. They also become overage for grade, which conveys to them
the message that they literally have not made the grade. A consistent
body of research on the dropout problem has shown that being overage for
grade is the single greatest predictor of dropping out.

*Different Course Content and Its Effects on Migrant Students*. Other
incongruities are also troublesome. Pasco has a comprehensive K‑12
bilingual education program, while many Texas districts provide
English‑only programs. Weslaco provides bilingual instruction through
fifth grade, then utilizes an ESL approach. As migrant educators in both
districts worked with migrant students, their efforts to address migrant
students' LEP status motivated their work to place students accurately
in appropriate language support programs with a match to the practices
of the trading partner.

In general, districts that work with migrant students find that problems
are exacerbated at the secondary level. Across the nation, elementary
education is perceived as more or less "generic." Young students build
basic skills and knowledge; it is easier to coordinate their services.
However, at the high school level, different states or districts within
the same state have different graduation requirements. Commonly used
placement practices dictate more narrowly defined courses of study, such
as college preparation or vocational education. High school schedules
can also cause instructional problems. In Texas, for example, as in
other states across the nation, many high schools use block schedules of
four or five 90‑minute classes. Other high schools follow a more
traditional schedule of six to seven classes per day that are shorter in
length. Therefore, the counselor must place the migrant student in
classes that correspond to the other school\'s classes, and fill out the
schedule with other classes, perhaps with electives. These classes may
not advance the student toward graduation or provide a meaningful
educational experience. As students advance in school, it becomes more
critical for educators to rely upon detailed, accurate information about
the student's course of instruction at the home base school.

Eventually, accruing credits toward graduation poses a critical problem
for high school migrant students, due to time lost in moving, different
course offerings, different course content, and different graduation
requirements. Texas students confront the Texas Assessment of Academic
Skills (TAAS) and must meet certain criterion scores on its reading,
writing, and math tests in order to graduate. Pasco has to take that
into consideration in order to help Texas‑based migrant student graduate
from high school.

Migrant educators in both districts reported that figuring out exactly
what the migrant student needs (especially secondary-level students) has
become more difficult with the demise of the Migrant Student Record
Transfer System (MSRTS). While transferring student records has resulted
in partnerships as the state level, such records exchange has been
difficult to implement effectively at the district level. Accurate
district-level information affects even the most promising state-level
systems. For example, in states with records-exchange systems in place,
local districts must input information to their state's database. That
information then must be transmitted to another state, where it is
retrieved by a local district. Time zones create another barrier;
two-hour time differences between school districts result in a
relatively small window of communication time for telephone calls
between educators.

Other problems face migrant students as they try to plan for
post‑secondary education. Too often their mobility affects their
performance on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT. Mobility
itself creates gaps in students' knowledge and understanding of complex
material. Test preparation suffers.

Until recently, educators have held relatively low expectations for
migrant students, limiting them to matriculation from high school. But
migrant students and the educators who work with them need to look
beyond high school graduation to post-secondary education and/or
training to ready them for productive futures. When migrant students
qualify for college entrance, the cost of out-of-state tuition can be an
obstacle they cannot overcome.

## *Promising Practices*

Weslaco and Pasco do not have formal agreements that govern their
cooperative and coordinative practices, but as one interviewee said,
"Both districts do what they need to do." Most of the coordination
strategies developed between the trading partners can be attributed to
each district's sense of commitment to its students. Key personnel in
both districts share the migrant experience, which has informed their
attitude toward the migrant students with whom they work.

[Promising Practices in Pasco, Washington]{.underline}

Pasco relied upon the combined efforts of day care providers, farmers,
agricultural companies, and schools to resolve issues related to
excessive time lost in the move between states. Currently, crew leaders
recruit migrant workers in Texas for employment in the southeastern area
of Washington. The agricultural companies then bring in the workers to a
central location (La Grulla, Texas) for an orientation. Families receive
information on employment, social services, and available housing at
this orientation. To expedite enrollment in the Pasco schools, Pasco
sends a Home Visitor to La Grulla to conduct pre‑registration activities
at the orientation. Counselors in Texas schools support this effort by
notifying families about the pre-registration event.

The Pasco schools rely upon information from the pre-registration
process and upon historical data on student enrollment patterns
maintained by the district to guide their preparations for the arrival
of migrant students. Staff planning for migrant students and their
educational needs begins in January of each year. The Special Programs
Director, the Secondary Coordinator, and the Elementary Coordinator
project what resources will be needed and where students will be placed.
They hire staff for the night school and acquire additional materials.
In the 1997-98 school year, their projections of migrant student
enrollment were accurate within seven students. Migrant students
register for school at a migrant housing site so that migrant families
do not have to seek information on how and where to enroll their
children in school.

The night high school runs from April until late May or early June of
each year so that high school students can take core classes after
normal school hours. The night high school was established specifically
to accommodate the schedules of migrant students who wish to work. The
night high school schedule allows migrant students a break after work,
time to change clothes and perhaps take a nap, before going to school.
This year, 150 students were enrolled in Pasco's night high school,
which also is open to students from other districts if they provide
their own transportation. Until three years ago, the night high school
used the Texas state curriculum to promote curriculum continuity. It
tried to follow Weslaco's curriculum because of the large number of
students that originated from the Weslaco ISD. However, the night high
school now follows the Pasco curriculum because, although the night high
school was designed for migrant students, it is not exclusive to them.

After the regular school year ends, the district offers K-12 summer
school for low achieving students, but not specifically to migrant
students. The district charges tuition to all non-migrant students.
Migrant education funds, received by the district, pay for the tuition
costs of migrant students who need to attend summer school.

The problem of age‑grade placement has been resolved through compromise
between the two school districts. In recent years, Weslaco has been
amenable to accepting Pasco\'s grade placements and does not return
students to lower grades upon their return to Texas. In general, Weslaco
ISD now accepts the grade placements indicated on records from the
schools trading students with it.

Continuity in the language of instruction has been resolved. For
example, if a migrant student qualifies for bilingual services but
attends a home-base school that conducts its instruction only in
English, that student will be placed in the sheltered English strand of
LEP services.

Credit accrual for high school students is facilitated through allotment
of partial credits. Pasco's practice is to calculate the percentage of a
semester that a student spent at the school in Texas. Whatever grade the
student brings to Pasco is assigned that corresponding percentage of the
final grade. For example, if a student spent 60 percent of a semester in
Texas and arrived with a class grade of 84 in algebra, the 84 would
count 60 percent of the final grade. The actual final grade is
calculated on Pasco\'s scale, since it is the grade‑awarding district at
the end of the semester. Partial credit, which takes considerable time
to calculate, continues to be a substantive issue of negotiation.
Unfortunately, at some Texas high schools, no one takes the time to
consolidate partial credits, even though Pasco sends transcripts
immediately upon request.

Information access is the key to the delivery of appropriate services,
timely placement, and awarding of credit. Pasco's Special Programs
Department maintains an extensive computerized database which
encompasses all students in the district, representing the district\'s
commitment to providing an efficient, timely source of information about
students and facilitating monitoring of their progress. The Department
generates a student profile for every special programs student. Every
teacher is notified of each of his or her student\'s membership in
special programs so the teacher may seek additional information or
assistance as needed. The computer system can be used to identify
students who consistently migrate from Texas and those who move out and
re‑enroll frequently. However, Pasco migrant educators report that the
demise of MSRTS has taken away the ability to identify frequency of
moves that do not involve Pasco.

Pasco\'s personnel work hard to communicate with personnel in other
districts. The Texas Migrant Student Transfer Packet system provides one
avenue of communication. The transfer packets are known as the "red bag
and green envelope system." Texas puts all pertinent
documentationtranscripts, withdrawal slips, test scores and vaccination
and medical informationinto a red bag which the students and families
pick up from the school before leaving Texas. Experienced migrant
families know this routine, and most children from Texas arrive with
their red bag. Pasco uses a green envelopethat was developed quickly
after the demise of MSRTSto send similar kinds of information when
students leave. However, personal contact still forms a large part of
the coordination. Staff report that it is key to find someone sensitive
in the trading district with whom to communicate. Responsibility for
follow‑up phone calls to verify student information is placed on the
schools. The Special Programs Department also maintains the district
database, which identifies migrant students and their districts of
origin. The system has the potential to verify current grade placements,
credit accrual, and graduation.

Although most students arrive with their red bags, withdrawal slips have
to be confirmed and official transcripts obtained. This requires many
person‑hours by phone and fax. Pasco\'s counselors also take advantage
of the Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP), which has an 800
tollfree number that counselors can call for assistance in contacting
schools, or the school district can call for help in locating another
school. The Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP) has information on
TAAS scores and contact persons at a student\'s previous school. About
30 percent of the calls made by Pasco staff are to TMIP; most other
calls are made directly to the originating school. All Pasco school
facilitators have the TMIP Directory.

Finally, Pasco's institutionalized support for the Migrant Education
Program is illustrated in the relationship between the Special Programs
Department and the rest of the district. While direct instructional
service is funded through basic district resources, technical leadership
and program management are administered by the Special Programs
Department. For that reason, the Special Programs Department has a
well-defined role but does not shoulder primary responsibility for
instruction. This structure allows migrant education services to
interact effectively and efficiently with other special services, such
as the state‑funded Learning Assistance Program, the federally funded
Title I program, the Transitional Bilingual Education Program, and
special education services. This structure achieves the programmatic
congruence described by Walp and Walmsley (1989) and noted in Volume I.
The Special Programs Department also currently conducts the districtwide
assessment program, ensuring consistency and non‑duplication in testing
practices.

Evidence of the local solutions was seen in samples of the student
database identifying migrant students, grade and course placements, and
type of services received, such as bilingual education. The researchers
also saw samples of partial credit calculation. Crew leaders and the
processing plant personnel manager corroborated the recruitment methods
and local partnerships with growers.

In June 1998, 16 of 20 migrant seniors were graduated from night high
school. Four seniors were graduated from Pasco High School because they
did not pass the TAAS, and the other 12 graduated from Texas schools
although they had attended some schooling in Pasco, Washington. Four
other seniors were credit-deficient and could not graduate.

[Promising Practices in Weslaco, Texas]{.underline}

Weslaco supports migrant students with practices targeted to their
departure and their return. Departing high school students can be given
course study guides, and when they return, gain credit by passing exams.
If a migrant student enters school within six weeks of the semester's
beginning, s/he is placed in regular classes. After that time, or if the
student has very low language or academic skills, s/he is placed in a
self‑paced study program. This option includes modules from the American
Preparatory Institute (API). Each module has a pre‑test and a post‑test.
These study modules are problematic, however, because they require
reading ability many students do not possess. Unit and semester tests
for the API modules were devised locally to ensure the same levels of
competency as corresponding regular classes. These self‑paced programs
last only for a semester. At the semester's end, the student is placed
in regular classrooms.

The Weslaco ISD\'s Migrant Education Program supports extended-day
programs, through Saturday tutorials at elementary schools, regular
tutorials at grades 1‑6, and some self‑paced packets at grades 7‑12. The
Saturday tutorials begin in January when all of the migrants have
returned. All migrant students are referred to Saturday tutorial school.

The supplemental education services that Weslaco High School provides
for its migrant students are the NovaNET Lab, the American Preparatory
Institute modules, and night school. These solutions specifically meet
the needs of migrant high school students who return to Weslaco too late
in the school year to be placed in a regular class.

[*NovaNET*.]{.underline} In 1997‑98, the district began using NovaNET, a
nationwide computer‑based curriculum. NovaNET was introduced to Weslaco
ISD through the district's involvement in Project ESTRELLA. Project
ESTRELLA is a five-year interstate initiative funded by the U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Migrant Education. The Project brings
laptop computer technology and telecommunications directly into the
hands of migrant students.

NovaNET Learning, Inc., writes curricula which can be modified by
districts and uploaded to the mainframe. Once on the mainframe, these
modified curricula are available to anyone. Districts pay a fee to the
company for access to the curricula, as well as a hook‑up fee.

While Weslaco's involvement with NovaNET began with migrant students, it
now has expanded to include other special needs students, such as
pregnant students or those on medical release from school as long as
costs of the program are shared. The district has a total of 50 ports
among the high school, the junior high schools, and the ninth‑grade
campus. These ports are used during the regular school day, in
extended-day programs, and for adult school (GED).

NovaNET offers students the opportunity to make up core subjects through
the use of distance learning technology as well as enroll in a range of
classes from basic through advanced placement levels. However, in the
opinion of Weslaco High School staff, not all courses are equally
strong. NovaNET has been aligned to the Texas Educational Knowledge and
Skills (TEKS). Currently, counselors and other staff are trying to align
curricula to specific Weslaco High School requirements. Students who
enter with class records are more likely to be placed in a class than in
API or NovaNET.

Weslaco High School has a full‑time NovaNET teacher, funded by the
Migrant Education Program, who supervises the NovaNET lab during the
day. This teacher explained to researchers that migrant students receive
priority for time in the computer lab. In addition, there are two
part‑time evening NovaNET teachers. The lab has 20 ports for NovaNET
access, allowing 20 students at a time to access the NovaNET curricula.
One port is used for call‑in from laptops.

The district has hired two teachers from each of the four core areas to
grade NovaNET assignments, to ensure that NovaNET work is equivalent in
content and quality to what is offered in regular classrooms. Plans are
underway to set up NovaNET science labs to simulate experiments without
the usual hazards of chemical spills, burns, and other injuries.

*API (American Preparatory Institute)*. This program focuses on the
teaching of critical skills containing special instructional multi-media
materials. It is designed to help high school students in grades 10-12
to continue with their respective graduation program plans and
facilitates the opportunities for migrant students to obtain
scholarships.

Weslaco staff reported that they now accept grade placements made by the
last enrolling district. Weslaco offers bilingual instruction in grades
K‑5, but not in grades 6‑12. Finally, while other Texas districts use
block scheduling at the high school level, Weslaco does not. Therefore,
the issues raised in Pasco were often generic to Texas but not specific
to Weslaco.

Weslaco\'s Migrant Education Program also relies heavily on the Texas
Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP) and on Region 1, a regional service
center under the auspices of the Texas Education Agency, to assist it
with problems related to information access and coordination activities.
Those entities have organized or facilitated some of the visits by
counselors from Pasco and other districts outside Texas. TMIP provides a
point of contact to identify previous districts attended by migrant
students if those districts were in Texas or other states that support
the Texas Migrant Student Transfer Packet. The Education Service Center
in Region I (ESC-1) serves as a point of contact for the New Generation
System, which provides electronic access to student records and allows
identification of migrant students' previous schools.

Weslaco\'s 1997‑98 Migrant Student Academic Performance evaluation
report confirmed that the district has helped its migrant students to
succeed academically, but the same evidence illustrated how migrant
students graduation rates are not increasing. The report showed high
passing rates for migrant students on the reading and math portions of
the TAAS. The passing rates per grade level are presented in Exhibit
1.1.

+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| ### Exhibit 1.1:      |                       |                       |
|  TAAS Pass Rates by G |                       |                       |
| rade Level in Weslaco |                       |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Grade                 | TAAS---Reading        | TAASMath             |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 3                     | 94%                   | 95%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 4                     | 96%                   | 98%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 5                     | 86%                   | 98%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 6                     | 81%                   | 94%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 7                     | 71%                   | 78%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 8                     | 65%                   | 74%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 10                    | 83%                   | 73%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 11                    | 40%                   | 57%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| 12                    | 67%                   | 86%                   |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+

It should be pointed out that 10th grade represents the TAAS exit level.
Students who took the TAAS in 11th or 12th grade generally had not
passed it before. The data shown above for 11th and 12th grade are based
on relatively few students, mostly low-performing students who did not
pass the TAAS in 10th grade.

The TAAS data suggest that Weslaco's migrant students generally made
good academic progress. However, the data that show overage students at
each grade level tell a more complicated story. At every grade reported
from second to eighth, no migrant students were overage for grade.
However, at 9th grade, the figure jumped from zero to 49 percent. At
high school, grade level is designated according to the number of
credits earned. The TAAS data shown above, coupled with the number of
students who were overage for grade, probably reflect the difficulties
migrant students have as they try to accrue credits for graduation.

Weslaco\'s efforts on behalf of its migrant students have demonstrated
success. In November 1998, the Texas Education Agency recognized five of
Weslaco\'s seven elementary schools at the state\'s migrant conference
for migrant students' exemplary passing rates on the TAAS. In 1998, no
one was denied graduation on the basis of not passing the TAAS. This may
speak to the positive effects of TAAS preparation offered by districts
outside of Texas.

## *Discussion*

Migrant students moving between Weslaco, Texas and Pasco, Washington
faced a number of problems associated with their moves across district
and state boundaries:

1.  Students lost valuable learning time while families moved, found
    work, and located housing and child care.

2.  Students lost instructional time during the time families work in
    areas that do not have Migrant Education Programs.

3.  Students experienced conflicts between their need to work and to
    attend school.

4.  Students experienced dissimilar grade placement policies.

5.  Limited English Proficient migrant students suffered from dissimilar
    language assistance programs.

6.  Migrant students' academic progress was impeded by different high
    school course offerings.

7.  Migrant students lost course credit toward graduation because they
    did not attend school or were placed inappropriately in courses in
    other districts.

8.  Migrant students lost course credit due to a lack of information
    about courses taken elsewhere.

9.  Migrant students lost high school credits because they left school.

10. Migrant students missed opportunities to prepare for and take the
    TAAS.

11. Different districts serving migrant students had different
    graduation requirements.

Pasco and Weslaco have made many local changes in curriculum,
instruction, and data processing to accommodate the special needs of
their shared migrant student population. While most of the solutions
were devised at the local level, the school districts draw assistance
from interstate mechanisms such as the Texas Migrant Interstate Program,
which facilitates personal communication; Project ESTRELLA, which
introduced Weslaco to NovaNET; and the New Generation System, which
provides electronic access to student records and allows identification
of migrant students' previous schools.

The two districts worked hard to coordinate the educational services
they extended to migrant students. Their coordination efforts and
strategies are summarized below:

1.  The two districts coordinated their efforts with growers and Texas
    schools for pre‑registration; alternative registration sites were
    provided in Pasco.

2.  Pasco's grade placements were determined in cooperation with Texas
    schools.

3.  Limited English Proficient (LEP) migrant students were placed in
    sheltered English or bilingual programs according to Texas schools\'
    practices.

4.  Course placements were made based on their similarity to Texas
    courses or individualized Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS)
    packets.

5.  The opportunity to attend night high school was provided to migrant
    students during the peak agricultural season.

6.  Partial credits were calculated and credits awarded so that migrant
    students could progress in a timely fashion toward high school
    graduation.

7.  PASS packets helped graduate students with Washington state
    diplomas.

8.  In collaboration with the Texas Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP),
    preparation for the TAAS as well as opportunities to take the TASS
    were provided to migrant students in Pasco.

9.  Student records were exchanged through the "red and green bag"
    transfer packet system.

10. Instructional time was flexible and included extended-day programs
    as well as Saturday programs after migrants have returned to their
    home-base district, tutorials, and evening classes at the high
    school.

11. Individualized courses were designed for migrant students to meet
    local content standards; these were provided through API packets and
    NovaNET labs and materials.

12. Staff communicated intensively with their peers in other districts
    so that migrant students could be awarded credits through partial
    credit calculation or matching course content.

These efforts and strategies involved various degrees of coordination at
differing levels. Several illustrate local, unilateral accommodations,
such as the creation of a night high school. However, it was necessary
for staff in both districts to cooperate, coordinate procedures, and
collaborate with other agencies to develop any strategies for migrant
students. For example, pre‑registration procedures evolved out of
coordinative efforts with growers, and are carried out with the
cooperation of school districts such as Weslaco ISD. The bilingual and
sheltered English language assistance programs were developed to meet
local needs, but placing migrant students in the appropriate language
assistance program requires cooperation in sharing information or the
coordination or provision of information such as through the "red bag
and green envelope" system. Accurate placement in grade also requires
shared information and an agreement to honor another district\'s
placement policies. Partial credit calculation, correct course
placements, and the provision of individualized programs all require
intensive communication between the trading partners and mutual
understanding of course content and grading practices. Preparation for
the TAAS as well as its administration also requires collaboration with
the TMIP in order to keep the service up-to-date and ensure that the
local results are duly credited. Much of this understanding has come
about through coordination efforts above the district level, notably the
credit accrual workshops and educator visits sponsored by TMIP and ESC
Region I.

The extended-day programs and individualized courses are local
accommodations tailored to migrant students\' unique needs. These
accommodations ensure curricular congruence for migrant students so
local and state standards from the home district are met. Coordination
with other entities becomes critical at the high school level to allow
students to graduate. The most demanding effort is the cooperation with
counselors in other schools to obtain information about courses taken in
order to award credit and calculate partial credit. Both districts also
take advantage of the systems that were put in place, notably the Texas
Interstate Migrant Program, in order to locate other schools or to meet
with other educators to share information about their respective
programs in order to facilitate the awarding of credit.

As noted in Volume I, Allington and Johnston (1986) discussed the
importance of coordination between different programs that serve the
same children in order to achieve curricular congruence, especially
congruence between what is to be taught and the methods of instruction.
The practices described above go far toward achieving congruence for the
migrant students even as they travel between districts across state
lines. In addition, the Weslco and Pasco case illustrates the
cooperative conditions needed to successfully transition migrant
students between school systems.

Effective communication built via personal relationships also seems
critical for program effectiveness. For example, even with a record
transfer system in place (i.e., in the form of red bags and green
envelopes), individuals must spend a great deal of time verifying
transcripts and withdrawal slip information, primarily via telephone and
fax. Communication and cooperation have been facilitated by personal
contact. In early 1998, the Washington state migrant director took a
group of superintendents to Texas as part of an initiative on the part
of the Educational Service Center 1 in the Rio Grande Valley to
familiarize them with Texas-based programs and make them aware of
migrant issues. In 1998, the Pasco superintendent made the same visit.
Texas superintendents made a similar trip to Washington a few years ago.
During the 1997‑98 school year, a Pasco High School counselor visited
south Texas to establish personal contact with her counterparts there;
she has found the trip made other counselors more willing to share
information with her.

During the site visit for this study, Weslaco High School counselors
produced a letter from Pasco High School to which had been appended
complete and current transcripts. These transcripts had already been
filed, but a sample of three students\' transcripts showed that classes
begun in Weslaco had been completed in Pasco. That was possible because
the personnel in both districts cooperate with each other. One counselor
at Weslaco asked, "If Pasco and Weslaco can work together, why not other
districts?"

**Eagle Pass Independent School District , Eagle Pass, Texas**

**and**

**Sidney, Montana Summer Migrant Education Program**

The Eagle Pass-Sidney case study illustrates how a sending site and a
receiving site were able to take advantage of instructional programs and
information systems that were set in place by state-level initiatives.
In this case, the two sites primarily use technology-facilitated
instructional programs to enhance educational continuity for their
shared students. Additional efforts to coordinate educational services
via improved access to student records are facilitated by the joint use
of the Internet-based New Generation System.

## *The Partners*

[Eagle Pass Independent School District, Eagle Pass, Texas]{.underline}

Eagle Pass is situated in the upper Rio Grande Valley of Texas, on the
United StatesMexico border. For over 20 years, migrant families from
Eagle Pass have been traveling annually to eastern Montana to work in
the sugar beet fields. These families generally withdraw their children
from the Eagle Pass Independent School District (ISD) in the Spring
before school is out for the year and do not return until after school
has reopened in the Fall.

The sugar beet work in Montana generally lasts for two months (e.g.,
June and July), after which the migrant families move on in search of
other agricultural work. Some might travel to Minnesota for cannery work
in the food processing industry and then on to Maine for the blueberry
harvest later in the summer, followed by a cross-country trek to
Washington to dig potatoes in the fall. After returning to Eagle Pass in
November, some families may move eastward to Florida for a brief period
of work in the citrus fields during December and January. The frequent
migration pattern seen at Eagle Pass is typical of the migration
patterns seen at many school districts in Texas that lose large numbers
of their students during the start and close of the school year, as well
as intermittently during the school year.

Migrant families staying in Eagle Pass over the summer or through the
winter have limited employment opportunities. Local jobs for those with
limited skillssuch as migratory farm workersappear to be available in
the food service industry (e.g., at McDonalds, Burger King, or Pizza
Hut). Additionally, local ranchers on both sides of the border hire day
laborers for work connected with the cattle industry (e.g., harvesting
hay).

The Eagle Pass ISD enrolls about 8,000 students, most of Hispanic
origin. Approximately one in five Eagle Pass students is a migrant. The
secondary-level student population is served by two high schools: Eagle
Pass High School (for 9th and 10th graders) and the C.C. Winn Campus
(for 11th and 12th graders). Two junior high schools and 11 elementary
schools serve the K-8 population. Specialty programs are housed in the
Language Development Center, the Early Childhood Center, the Literacy
Academy, and the Frank Chisum Regional Technical Center.

Eagle Pass ISD's curriculum is aligned with the state curriculum, the
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Eagle Pass also aligns its
instruction with the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). Both
the TEKS and the TAAS have been adopted and approved by the Texas Board
of Education and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for use by school
districts throughout Texas.

[Sidney Summer Migrant Education Project, Sidney, Montana]{.underline}

The Sidney Summer Migrant Education Project serves eligible families who
live temporarily in the Richland County area of eastern Montana,
primarily along a 40-mile stretch of the Yellowstone River from Fairview
(on the North Dakota border) to Savage. Sidney is the mercantile center
for Richland County. Agriculture is the dominant economy in eastern
Montana; Richland County is first in the State for production of sugar
beets and oats. Holly Sugar is one of the main employers in the region.
Migrant families come to Richland County in the summer to work as farm
laborers thinning and weeding sugar beets or to work in the sugar
refinery at Holly Sugar.

At the time of the site visit in mid-June 1998, the Sidney Migrant
Summer Project had qualified 58 families and approximately 120 children;
107 (89 percent) of the children were from Texas. Of these 107 children,
67 were of school age (grades 1-12) and enrolled in the Sidney Migrant
Summer Project. Twenty-five of the 67 school-age Texas children were
enrolled in the secondary program (grades 9-12). The middle school
program (grades 6-8) accounted for 25 of the Texas-based children; the
elementary program (grades 1-5) accounted for the remaining 17 students.
The 34 preschoolers were enrolled. Six of the eligible children were not
enrolled in school at Sidney. Sixty-five students (age 21 and younger)
were actually on-site at the Sidney Migrant Summer Project on June 18,
1998. State records indicated that 44 percent of the Texas-based
students were from Eagle Pass.

## *Problems Facing Migrant Students*

In this case study, the main problem experienced by Texas-based migrant
students is credit accrual at the secondary level. Typically, migrant
students withdraw from school before the end of the academic year in
order to travel out-of-state with their families in search of
agricultural employment. Over time, this pattern has a cumulative
effect. Migrant students fall behind in their schoolwork. They
experience problems with school attendance, problems with school grades,
problems with course completion, problems with school re-enrollment, and
course failure problems which in turn affect their ability to accrue
credits, be promoted in grade, and graduate from high school. These
problems are compounded at the middle school and high school levels
where course enrollment and grade promotion are contingent on mastery of
particular course sequences of study.

The first problem faced by migrant high school students is the need to
complete their coursework and obtain credit for it towards graduation.
This problem can be resolved either before the student withdraws from
school or after the student leaves school. The second problem these
students encounter is continuing their education while on the road. In
order to continue their education, they need to be enrolled in some form
of secondary school program that will allow them to earn high school
course credits in ways that comply with their needs. Their choices
include not enrolling in a relevant secondary education program,
enrolling in a relevant program before leaving their Texas school, or
trying to find an appropriate program to enroll in once relocated to
another state.

If the migrant student enrolls in a secondary school program to complete
his or her courseworkeither before leaving Texas or upon arrival in
another Statethe next problem h/she faces is appropriate course
placement. Furthermore, in order for Texas-based secondary migrant
students to receive course credit for academic work done outside of
Texas, the home-base school district in Texas must agree to accept their
coursework. Otherwise, courses taken out-of- state will not transfer
back to Texas and count toward requirements necessary for a Texas high
school diploma.

Lost time in school also means loss of academic preparation needed to
take the TAAS with any degree of success. The TAAS must be passed to
obtain a Texas high school diploma. Most students take the TAAS as
sophomores but have additional opportunities to take the test before
graduation.

Finally, most interstate migrant families generally return to Texas in
the Fall after school has re-opened. In many cases, families don't
return until around Thanksgiving or later. This late re-entry into
school is problematic, particularly in schools that use block
scheduling. In these situations, the migrant student may be required to
wait until the next marking period, the beginning of the next curriculum
block, or the next semester to re-enroll in school. Additional school
time is lost, as are opportunities to earn secondary course credits
needed for graduation.

## *Promising Practices*

The Montana Office of Public Instruction (MOPI), the Texas Education
Agency (TEA), and the Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP) have a
history of formal collaboration that has resulted in a joint
technology-based approach to instructional continuity and records
exchange in migrant education. A 1993 Cooperative Agreement between the
Montana Office of Public Instruction and the Texas Education Agency
stated that Montana and Texas would "work in a cooperative effort to
promote and facilitate instructional practices and policies which meet
the needs of migrant children." These agencies listed specific goals:

# To encourage communication among educators in both states to facilitate the transfer of high school credits for migrant students that would lead ultimately to their graduation;

# To support and facilitate the completion and acceptance for credit of coursework started in one state and completed in the other state;

# To support and accept the exchange of high school credits and partial credits between school districts in our states;

# To accept the supplementary coursework provided in each state (including but not limited to the University of Texas Skill Building Courses; and PASS) and facilitate its completion;

# To provide support for the completion of state or local competency testing requirements for high school students.

This agreement has led to an annual spring training conference in
Billings, Montana, sponsored by TEA/TMIP/MOPI and geared to Montana and
Texas migrant educators. It focuses on the cooperative implementation of
distance learning instructional technology (i.e., Project SMART) and the
parallel use of computer-assisted technologies for instruction (i.e.,
NovaNET computer labs and laptop computers) and records exchange (i.e.,
the New Generation System \[NGS\]). Other issues related to interstate
coordination in migrant education are also discussed and updated at this
annual conference (e.g., migrant student identification, the Red Bags,
credit accrual, TAAS preparation, and out-of-state administration of the
TAAS). Representatives from both states also attend a credit accrual
resolution conference hosted every Fall in the Rio Grande Valley by the
Texas Migrant Interstate Program.

As a precursor to implementing these technological solution strategies,
the MOPI-TEA-TMIP collaboration resulted in an alignment of Montana\'s
migrant education instruction with the Texas state curriculum (TEKS).
Montana's migrant education assessment policy also was aligned with
Texas's provisions for administering the TAAS out-of-state. Provisions
were made for preparing Texas-based migrant students for the TAAS so
that they were prepared for its content and also equipped with adequate
test-taking skills. This, in turn, led to the use of TEKS-aligned
instruction and assessment practices by the Montana Office of Migrant
Education for its summer school projects.

The SMART Project curriculum was implemented first in Montana in the
summer of 1991, followed by the implementation of the NovaNET
curriculum, first through the use of computer labs in the summer of 1993
and then with the introduction of laptop computers in the summer of
1998. These developments in instructional technology required additional
collaborative relationships: not only between TEA/TMIP/MOPI but also
with curriculum and software developers at NovaNET Inc., Apple Computer
Inc., Montana MET-Net, Texas Tenet, the Region XX Education Service
Center in San Antonio (ESC-20), and the Southwest Regional Educational
Laboratory.

At the local level, the Sidney Migrant Project and the Eagle Pass ISD
(as well as La Joya, Weslaco, and Pharr ISDs) have had a long history of
collaboration in which Montana has adopted instructional innovations
first tried out in Texas. This initially occurred with the development
of distance learning technology through Project SMART in Texas in the
late 1980s and its pilot testing for interstate applications in Montana
in 1991. Then came the spread of the NovaNET lab concept at the school
district level. The initial diffusion of NovaNET in Texas took place in
the late 1980s and early 1990s. The adoption of temporary NovaNET labs
for migrant education in Summer projects took place in Montana during
1995 after state education officials observed the labs in operation in
Texas districts such as Eagle Pass.

The spread of computer-assisted instructional technology in Texas
eventually extended to the use of laptop computers with interstate
migrant students. Eagle Pass ISD was an early developer of laptop
applications for its migrant population. In 1996, MOPI adopted the
laptop concept by funding a pilot project involving 10 migrant students
traveling between Texas and Montana. Subsequently, the laptop project
was strengthened by collaboration between the Illinois Migrant Council,
MOPI, and TEA, which resulted in the acquisition of federal technology
funding that currently supports Project ESTRELLA. This collaboration
increased the number of interstate partnering sites that share
Texas-based migrant students who promote educational continuity through
the use of laptop computer technology. Consequently, the Sidney Summer
Migrant Education Migrant Project now uses laptop computers as an
additional distance learning option in collaboration with the Eagle Pass
ISD.

A description of how each partner implements these strategies follows.

[Promising Practices in Eagle Pass ISD]{.underline}

When an Eagle Pass counselor discovers that a migrant student will leave
school in the Spring before the end of the school year, or has returned
to Eagle Pass in the Fall after school has opened and wants to
re-enroll, he/she will try to get the student involved in one or more of
the following interventions:

-   Computer-assisted instruction through a NovaNET lab or assignment of
    a laptop computer;

-   Enrollment in a TAAS-Prep course available through one of several
    options;

-   Participation in the credit-by-exam option offered through the
    University of Texas Migrant Program;

-   Enrollment in Project SMART.

Each of these major interventions is described below, including their
alternative delivery systems.

*NovaNET*. A description of NovaNET was provided in the first case
study. Eagle Pass has been implementing NovaNET since the 1993-94 school
year. NovaNET labs in the Eagle Pass ISD are housed at both of the high
schools and are used as an alternative instructional methodology for
secondary students who have failed in the regular classroom. Two
teachers (English and math) and a lab manager supervise each NovaNET
lab. A school counselor makes recommendations for NovaNET enrollment for
the migrant students in either the Spring or Fall of the school year. In
the Spring, these assignments include Summer assignments for migrant
students given laptop computers who then have the capability of
accessing the NovaNET lab in Eagle Pass from remote out-of-state
locations using their computer's modem connected to a telephone.

NovaNET software modules cover the full spectrum of the Texas secondary
school curriculum, from math and English to science and social studies,
including TAAS-Prep, PSAT-Prep and SAT-Prep, GED-Prep, and ESL. English
courses tend to be the main focus for the migrant students and NovaNET
is considered strong in terms of its English grammar lessons. NovaNET is
a good alternative for students who need individualized attention---from
the individualized approach provided by computer-assisted instruction
and from individual and small group work with the NovaNET teacher. It
allows students to work at their own pace and follow their own time
schedule. However, it does not provide much opportunity for extended
reading or writing composition. For these latter areas, school personnel
tend to augment NovaNET with curriculum material from other sources.

Most students using NovaNET are trying to make up assignments to get
credit in their classes. Course credits are based on the number of
lessons that are completed satisfactorily in the assigned NovaNET
modules. The NovaNET teacher verifies the work, assigns a grade, and
posts the grade or grade change with the registrar's office in the ISD.

The NovaNET labs in Eagle Pass address a number of different kinds of
student situations bearing on credit accrual needs. These are reviewed
below and can generally be considered variations of an "extended day"
approach.

*Eighth-Period Instruction with High School Seniors*. The upper-division
high school (C.C. Winn Campus) uses NovaNET with high school seniors who
have failed a required English or math course and who are taking more
than one English or math course. NovaNET provides these seniors an
opportunity to complete the course they need for graduation when they do
not have the opportunity to take the needed course a second time because
they cannot fit the course into their schedule or because the needed
course is not being offered before the end of the school year. NovaNET
is offered for these students during the eighth class period of the
school day. This allows these seniors to pick up the English or math
credit they need during the school year and graduate on time with their
class. Thus, they avoid the need to enroll in summer school or re-enroll
in high school after their senior year to complete a single course
needed for graduation.

The 8th period option is also used as an alternative for migrant
students who cannot attend the Saturday and After-School "add-on"
Programs in the Fall because of weekend or after school employment. They
also are an alternative for migrant students returning to Eagle Pass
late in the Fall who have been denied course or school enrollment
because of block scheduling conflicts. The NovaNET labs provide these
migrant students with opportunities to resume their education when they
cannot enroll in a class they need to complete for graduation.

*Accelerated Instruction for High School Sophomores and Juniors*.
NovaNET provides sophomores and juniors an opportunity for accelerated
instruction. Participants in this program include those migrant students
who want to complete their coursework in the Spring before withdrawing
from school to travel with their family for employment out-of-state. It
also provides a solution for those migrant students who do not want to
make up the course in summer school. Such students must demonstrate a
degree of self-motivation and independence to be successful with
NovaNET.

*Graduation Enhancement*. Migrant students who enroll a few weeks late
in the Fall or who are getting failing grades in the first 6-week
marking period are referred by school counselors to this after-school
NovaNET lab. This extended-day class is provided as an opportunity for
these migrants to make up the work they missed the first six weeks of
school or to remediate failing performance.

Graduation Enhancement (GE) classes meet Monday through Thursday for one
hour after school. The classroom teacher sends lesson material to the
"add-on" class that s/he expects to be covered; this material either was
missed the first six weeks or is content on which the student's
performance is poor. The GE teacher then provides instruction in those
materials. The GE classes tend to be project- or task-oriented. Students
must demonstrate mastery of specific assignments and skills (e.g.,
completing a research paper, completing a curriculum unit, completing a
book report, or completing some test like the TAAS).

Migrant students who know they will miss the last six weeks of school
can participate in an after-school program to complete the work they
would otherwise miss. This is a Winter version of the Graduation
Enhancement Program.

*Summer School Now*. Migrant students who missed the majority of the
first six weeks of school must attend the Summer School Now Program
which meets for five Saturdays in a row from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. They must
attend all five make-up sessions in order to receive credit for the
class they missed.

*Remote Access to NovaNET*. Eagle Pass has been operating its own laptop
computer project for approximately three to four years under the
supervision of the high school counselors and NovaNET lab teachers. The
laptop project essentially extends student access to NovaNET through the
use of telecommunications technology (i.e., use of a portable computer
with a modem and access to a telephone).

Interstate migrant students can access NovaNET with a laptop computer
when they are traveling out-of-state with their families in the summer.
As many as 50 migrant students participate each summer in this locally
funded project (through Title 1 Migrant Education Program funds).
Migrant students are assigned laptops based on a number of factors,
including instructional need, student maturity and dependability, and
the anticipated distance of the family's summer location relative to the
family's access to summer school project sites in an upstream state.
Migrant students whose families are too remote from a summer school site
will be given preference for a laptop. The alternative for many migrant
students is to travel by bus from a migrant camp to a night school to
participate in a summer instructional program of some sort (e.g., a
SMART broadcast). Under such circumstances, the migrant students can
show up late for class and be too tired to concentrate on their studies.
Remoteness of location is a primary consideration for assigning a laptop
to a student plus demonstrated motivation for making up credits or
enrichment interests.

An Eagle Pass counselor determines summer course assignments for laptop
applications. For example, the counselor might determine that the
student needs to complete English IA over the summer. A form identifying
the assignment then is given to the student by the counselor to take to
the NovaNET teacher who then might assign 25 percent of the coursework
as a writing assignment and 75 percent to be completed on specific
NovaNET English modules. Next, a laptop computer is issued to the
student by one of the NovaNET labs in Eagle Pass so the student can work
on those lessons through the NovaNET instructional modules. A NovaNET
access program is loaded onto the student's laptop computer by the Eagle
Pass NovaNET lab so the migrant student can log onto NovaNET from a
remote site using a toll-free 800 phone number and the modem installed
on the computer.

The NovaNET lab manager makes sure the student knows how to use the
laptop properly and is able to trouble-shoot if something should go
wrong with it. Each student issued a laptop is required to sign a
contract that stipulates how the laptop will be used. This contract also
ensures that the student will return the laptop in the Fall; the ISD has
yet to lose a laptop. The contract is also an agreement with the teacher
about the student's work over the Summer.

Migrant students are issued two toll-free numbers to access technical
assistance support for their laptop: the NovaNET lab in Eagle Pass and
the Texas Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP) in Pharr for back-up
assistance. Technical support calls can include phone assistance,
arranging a home visit from a technician, or mailing the student a
program diagnostic card to insert into the computer. The toll-free
number to the Eagle Pass NovaNET lab also enables the student to log
into the NovaNET database to begin working on his or her assignments. If
the student dials in at a prescribed time, s/he can interact
instructionally with their NovaNET teacher using email. E-mail is also
used for follow-up interactions between the student and teacher
regarding the student's performance on the assignment.

The problem most often encountered by the laptop users is finding a
phone line they can use to call into the NovaNET lab in Eagle Pass. The
ISD tried to circumvent this problem by asking Southwest Bell to donate
cell phones to the district for the students to use with their laptops.
This proposal did not work because "rolling charges" would be incurred
from connecting calls across multiple commercial telephone carriers that
operate the telephone systems between the upstream sites and Eagle Pass.
Currently, the ISD loads the NovaNET course modules on disk. Students
then use their laptops to work on their assignments without needing
access to a telephone. The student mails the diskette back to Eagle Pass
when s/he wants final feedback from the teacher.

*Project ESTRELLA*. A federal technology grant to the Illinois Migrant
Council, in collaboration with TEA and MOPI, provides Eagle Pass with an
additional 10 laptop computers. ESTRELLA also provides "Cyber
Counselors" in addition to funding laptop computers for remote access to
NovaNET. The cyber counselors are college students who function as role
models. These students e-mail the migrant students issued laptop
computers as a type of cyber "pen pal." The cyber counselors monitor the
migrant student's schoolwork, give encouragement, and provide tutorial
guidance.

*TAAS-Prep*. The Eagle Pass curriculum is aligned with the Texas state
curriculum (the TEKS) and the statewide assessment (the TAAS). The
remediation of academic skills in Eagle Pass thus tends to be synonymous
with preparing students to take and pass the TAAS. The latter is
generally referred to as "TAAS-Prep."

There are a variety of ways TAAS prep is provided in Eagle Pass. At its
most basic, TAAS pretests identify student strengths and weaknesses;
these pretests are followed by remedial teaching focused on skill
improvement. Students also learn test-taking skills by taking TAAS
practice tests through NovaNET. Migrant students also can take a
TAAS-tutorial and a TAAS-After-School course. Finally, there is the
Power-TAAS course, which is an intensive three-day TAAS-Prep class,
offered to juniors and seniors to help them prepare for taking the TAAS.
Student transcripts identify the kinds of TAAS-Prep taken (e.g., TAAS
Prep Math or Reading; TAAS tutorial; TAAS-After-School).

*University of Texas Migrant Program: Credit by Exam Model*. The Texas
Education Agency and the Texas Board of Education have approved all
University of Texas Migrant Program courses for secondary school credit.
These courses include the high school English courses that the
University of Texas (UT) has developed. In Eagle Pass, the UT program
used most is the Credit-by-Exam option. This is an independent
home-study approach in which migrant students use a textbook and study
guide developed by UT that is monitored weekly by a home visitor. The
students work at their own pace and take a proficiency exam once they
have completed the course material and their work has been reviewed
satisfactorily by the local instructor. When the student is ready to
take the exam, Eagle Pass ISD orders the appropriate test from UT. The
exam is administered by the Eagle Pass ISD and graded at UT---Austin.
The student must pass the test to demonstrate that s/he has mastered the
subject matter and receives high school credit for the course.

The credit-by-exam approach is used mostly with in-school migrant
students who stay in Eagle Pass over the summer. Although the UT English
courses are more difficult than other alternatives for obtaining
secondary English credits, they are the fastest way for migrant students
to obtain such course credits.

Credit-by-exam can also be used by migrant students re-entering the ISD
who want to acquire credit for subjects in which the student previously
received instruction but either has failed or not completed.
Additionally, credit-by-exam can be used to accelerate students who want
credit for a course without waiting to take the course when offered as
part of the ISD's regular schedule. This is an anticipatory option that
migrant students can choose in completing courses before withdrawing
from the ISD.

*Project SMART: Home-Based Model*. Project SMART (Summer Migrants Access
Resources through Technology) is a national distance learning
instructional program that is broadcast from the Region XX Education
Services Center (ESC-20) in San Antonio, Texas, via satellite for eight
weeks over the summer (June and July). It is designed for Texas migrant
students, both those who remain in Texas in the Summer as well as those
are who are temporarily residing in other participating states around
the country. For those moving out of state for the Summer, enrollment in
Project SMART is the responsibility of the receiving site (e.g., the
Sidney Summer Migrant Education Project). For those staying in Eagle
Pass over the summer, a home instruction version of SMART is available.

The home-based model is used in Eagle Pass in the Summer for all migrant
students that stay behind and do not travel out of state. The Summer
instructional broadcasts for each age group are taped by the ISD and
then taken to the home on videocassette by a home visitor where they are
shown. The home visitors will leave a tape on one visit and pick it up
on the next, leaving a new tape at that time. Tapes from the previous
year along with the TAAS-Prep tapes can also be taken into the home and
shown if appropriate. In this way, SMART provides Eagle Pass with a
summer school curriculum for the in-state migrant population.

*Information Access*. In addition to these instructional programs,
school counselors need access to student records to ensure that migrant
students' schoolwork---whether from Texas or outside of Texas---can be
counted toward Texas state graduation requirements. The registrar's
office in Eagle Pass documents student course credits in an official
school transcript. Other important information about the student's
school history (e.g., school attendance record, date of withdrawal from
Eagle Pass ISD, final course grades, course completion status and the
grade at the time of course withdrawal) is also recorded on the
transcript. When students withdraw from school, this information is put
on a withdrawal form.

Migrant families sometimes use the "red bag" to carry school documents
such as transcripts and withdrawal forms with them when they travel out
of state. These documents are also available to receiver school systems
on request. A number of methods are available for obtaining these
documents: by telephone, mail, and fax; and through the Internet using
the New Generation System (NGS). In Eagle Pass, four NGS records clerks
enter, maintain, and update the NGS student data. The data are used
mostly by counselors and teachers to record or check on secondary credit
accrual data. Since the system does not provide standard reports with
aggregated data, administrators do not often use it.

The Sidney Project claimed that many of the NGS records from Eagle Pass
were missing secondary credit accrual data. This is quite plausible
since the NGS data were processed by ESC-20 during most of June. It
takes about a month from the end of the school year (end of May) for
course grades to be processed through the ESC-20 in San Antonio and
become available on NGS to upstream states. The earliest that Montana
could have gotten complete NGS data for course planning purposes would
have been the end of June, too late to guide course planning. The only
other way for upstream states to obtain course completion and course
grade information is not reliable: if the family brings a withdrawal
form with them when they enroll for the Summer, which means the Summer
project would have to contact Eagle Pass.

## *[Promising Practices in the Sidney Summer Migrant Education Project, Sidney, Montana]{.underline}*

In its coordinative efforts with Texas, Montana essentially adopted a
parallel system of the technology-based instructional programs and then
implemented them locally in its Summer project sites. Therefore, the
instructional approach used in Sidney mirrors the instructional approach
of Eagle Pass.

In Sidney, migrant education uses a technology-based to promote
interstate coordination and continuity of instruction. Both the SMART
and NovaNET curricula used in Sidney are based on the Texas state
curriculum and offer credit-bearing courses approved by the Texas
Education Agency and accepted by Texas schools. Telecommunications
technology is used in the SMART project component to promote continuity
of instruction with the Texas curriculum through lessons broadcast by
satellite from the Region XX Education Services Center (ECS-20) in San
Antonio. Sidney's use of laptop computers and a temporary Summer
computer lab allows Texas-based migrant students in Sidney to access the
NovaNET curriculum back in Texas.

*Project SMART: Site-Based Model*. The Sidney Summer Migrant Project
implemented Project SMART's site‑based model in which students could
participate interactively in a classroom setting with the SMART
television teacher or view the instruction later on videotape. The
instructional focus of the SMART broadcasts varied according to the
students\' grade level: integrated math, science, and language for the
elementary school students; science for the middle school students; and
economics for the high school students. Five instructional strands were
offered to students at Sidney:

-   Preschool: Language Development in Spanish & English

-   Early Elementary: Integrated Math, Science, & Language

-   Upper Elementary: Integrated Math, Science, & Language

-   Middle School: Science

-   High School: Economics, TAAS Math Preparation

Each interactive SMART class utilized a local teacher---the "SMART
Partner"---to prepare the students for the instructional broadcast, to
facilitate interactions by telephone with the SMART television teacher
back at ESC-20, and to conduct follow‑up instruction and assessment.

Only the high school courses are offered for credit. Each Summer, one
subject is taught; in Summer 1998 this subject was Economics.

*NovaNET*. The NovaNET lab at Sidney provides computer‑assisted
instruction in a broad range of credit‑bearing courses at the middle
school and high school levels. As at Eagle Pass, the NovaNET lab
consists of about 16 desktop personal computers, running off a server,
that access the TEKS-based NovaNET curriculum in Eagle Pass through
fiber-optic telephone lines via each computer's modem. The courses
offered in Sidney are the same ones offered in Eagle Pass and in other
Texas school districts that implement NovaNET labs.

Each NovaNET course consists of a series of interactive modules.
Students move at their own pace and are provided feedback by the
computer on each lesson attempted. The computer also records the lessons
attempted, time spent on the lessons, dates, and assessment outcomes for
the lessons. A lesson must be passed in order to move to the next lesson
in a module\'s sequence of instruction. The two high school instructors
supervise the NovaNET lab each night, monitoring the students to keep
them on task if necessary and to provide assistance to students who need
it. High school students attend the NovaNET lab in the evening after
their work in the fields. Testing preparation and administration for the
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) is also provided through the
computerized NovaNET curriculum.

*Laptop Computers: Project ESTRELLA*. Laptop computers in Sidney are
provided by the federal technology grant administered by the Illinois
Migrant Council. If students can access a telephone line, they can use
the laptops just about anywhere. This enables them to connect with the
Internet, communicate with their teachers in Texas over the Summer, and
communicate with their college cyber counselors in San Antonio.

*University of Texas Correspondence Courses*. As stated earlier, NovaNET
is good for basic skill applications but less well adapted to the
development of advanced skills. When students need credit‑bearing
courses like English literature, the Sidney project arranges an
independent study correspondence course through the University of Texas
Migrant Program (UT). The University of Texas Migrant Program provides
the course material and books; the Sidney teachers supervise and grade
the student\'s UT work while they remain in Montana. When the student
leaves Montana, s/he mails the work to UT and the UT staff grades the
student's work and provides feedback. Sidney uses the UT Correspondence
Course rather than PASS (the Portable Assisted Study Sequence) because
Texas schools readily accept the UT courses for credit. Texas schools
will accept PASS courses, but additional staff work is required to
ensure the PASS courses are appropriate for the student.

*Information Access*. As at other sites profiled in these case studies,
a number of approaches were used to communicate information so that
instructional planning for migrant students can be eased. Student
information can be accessed through the New Generation System (NGS), a
comprehensive database of education and health information on more than
200,000 migrant children that can be accessed by subscribers through the
Internet. Information is also carried by migrant families in the student
record transfer packets (commonly referred to as the "red bags") issued
by Texas migrant programs. Four of the 24 secondary-level Texas‑based
students (or 17 percent) provided school records and report cards from
Texas when they arrived in Sidney during the school year that this study
was conducted.

When information is not obtainable through NGS or a record transfer
packet, school staff may resort to telephone and fax. A Sidney staff
member, (e.g., one of the secondary teachers or the program director),
will call the child\'s homebase school in Texas to ask that they update
the student\'s NGS record or fax the desired information to Sidney if
that would be faster (about half of the secondary students needed their
NGS information updated when they arrived in Sidney). The Sidney
secondary school staff also calls Texas home-base school principals and
guidance counselors to review student needs and summer school course
options so that the courses the students take in Montana are approved
for credit by their Texas school.

[Promising Practices: A Migrant Parent's Perspective]{.underline}

Ernesto Sr. and his family often travel to find seasonal employment in
agriculture. Through his participation in parent involvement events and
opportunities, he is also very familiar with the Migrant Education
Program. In interviews with researchers that were conducted in both
Sidney and Eagle Pass, Ernesto Sr. provided insight into both the
challenges facing migrant families and the way the migrant program
serves his school‑age children. The material that follows is a synthesis
of these interviews.

Ernesto Sr. arrived in Montana from Eagle Pass the first week in June
1998 to work the sugar beet fields. He remained in Montana for
approximately six weeks and then returned to Texas for a month to pick
grapes in the vineyards around Austin. He then packed up his family
again and traveled to Minnesota to work for several weeks in the
vegetable canneries after which the family traveled to Maine for the
blueberry harvest in August. In the Fall, Ernesto Sr. traveled with his
eldest son Ernesto Jr. all the way across the country to Washington to
dig potatoes, which they did until November. Ernesto Sr. and his son
returned to Eagle Pass a week before Thanksgiving. Ernesto Sr. will
resume his migrant cycle in June 1999.

Ernesto Sr. has eight children, seven of whom he brought with him to
Montana in June 1998. The Eagle Pass ISD issued a laptop computer to his
family for use by several of his high school children over the summer.
His son (Ernesto Jr.) had failed algebra and English IV as a senior in
the 1997-98 school year and was issued a laptop specifically so he could
work on making up the 1.5 course credits he needed in these subject
matter areas. Two of Ernesto Sr.\'s daughters were also allowed to use
the laptop computer, but for acceleration and enrichment purposes. Maria
(a sophomore next year) was provided coursework in world history and Ana
was assigned work in English IV. Ana would have been a senior in the
academic year that followed this study; she is trying to earn
senior-level English credit with the aid of the laptop computer. In
addition, the Sidney Project issued Ernesto Sr.'s family a second laptop
computer that his younger children could use at home over the summer
(e.g., the children aged 5 and 9).

Ernesto Sr. has had experience with the \"red bags\" which he said were
initiated in 1993 following the federal decision to terminate the MSRTS.
Initially, the bags were a temporary measure instituted by Texas to
transfer student records with upstream states receiving its migrant
students. Ernesto Sr. characterized the red bags as a way to help
migrant families take responsibility for records transfer with schools.
Migrant parents are encouraged to use the bags to carry their
children\'s school records to their next destination during interstate
migrations where they are supposed to turn the records over to the
receiving schools.

Ernesto Sr. knows that the NGS has since superseded the red bags.
Although Ernesto thought that MSRTS was effective in spite of its flaws,
he thought the NGS might be an improvement over the MSRTS because of the
speed with which relevant information can be obtained.

When asked to discuss the kinds of educational problems that migratory
farm worker families encounter, Ernesto Sr. mentioned that many families
do not re‑enroll their children in school once they arrive in a new
state. He also mentioned that their children do not retain knowledge and
skills when they are out of school for a while; they lose their
motivation to re‑enroll, particularly if credit accrual problems are on
the increase. These credit accrual problems, Ernesto Sr. observed, often
lead migrant students to drop out of school. He thought the laptops
could help his children catch up on coursework they had missed while
migrating and to stay current in their credits.

Asked how the laptops had helped his children, Ernesto Sr. used his son
as an example. Ernesto Jr. had been denied high school graduation
because of credit deficiencies (1.5 credits): a half credit in algebra
and a full credit in English IV. Eagle Pass ISD issued him a laptop for
the summer of 1998 and assigned him lessons in both of these deficiency
areas, including relevant NovaNET lesson modules. He did the lessons (at
least some of them) on the laptop and downloaded his work to his summer
school teacher in Eagle Pass who graded the work from Texas. Ernesto Sr.
was hopeful that Ernesto Jr. would graduate from high school at the end
of Summer 1998. The migrant education staff doubted he would complete
the 1.5 credits by August, and it turned out they were right.

A follow-up interview was conducted with Ernesto Sr. in Eagle Pass,
Texas, in November 1998, after he and his son had returned from their
summer migrations. Ernesto Jr. ended up returning to Eagle Pass ISD in
1999 and hopefully will graduate at the end of the 1998-99 school year.
In November 1998 he was still working on his English and math
assignments on the laptop and had not yet graduated. He needed a full
year of senior English and a semester of Algebra II; over the Summer and
Fall he had made little progress in completing his studies. Ernesto Sr.
said that the biggest problem about laptop use had been access to a
telephone while on the road between Montana, Texas, Maine, and
Washington State. Ernesto Jr. also had little time or energy left to use
the laptop computer after spending 12-16 hours a day working in the
fields. Since returning to Eagle Pass in November, Ernesto Jr. had been
working as a day laborer in Mexico harvesting hay. He planned to
re‑enroll at Eagle Pass ISD in the second semester and finish the 1.5
credits so he could graduate in May. After graduation, Ernesto Jr.
planned to enlist in the Army, according to his father. The son
apparently believed the Army would provide him with some valuable
training since he is no longer very interested in continuing as a farm
laborer. Ernesto Jr. also apparently hoped to acquire some college
tuition money by joining the Army.

In general, Ernesto Sr. thought the instructional technology used in
migrant education (i.e., the laptop computers, NovaNET, and Project
SMART) helped his children stay in school and learn. Three of his
children (Ernesto Jr., Ana, and Maria) shared the same laptop computer
and used separate passwords to access NovaNET courseware over the
summer.

#### **Discussion**

The instructional initiatives and technological innovations of the
Migrant Education Programs in Texas and Montana have resulted in a
congruent curriculum and extended school year for Texas-based migrant
students who travel back and forth between Montana and Texas every
Summer with their families. These developments have been made possible
by the state-level leadership and interstate collaboration that have
been exhibited by Texas, Montana, and other partnering states such as
Illinois over the years. Arguably, the services provided by the Sidney
Summer Migrant Program could not have occurred, much less been
maintained, without the relationships that grew out of these
collaborative efforts among educators and the various partnering
agencies.

The Montana Office of Public Instruction (MOPI), the Texas Education
Agency (TEA), and the Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP) have a
history of formal collaboration which has resulted in the
technology‑based approach to instructional continuity and records
exchange in migrant education. This includes the annual televised Spring
training conference held in Billings, Montana, sponsored by
TEA/TMIP/MOPI for MOPI staff on SMART, NovaNET, NGS, and various issues
in migrant education (e.g., student identification, the Red Bag, credit
accrual changes and problems, and TAAS prep and administration). The
Fall credit accrual resolution conference, hosted every year in Texas by
TMIP, brings together school administrators, counselors, and registrars
from partnering districts and states to resolve course credit issues and
problems. This personal contact has also made it easier for staff from
different states and school districts to contact each other to resolve
issues when they arise.

As a precursor to implementing the various technological solution
strategies, the MOPI‑TEA‑TMIP collaboration first focused on aligning
Montana's migrant education instruction with the Texas State curriculum
(the TEKS) and assessment (the TAAS). Once the curriculum and assessment
were aligned, instruction was implemented essentially through NovaNET
and SMART. These projects had customized their curricula to the TEKS
specifications approved by the Texas Education Agency. Customizing these
curricula to the needs of Texas-based migrant students required
collaborative relationships between TEA/TMIP/MOPI as well as curriculum
and software developers at NovaNET Inc., Apple Computer Inc., Montana
MET‑Net, Texas Tenet, ESC-20 in San Antonio, and the Southwest Regional
Educational Laboratory.

Innovations in distance learning and computer-assisted instruction also
required that districts build upon a pre-existing technological
infrastructure. Without software innovations developed through the
University of Illinois that were subsequently custom-fitted to state
curriculum specifications through private sector marketing efforts by
NovaNET Inc., the State Education Agencies in Texas and Montana would
not have had a computerized state-approved curriculum upon which to
align their own curricula. Similarly, without the convergence of
instructional television and satellite broadcasting technology through
prior work at the ESC-20, Project SMART would not exist.

The Sidney Migrant Project and the Eagle Pass ISD (as well as La Joya,
Weslaco, and Pharr ISDs) also have a long history of cooperation, made
possible by collaboration at the state level. Specifically, this
collaboration between TEA, TMIP, and MOPI has resulted in the use of the
NovaNET lab concept in Montana as well as Project SMART. MOPI\'s
relationship with the Illinois Migrant Council also led to the
development and funding of Project ESTRELLA which supports an extension
of the NovaNET lab through the use of laptop computers.

Eagle Pass\'s migrant students face problems, particularly at the
secondary level, in accruing credit and receiving enough sustained
academic instruction to take and pass the TAAS. Locally, the Migrant
Education Program addresses those problems through a combination of
NovaNET, laptop computers, SMART, the University of Texas Credit-by-Exam
option, and various course make-up options that include the Saturday
Graduation Enhancement classes for migrants who return late to Texas.
Counselors and teachers use NGS for obtaining information on courses
taken or completed at other sites; this information guides their
instructional planning in ways that benefit the students.

Like the Sidney Summer Migrant Education Program, Eagle Pass\'s migrant
services operate in the context of interstate coordination and
collaboration, which has made these services possible. While local
initiatives are needed to implement the services, interventions on the
scale of SMART, ESTRELLA, and NGS required collaboration and dedication
of resources at higher institutional levels.

Only Project SMART has been formally collected student participation and
outcome data. According to an evaluation report prepared by META
Associates (September 1997), 18 states (including Montana) implemented
SMART in 1997. Sidney was the largest participating SMART site in
Montana, with the largest student participation at the preschool and
elementary school levels (which are the levels with the greatest migrant
student enrollment). Sidney was also the only site in Montana to offer a
secondary-level SMART program for in‑school youth at grades 9‑12. The
META Associates Report indicated that nine secondary students in Sidney
participated in SMART courses in the summer of 1997. Four of these nine
students (44 percent) received a half credit for their participation in
the 1997 SMART government course. The other five secondary students took
one of the SMART non‑credit‑bearing TAAS Prep courses.

META Associates also reported an evaluation of Montana's pilot
implementation of NovaNET in 1997. Data were collected on migrant
student participation in temporary NovaNET labs in three sites in
Montana (Sidney, Billings, and Hardin) as well as on migrant student
participation in NovaNET through the use of laptop computers. Interview
data suggested that one of the main benefits of NovaNET---through either
the computer lab or the laptop computers---was its capability to help
teachers individualize instruction. Anecdotal data, however, suggest
that one of the main drawbacks to migrant students' use of laptop
computers as an instructional aid while on the road is access to a
telephone line.

The technological innovations in distance learning and computer-assisted
instruction that have been implemented in Texas and Montana have the
potential to promote instructional continuity for Texas-based migrant
students. Eagle Pass and Sidney will need to keep their hardware and
software upgraded so that they can stay current with the technical
specifications required as the technology for distance learning and
computer assisted instruction evolves and improves. This will require
funds to replace and update hardware and software.

Major challenges to maintaining the operation at both ends include
attracting qualified technical staff to trouble-shoot and maintain the
hardware and software applications. Attracting qualified staff to the
Eagle Pass area, for example, is difficult because of the low salary
offered by the ISD and because of the general limitations of the border
area. Telephone line access is another major obstacle. Maintaining
TMIP's technical assistance role with the laptops and NovaNET computer
applications appears crucial to the continued successful implementation
of these interventions.

NGS student data also needs to be updated in a more timely fashion.
Currently, upstream states can receive course completion and course
grade information (a) if the family brings a withdrawal form with them
when they enroll for the Summer or (b) if the receiving site contacts
the sending site. The first alternative requires continued use of the
red bag system and parent responsibility for school information when
transferring between school systems. The latter largely depends on
maintaining close working relationships between key records staff of
originating and receiving sites.

**Donna Independent School District, Donna, Texas;**

**Van Buren Intermediate School District, Lawrence, Michigan;**

**and Manatee County Schools, Bradenton, Florida**

The Donna‑Van Buren‑Manatee County case, like the case of Eagle
Pass-Sidney, illustrates how local districts rely on direct
communication and interstate mechanisms such as the Texas Migrant
Interstate Program and the Portable Assistance Study Sequence to enhance
the continuity of education for migrant students. This case differs from
the others in that it involves three school districts, although
reciprocal arrangements are not in place among all three. Van Buren ISD
has relationships with Donna ISD, Texas, and with Manatee County schools
in Florida. However, the Texas and Florida sites do not have direct
working relationships. In particular, this case provides an illustration
of the role personal relationships play in promoting institutional
understanding of shared responsibilities.

#### **The Partners**

[Donna Independent School District, Donna Texas]{.underline}

Donna Independent School District (ISD) is located in the lower Rio
Grande area of Texas, about 240 miles south of San Antonio and just east
of McAllen, Texas. This section of Texas is known as the Valley and is
home to the largest concentration of migrant families in the nation.
While the economic base of the area is diversifying, agriculture remains
the primary industry. Cotton, sugar cane, and vegetables are key crops.
Migrant labor is not used for cotton and sugar cane. Migrant laborers
work with vegetables, picking predominantly onions and cabbage. Other
crops that often employ migrant workers in the area include tomatoes,
carrots, bell peppers, and lettuce. Few other employment opportunities
exist for migrant workers who return to Donna. Non‑migrant residents
often are employed in agricultural‑related work (preparation of fields,
driving the tractors), the local school system, or small businesses.

The district provides educational services to three-year‑olds through
grade 12. The district supports 10 elementary campuses, two middle
schools, and one high school. Based on the 1997/98 Academic Excellence
Indicator System from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), student
enrollment in Donna ISD peaked at 10,500. This enrollment includes 9,698
Hispanic students, 146 Caucasian, and 656 who are classified as Asian,
Pacific Islander, or Native American. Eight‑eight percent of the student
population is economically disadvantaged. Fifty percent (50 percent) of
the students are identified as limited English proficient (LEP).

In general, the community holds high expectations for its students that
include high school graduation followed by matriculation in college. But
migrant students were not especially successful on the Texas Assessment
of Academic Skills (TAAS). Fifty-eight percent passed Reading, 60
percent passed Mathematics, and 54 percent passed Writing as compared to
the state standard of 90 percent for each subject area. Surprisingly,
the average attendance rate for migrant students is 93 percent, just one
percent below the state standard of 94%. The state standard for a school
district graduation rate is 90 percent. In 1996, 71 percent of the
migrant students graduated from Donna High School; in 1997, 87 percent
were graduated. In 1997, only 55 percent of the migrant students who
took the TAAS exit exam passed (with just 8 percent of the eligible
students absent on the test date). Only 39 percent of the migrant
students took a college admissions test (the state standard is 70
percent).

As of December 15, 1998, 3,822 students were eligible for the Migrant
Education Program in Donna. A total of 1,415 students were served in
Donna\'s Summer migrant program. A large percentage of migrant students
move annually to secure seasonal work in agriculture. For FY 98, while
most of the districts in the valley are losing migrant students (perhaps
due to less intensive identification and recruitment efforts, higher
graduation rates, and permanent re‑locations to another state), Donna
increased slightly (1.12 percent) via its efforts in agency
coordination.

Migrant workers from Donna usually travel directly to work sites in
Michigan, without stopping for other kinds of work. Many of the families
go to the southeastern area of Michigan for cucumber, cherry, asparagus,
and grape harvests. Some migrant families who leave during the Spring
months, send for their children after school is out, and some families
return before school starts again in the Fall. Others may not return
until November. Based on data obtained in Van Buren, 500‑825 students
from Donnas ISD migrate to southwest Michigan, with 375 of those
children enrolled in Van Buren ISD.

Donna ISD has a history of communicating with staff at the Van Buren ISD
to improve the continuity of instruction that migrant students
experience. This cooperation, often supported by the Texas Migrant
Interstate Program (TMIP), has resulted primarily in school transition
services facilitated by migrant specialists, the use of instructional
programs specifically for credit accrual, and the transfer of student
information.

[Van Buren Intermediate School District, Lawrence Michigan]{.underline}

Lawrence, Michigan is nestled in lower southwestern Michigan. The town
is located off Interstate 94 in a rural part of the state where farming
remains the number one industry. Over the past 30 years, the area has
required the services of a significant migrant labor workforce.
Initially, strawberries were the primary crop that required pickers.
Today, strawberries have been replaced by cucumbers; with potatoes,
blueberries, apples, and crop work in vineyards and nurseries
contributing to the on‑going need for migrant workers. New agricultural
technology has reduced the volume of work for migrant workers, but
migrant labor continues to be needed. The majority of growers in the
area consist of family‑owned farms. Currently, the largest grower in the
area is John Faulkner Farms, which recruits 300‑400 migrant families per
year for his cucumber harvest; a similar operation exists in Florida.

The Van Buren Intermediate School District (ISD) serves 11 school
districts. Its migrant education project provides both school year and
summer‑term services. School-year services are provided to migrant
students who enroll in 28 local schools during both the Fall and Spring
months. Most of these migrant students do not complete more than one
grading period in the Michigan public schools. Seven itinerant resource
teachers provide services to migrant children by helping with school
transitions, providing in‑school advocacy, and offering tutorial
assistance. The summer project's services include preschool/day care
services, a summer school enrichment program for K‑8, and an evening
program for older youth. In 1997, 1,420 students were eligible for the
Migrant Education Program; 780 students were enrolled in either school
year and/or Summer-term programs. The Summer program had an average
daily attendance of 372 students.

Although the home base of most migrant families continues to be either
Texas (43 percent of the identified students) or Florida (30 percent of
the identified students), increasing numbers of migrants are originating
from Mexico (33 percent in 1997). With this change, the percentage of
students who are limited English proficient (LEP) is also on the rise.

Van Buren ISD has a substantial history of working with several school
districts in the Rio Grande valley (e.g., Brownsville, Donna, Weslaco,
Pharr) and the Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP) to improve the
continuity of instruction that migrant students experience. This
cooperation has resulted in teacher exchanges, participation in each
other's conferences and pre‑service training programs, use of credit
accrual programs, the transmittal of student information, the
administration of the TAAS in Michigan, school transition services, and
the transfer of student information. Recent trends in worker recruitment
efforts have increased the significance of coordinating with school
districts in the State of Florida (Manatee, Hillsborough, & Polk
Counties).

[Manatee County School District, Manatee County, Florida]{.underline}

Manatee County lies along the Gulf of Mexico between Sarasota and Tampa.
The county was named for the large, easygoing aquatic animal known as
the West Indian Manatee. Along the coast, small villages and resort
communities populate the barrier islands and bay shores. Inland, in the
eastern part of the county, lies rural countrysidean area known for its
fruit and vegetable production.

Six major population centers are located in the county (Bradenton,
Palmetto, Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, Bradenton Beach, and Longboat Key).
The two largest communities, Bradenton and Palmetto, are on the
mainland. Bradenton, the county seat, is the county's largest city with
a population of close to 50,000. In the 1940s, food processor Anthony
Rossi settled in Bradenton and founded Fruit Industries, a company known
worldwide today as Tropicana North America. Palmetto is the agricultural
center of the county and is noted especially for tomatoes.

The Manatee County School District has 39 schools that include 26
elementary schools, seven middle schools, five high schools and one
vocational technical center. The school district serves about 34,000
students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Manatee County's migrant student services include a pre-kindergarten
program, an in-class tutoring program for grades K-2, and an
after-school tutoring program for students in grades 9-12. In addition,
the county's Migrant Education Program supports academic counseling,
parental involvement, and outreach and referral services.

Every year, more than 2,000 migrant studentsabout seven percent of the
total student bodycome to Manatee County schools after their families
have worked in other parts of the country in seasonal agriculture. In
1998, more than 1,400 migrant children had registered in Manatee County
schools since classes began in late August. At least 1,000 more were
expected to enroll throughout the early Fall. Most of the incoming
migrant families live in the rural farm camps of Palmetto and Myakka
City. The owners of Faulkner Farms of Lawrence, Michigan have located
their Florida-based farm in Myakka City. Many of the migrant families
spend the Fall, Winter, and Spring working at the Faulkner Farms site in
Myakka and then move to Faulkner Farms in Michigan for the summer.

Van Buren ISD in Michigan is the largest recipient of migrant students
from Manatee County, largely because Faulkner Farms provides labor camp
housing for migrant families it employs in both states. Faulkner Farms
itself operates seasonally in both states, growing and harvesting a
variety of fruits and vegetables; thus there is some continuity of
employment as well.

#### **Problems Facing Migrant Students**

> *"Really, mostly the problems {dealing with educational continuity}
> are at the secondary level." (Migrant Education Program Coordinator,
> Donna, Texas)*

The main problem for home‑based Texas and Florida migrant youth who are
enrolled in the secondary grades is accruing credits necessary for
graduation. In both Texas and Florida, students who migrate often do not
complete their course of study in either their home-base state or the
receiving state. With each incomplete course, migrant students
repeatedly must try to catch up with their peers in their schoolwork.
Over time, the accumulation and effects of incomplete coursework lead to
problems with mastery of subject matter, grades, and satisfactory course
completion, which in turn affect attendance and enrollment in school,
credit accrual, grade promotion, and high school graduation.

Donna ISD and Manatee County reported that the problems for
secondary-level migrant students begin when these students either
withdraw early withdrawal from school and/or return late. With the
typical early withdrawal, migrant students miss the last six weeks of
school (mid‑April through the end of May). With the start of schools
scheduled for mid‑August, if the students return in October or November,
they may miss yet another six or more weeks of school. Recent efforts of
high schools to install block scheduling have compounded the problem as
differences in amount of the content covered are substantial when
students transfer from a course with a traditional schedule to a course
with a block schedule and vice versa.

The ultimate effect of these events on a student's education depends on
what happens in both the receiving state (in this case, Michigan) and
state of origin. If the student does not enroll in a school in Michigan
and/or supplemental instructional opportunities are not available,
course credit for the prior semester\'s work in Texas or Florida will
not be granted or the student will be behind in the current year\'s
work. If the student does enroll in a Michigan school or summer program,
this schoolwork may have little utility if the student cannot take the
appropriate courses; if the course content is different between sites or
out-of-sequence; and if partial credit or full credit for coursework is
not issued or accepted by Michigan, Texas, or Florida schools.

In addition, upon return to the school district of origin, if there are
no opportunities for the students to catch up on the incomplete courses,
they will probably remain behind in their schoolwork. The negative
impact of these events quickly escalates for secondary-level students
who are already at risk of educational failure from other factors
related to poverty and mobility. Without intervention, the odds of early
school dropout or failure to graduate increases.

Although data were not presented to confirm their beliefs, migrant
educators in both Donna and Van Buren do not view the effects of
migration on continuity of instruction as being as problematic for
elementary grade-level students as it is for secondary-level students.
They believe that the educational gaps or deficits created by early
withdrawal and/or late entry can be overcome by the remedial services
commonly offered at the regular or summer elementary school.

For example, district officials in Donna believe that the elementary
school teacher can overcome the time and learning lost during the
regular school year using remedial services commonly found within the
school. Upon re‑enrollment, the elementary teacher is expected to find
out what skills students bring from the receiving state. Based on this
assessment, if the student is behind or missing skills, the teacher
turns to a variety of in-school strategies, such as homework packets or
the use of a tutor.

Similarly, migrant staff in Michigan view problems with instructional
continuity as considerably more severe for secondary-level students. The
Van Buren staff believed that the general pre-school, elementary school,
and lower middle school curriculum require less precision in designing
appropriate instruction than is needed for the subject matter-specific
courses at the secondary school level.

The major problems experienced by secondary-level migrant students
originating from Donna and Manatee have been: 1) the loss of
instructional time, 2) the lack of information to guide best placement
in Van Buren ISD\'s summer program and regular school year services, and
3) the lack of procedures to ensure that students receive credit for
work done at Van Buren when they arrive at schools in Texas and Florida.
Both educators and parents feel a sense of urgency that these problems
be solved.

Van Buren's staff were very aware that parents (and to some degree,
students) wanted to make sure they received appropriate instruction.
These parents also wanted to ensure that upon their return to schools in
Texas or Florida, their children received credit for work they did in
Michigan.

#### **Promising Practices**

The primary needs for interstate coordination among Donna, Van Buren,
and Manatee focus on helping secondary students to catch up on
instruction missed due to a migrant move, to identify the appropriate
instructional programs and/or courses of study needed, and to ensure
secondary-level credit accrual.

[Promising Practices in Van Buren ISD]{.underline}

Efforts to meet the needs of children who migrate to Lawrence, Michigan
from Donna, Texas start with a program of information-sharing. During
the Winter months, Van Buren staff use their own database to produce
lists of students with prior summer enrollments in Michigan. These lists
are often hand-carried by the site administrator to interstate
events/meetings in Texas. At these meetings, the site administrator asks
the appropriate district official in Texas to check on student
attendance at their schools. If the children are enrolled, Van Buren ISD
staff request information on the student's grade level placement, test
results, and courses of study.

This information is used to help organize Van Buren's Summer program.
The Summer project operates for approximately 40 days (beginning in late
June and ending in early August). The project uses the pleasant,
well-maintained Van Buren ISD campus facilities which are set back from
a rural road in Lawrence. The air‑conditioned campus includes three
buildings that house the administrative offices, instructional
classrooms, related supportive service facilities (cafeteria,
gymnasiums, auditoriums) and a technology/vocational center. The
full‑day Summer project provides services to children who range in age
from two and one‑half years to 21 years.

The Summer project's services include preschool/day care services, a
summer school enrichment program for K‑8, and an evening program for
older youth. The K‑8 curriculum is not tightly coordinated with
instructional programs in Texas or Florida. Basic instruction in
reading, math, and ESL is provided to enrolled students. Teachers
administer an informal assessment to identify student needs. Each
teacher develops thematic units that draw upon available resources.

The evening school program is eight weeks long, with classes held Monday
through Friday from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. It provides enrichment
services (e.g., instruction in life skills, exposure to computers) to
middle school students. Secondary-level youth are offered opportunities
to make up course credits or to work on subjects that they are failing.
New arrivals to the U.S. can develop and improve their English language
skills. In general, Van Buren ISD staff provide assistance to help
migrant students complete a Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS)
correspondence course or a correspondence course from the University of
Texas. One‑half credit is earned in a subject when a secondary-level
student successfully completes a given course. The evening school also
provides opportunities for students to take the TAAS. After the close of
the summer program, continued support is provided to individual students
who are completing summer coursework.

For students who remain in Lawrence and re-enroll in school when it
opens in September, migrant/bilingual resource teachers who work
throughout the ISD help with school transitions, provide in‑school
advocacy, and offer tutorial assistance. These staff help to improve the
academic counseling that secondary-level migrant youth receive that
determines which school-year courses they should take while they reside
in Michigan.

Upon withdrawal from Van Buren ISD, the resource teachers are expected
to ensure that an informal transcript (with days enrolled, days present,
and some test data) is prepared and if possible sent back with each
student as they return to Texas or Florida. Upon receipt, Texas or
Florida school officials can request a formal transcript that will
contain more information if the student was registered through the first
grading period (nine weeks). Essentially, the migrant/bilingual resource
teachers act as a coordinating mechanism in that they negotiate with
both local educators and the sending district on behalf of the migrant
students.

The process of exchanging information between districts is critical to
ensuring that the needs of secondary-level migrant students are met, but
it is not easily implemented. Previously, the MSRTS never fully gave Van
Buren ISD staff the information they needed to identify the special
services the secondary-level youth needed or the credits they needed to
graduate. The information also was insufficient to convince the sending
school that students had completed particular work. Van Buren ISD staff
reported to researchers that they always had to pick up the phone and
make a personal contact.

Occasionally, parents who returned to Van Buren the next summer would
complain that they took the paperwork back to the originating district
with no result. Notwithstanding the time elapsed, Van Buren ISD staff
then would call the building principal or school counselor and try to
resolve the credit accrual issues with the school.

The researchers observed that person-to-person information exchange is
not always successful the first time and often requires extensive
follow‑up activities before actual information is received. One staff
member stated that "the process is not perfectyou must continue to bug
people to send information." For example, requests for information that
were sent to several schools in Texas did not result in responses until
a representative from the school district attended the previous summer's
pre‑service training session for Van Buren ISD staff. The representative
then was given another list of Texas students and he did send back all
of the students' records.

The Migrant Education Program site administrator at Van Buren ISD is
convinced that personal relationships are a critical ingredient for
successful interstate cooperation and coordination. Consequently, staff
time and money have been expended to increase the frequency of
person-to-person interactions between Van Buren ISD staff and district
personnel in Texas. Van Buren staff participate in the annual meetings
and conferences held in Texas where they can meet face-to-face with
their Texas counterparts. Officials from key originating districts are
invited to address Van Buren's summer program staff during pre-service
and in-service training. Teachers from the originating schools are hired
to work in the Van Buren ISD summer program, and then act as advocates
for their students upon their return to Texas. Clearly, continuous
networking to develop and sustain relationships and follow-up activities
are viewed as prerequisites for effective interstate coordination.

It is also important to note that the staff of the Texas Migrant
Interstate Project (TMIP) area valuable resource in these
information-sharing efforts. The Texas Migrant Interstate Project plays
an important intermediary role with cases where 1) direct communication
with a school did not work or 2) it was not possible to contact a
district official because the school was officially closed for the
summer. If a personal contact with school building personnel in Texas
previously has not been established, it has become more efficient to
call TMIP staff and have them initiate contact with the building-level
personnel. Texas Migrant Interstate Project staff are rated highly by
the Van Buren staff for their follow‑up in obtaining student information
and/or resolving credit accrual difficulties.

The year before this study was conducted, the relationship model was
extended to Florida through the personal initiative of one teacher.
Using her own funds, the evening program coordinator traveled to Florida
during her winter vacation to introduce herself to counselors at key
originating schools as well as to PASS program officials. Based on
agreements she struck with Florida educators, Van Buren's evening
program coordinator faxed school officials in Manatee County and
Hillsborough County lists of students who had prior enrollments in both
the Van Buren ISD and the two counties in Florida. She asked the local
migrant counselors to evaluate the students' transcripts at the
home-base school to ascertain what the migrant students would need at
the end of the year to complete their course work and, if possible, to
start a PASS course. Unfortunately, the Hillsborough relationship broke
down. In Manatee, however, information on students who had started PASS
courses was delivered to Van Buren ISD when the Manatee contact person
arrived for the Van Buren ISD pre‑service. Eight of the 28 students
identified with a history of traveling to Van Buren from Manatee
actually worked on a PASS course based on information shared between the
school districts. In this case, staff of the Florida Migrant Interstate
Project (FMIP) also drew praise for their support in helping the
districts come together. After working with the PASS program, Van Buren
staff did suggest that the quality of PASS program materials could be
upgraded and they were unsure how tightly the materials were aligned to
Florida's new academic standards.

No formal evaluation has been conducted of either the process or the
outcomes of interstate coordination activities between Van Buren ISD in
conjunction with Texas and Florida. Nevertheless, the Van Buren site
administrator firmly believes that supporting older youth with secondary
credit accrual activities is important to their graduation because
"those success stories will trickle down and get the family to be more
conscientious about sending all of their kids to school and expecting
them to graduate."

[Promising Practices in Manatee County, Florida]{.underline}

When the evening summer program coordinator from the Van Buren Schools
came to Manatee County over the Christmas vacation to visit the migrant
families working at Faulkner Farms, she sparked a relationship between
the two districts\' migrant education programs. The directors of the two
programs met subsequently at the 1998 national migrant conference. At
this meeting, they discussed their mutual desire to have a better
relationship with Faulkner Farms and with each other in order to work
more effectively with the migrant families as they moved back and forth
between Florida and Michigan. An informal agreement was struck to ensure
that student information from the Manatee County teachers would be
shared with the Summer school teachers in Michigan for the Faulkner
Farms children they both served. In June 1998, the Manatee County
Migrant Specialist visited the Van Buren ISD Summer school program
shortly before it began for the Florida students. She took with her
student information forms on the Faulkner Farms children enrolled in
PASS programs and at Myakka City Elementary School in Manatee County.
The PASS form provided Van Buren staff with a description of the courses
in which secondary-level migrant students had enrolled.

The Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS) Program was developed in
California in the late 1970s as an approach to secondary school dropout
prevention. Florida began implementing PASS in 1993 after determining
that PASS courses met Florida Public Education curriculum requirements.
Florida\'s PASS Program offers 32 credit‑bearing courses in art, health,
language arts, life skills, mathematics, science, and social studies.
These semester‑length courses consist of five units of study and
students must pass all five unit tests to get credit for the course. The
Portable Assisted Study Sequence is a collection of semi‑independent
public education courses for students in grades 9‑12. The program allows
students to participate in high school classes and accumulate credits
toward graduation through home‑study or as they travel with their family
for employment‑related reasons. In Florida, the dominant PASS model
involves home‑study for intra‑state migrant students whose families tend
to pull them out of school during the academic year for agricultural or
fishing work with the family. This work takes place either in the local
school district or involves a temporary move to another county in
Florida.

Information summaries on elementary grade students were developed for
Van Buren in 1998 by the guidance counselor at Myakka City Elementary
and were designed to transmit student performance information useful for
summer school placement and instructional planning (e.g., grade level,
reading level, name of basal text). This new procedure now supersedes
the old procedure in which Van Buren ISD staff asked the FMIP
retroactively to provide any known information about migrant children
who had arrived in Michigan from Florida.

The promise of greater effectiveness in working with interstate migrant
students prompted Manatee County to explore building a similar
relationship with school districts in Texas. Co-funded by the County's
Migrant Education Program and the Florida Interstate Migrant Program,
Manatee's migrant specialist and other staff traveled in February 1997
to the Rio Grande Valley to observe the migrant programs in Donna,
Weslaco, LaJoya, and Brownsville. Their objective was to develop
personal relationships and knowledge of schooling practices in Texas for
the future benefit of migrant students shared between Florida and Texas.

[Promising Practices in Donna, Texas]{.underline}

In Donna, Texas, migrant funds may be used for a range of interventions
that meet the needs of migrant students, fit with the campus improvement
plan, and mesh with the mission and goal of the school district. All 13
campuses are Title 1 "schoolwide" programs. Donna's Migrant Education
Program coordinator does not see a problem with the schoolwide approach
to serving migrant children at the elementary schools. Elementary school
services are the same for all children with the exception of some
supplemental clothing and medical/health services that are provided to
migrant children. However, starting at the middle school level, Donna's
Migrant Education Program coordinator believes it is key to maintain a
special focus on the intent and purposes of the Migrant Education
Program.

Donna ISD's educational interventions targeted to the needs of migrant
students include: 1) Jostens Integrated Learning System, 2) Help One
Student Succeed (HOSTS), 3) Michael Eaton Reading‑Writing Program, 4)
SRA reading kits, 5) Content Mastery (in‑school tutorial), 6) Sharon
Wells diagnostic‑prescriptive instruction, 7) Reading Recovery, 8)
Migrant Tutorial, 9) Project SMART, 10) American Preparatory Institute
for grades 10‑12, 11) Extended Year (Summer) Program, 12) Credit
Retrieval System, 13) Instructional aides in classrooms, 14) Essential
Learning Systems computer reading program, and 15) six parent
involvement initiatives.

Intervention with secondary-level youth begins with the three Migrant
Education Specialists that work in the district. The specialists are
certified counselors who make sure that credits are accrued, grades are
consolidated, and migrant students enroll in a catch‑up or accelerated
tutorial program when needed.

In the Spring, the specialists make a series of announcements to any
students who are planning to withdraw early. These announcements ask the
students to give the school two weeks notice of their forthcoming
withdrawal (informing both the regular classroom teachers and the
migrant education office). Announcements are not only made via the
school intercom but through pre‑programmed telephone messages to the
migrant students' homes. Upon receiving notice from a student, a
withdrawal record with course information is prepared and given to the
students who plan to enroll in an out-of-state school. In addition, once
the receiving school district gets the withdrawal information in hand,
Donna ISD counselors answer calls from receiving school counselors
questioning what will be needed for partial credit or course credit for
the Spring semester.

Approximately one‑third of the migrant student population that withdraws
early makes arrangements to "work ahead" via a University of Texas
correspondence course (or via a program prepared by the regular
classroom teacher) that prepares them to complete their coursework
through the credit‑by‑exam option. This option enables students to take
a test; if the student passes the test, full credit for a course or
courses is granted before they depart. The other students are informed
that they can take a PASS course, apply for a University of Texas
correspondence course, or follow up with the PASS program offered at the
receiving site.

Students often use the PASS program, as it is used more frequently in
the school districts the students move to in other states. The PASS
program is slightly more difficult for district officials in Donna to
manage because they must copy all of the materials for the participating
students. In comparison, the University of Texas correspondence course
program sends all needed materials to the school at no cost to the
school or students.

When students return in the Fall, they are processed through the migrant
education office. Students are asked if they attended a northern school
while they were away. If the student did attend school, s/he is asked
for information on grades received or credits accrued to be submitted to
the registrar and his or her respective counselor. Student information
from an enrollment in Michigan is returned by hand, fax, or mail.
Students who accumulated sufficient course credits (or worked ahead) are
enrolled and given a new course schedule. Students who did not enroll in
school, did not accumulate all course credits needed, and/or who missed
too much of the first six-week period, are enrolled in the basic program
and assigned to the migrant tutorial program.

Most secondary-level migrant students are placed in the migrant tutorial
that has been in operation for ten years. Migrant students attend the
migrant tutorial program during independent study periods and can use
the tutorial to catch up in the Fall or to accelerate instruction in the
Spring. The tutorial program is staffed by three full‑time teachers and
one part‑time certified teacher. Currently, there is growing pressure to
add more teachers, given the number of migrant students who are enrolled
in the tutorial program.

*The Tutorial Program.* The tutorial program in Donna is housed in a
portable building that is connected to the high school via a short
walkway. Inside, the portable unit consists of two rooms, approximately
30 feet by 30 feet each. The passageway between the two rooms is open.
Throughout the two rooms are six clusters of tables, with 40 students
filling almost every seat. Attendance each period ranges from 35 to 50
students. While the rooms are not quiet, and perhaps not ideal for
studying, there is not a disruptive level of noise. The walls are
adorned with posters, materials, and school rules usually seen in high
school classrooms.

It is a very busy place. About one third of the students work quietly
and independently. Another third observe the researchers who are
visiting their classrooms. The remainder are working with the teachers
in small groups or in one‑to‑one conversations. The students represent
four grade levels and can work in four subject areas: English, History,
Mathematics, and Science. The classes are conducted by four teachers
(three work on a full-time basis and one teacher works part‑time). The
lead teacher, who carries the largest caseload (English I, II, III, IV,
U.S. History, World Geography, Economics, and World History), came out
of retirement to work in the migrant tutorial. She is joined by three
colleagues. One handles Algebra I and II, Geometry, and Project SMART
Geometry; another teaches Algebra I; and a third, another retired
teacher, handles Biology I & II, Chemistry I, Physical Science, and
Anatomy & Physiology.

The students attend the tutorial for 90 minutes per day, two to three
times per week. Some students will come to the tutorial during their
lunch break to accelerate their studies. Students often work with
instructional "packets" (designed by the tutorial teacher or a classroom
teacher) that include photocopied content and worksheets. In some cases,
the teachers have highlighted the \"important\" sections in textbooks
for the students which are a highly valued resource by the students. In
fact, the highlighted textbooks disappear occasionally from the room for
unauthorized use. Other students use the tutorial to work on PASS
programs materials or University of Texas correspondence courses.

If a student is completing work from the prior year and passes the exit
test, the tutorial teachers sends that student's grades directly to the
registrar. If a student is catching up on work missed during the current
year, the grades are sent to the regular classroom teacher, who makes
the final decision about course grades. An important program component
is good communication with the classroom teacher on two issues. First,
the regular classroom teachers need to agree on the instructional
priorities. Second, the regular classroom teachers need to be assured
that the instructional packets are of sufficient academic rigor.

In the 1996/97 school year, over 1,400 instructional packets (each
equaling six weeks work) were completed by the students. For students
who have fallen severely behind (beyond one semester), they also receive
preparation for the TAAS in reading, writing, and basic math skills
through the INVEST Learning program or JOSTENS program (both are
computer‑based instruction programs).

As note earlier, Donna ISD offers over 15 different schoolwide
educational interventions for students who are at risk of failing.
Several of those interventions are of particular importance to migrant
students and are briefly described below.

*TAAS Tutoring*. The TAAS Migrant tutoring program serves migrant
students in grades 10-12 who have not passed the Exit-Level TAAS.
Students are scheduled for the respective subject area that is needed
and are served by a certified teacher. This staff member is trained in
test taking strategies, accelerated instruction and cooperative
learning. Successful implementation of this program is based on the
mastery level in the subject areas of need and the percentage of
students passing the Exit Level TAAS Test.

*Project SMART (Summer Migrants Access Resources Through Technology).*
Project SMART is a migrant-funded summer program that is designated for
migrant students who do not migrate during the summer months. This
program serves students in grades PreK-12 and incorporates language
acquisition, reading, science, mathematics, and social studies. The
instructional delivery of this program utilizes televised instruction
via public broadcasting stations and cable operators. Project SMART
instructional staff assist the regular summer school teacher with SMART
lessons via television monitors. Staff development for project staff is
incorporated with the training provided for regular summer staff
program. Effective program implementation is measured by results from
TAAS, Iowa Test of Basic Skills, passing rate from one grade level to
the next, and the graduation rate of migrant students.

*Credit Retrieval System.* The Credit Retrieval System provides students
an intensive individualized program to make up the essential elements
necessary to pass a subject. Students who have failed a core subject
during a six-week reporting period are eligible for this type of
program. Teachers are responsible for filling out a prescription form
and an instructional packet for each student failing a six-week period.
The instructional time is contingent on the quantity of essential
elements that need to be mastered. Students will not earn a grade above
74. In the "accelerated" component of this program, students are
provided with a self-paced study program that enables them with an
opportunity to test out of a core area class. The students will have the
option of testing without study guidance. The Credit Retrieval System
program is considered successful if each participating student earns
credit in the class or classes enrolled.

#### **Discussion**

The main problem for home‑based Texas and Florida migrant youth who are
enrolled in the secondary grades is accruing credits necessary for
graduation. In both Texas and Florida, students who migrate often do not
complete their course of study in either their home-base state or the
receiving state. Over time, the consequences of incomplete coursework
are low mastery of subject matter, poor grades, and unsatisfactory
course completion. These variables are well-documented as negative
influences on attendance and enrollment in school, credit accrual, grade
promotion, and high school graduation.

For that reason, the primary educational objectives for migrant
educators in Donna, Van Buren, and Manatee County are: 1) to provide
supplemental educational opportunities for students to catch up on
instruction missed due to a migrant move, 2) to properly select and
place students in the appropriate instructional programs and/or courses
of study needed, and 3) to ensure the on-going accrual of secondary
credits needed for graduation.

Migrant educators in each district recognize the value and need for
cooperation, coordination, and collaboration if they are to attain
maximal effectiveness in educating migrant students. Receiving schools
like the summer program in Van Buren need information to properly
design, select, and place students in appropriate instructional programs
and/or courses of study so that they can achieve instructional
congruence in what is being taught as defined by Allington and Johnston
(1986). The originating schools in Donna and Manatee need Van Buren to
provide, follow up, or support appropriate instruction to keep the
students on track with their studies so they do not fall so far behind
that they give up. They also need Van Buren to send records that can be
used to document course credits when the students return home. Finally,
the receiving schools in Michigan need to rely on staff in Donna and
Manatee who are motivated and able to ensure that students enroll in a
catch‑up or an accelerated tutorial program if needed, grades are
consolidated, and appropriate credits are accrued.

At the heart of these procedures is communication among the staff of
each program, school, and district. The development of personal
relationshipsmore than formal systems or advanced technologyseems to
characterize how these procedures are carried out. The migrant
counselors, teachers, and resource specialists in all three districts
talk about the importance of meeting face‑to‑face with each other to
establish working relationships. They see themselves as a "human
network" that works to solve barriers migrant children face. For the
most part, secondary-level students are the priority for their energies
and attention. Although Texas, Florida, and Michigan use computers to
store some student information, the migrant educators uses fairly basic
technologies by current standards (telephone, fax, mail, in‑person
meetings, hand-carried delivery by students/parents) to transfer
information. Since neither Michigan and Florida are part of the New
Generation System (NGS) consortium, the prospects for transfer of
information by electronic means appear low at the current time.

The interventions the "network" leverages to enhance educational
continuity include a mix of home-grown and state-supported innovations.
Migrant student-specific instructional programs (i.e., in‑school
tutorials in Texas and the summer evening programs in Michigan) are key
delivery systems. Within these programs, a number of instructional
interventions are often available for students to continue their
academic progress (e.g., instruction packets, PASS, UT correspondence
courses, Project SMART, TAAS prep, computer‑assisted instruction labs,
credit‑by‑exam). In several cases (i.e., PASS and University of Texas
correspondence courses), the instructional interventions may be
completed as independent studies and do not require attendance in a
tutorial or summer program but do require some forms of institutional
support (e.g., grading and awarding of credits).

Keeping the network alive is no small feat. It requires resources to
build and maintain relationships, to improve information transfer, and
to develop, update, and evaluate the instructional interventions.
Special resourceslike the Texas Migrant Interstate Programare also
needed to fill in gaps when the local school counselors can not be
reached. Finally, strong leadership is necessary to marshal and allocate
resources.

In cases where dedicated professionals do work together, the positive
impact of coordination efforts on the continuity of instruction for
individual students can be striking. But this approach must address a
number of significant challenges if the impact on student achievement is
to be as great as desired by educators in Donna, Van Buren, and Manatee
County. Continuous challenges include providing:

-   Time and resources for staff to pursue and maintain a "relentless"
    approach to meeting the special needs of secondary migrant students;

-   Reasonable caseloads for migrant counselors in the regular school
    year;

-   More efficient information-processing and management capabilities
    that eliminate delays in transferring and summarizing migrant
    student information (including alternative sources of data when
    originating schools are closed during the summer months);

-   Resources to design and update the instructional programs (to meet
    changing course requirements and state standards and to effectively
    accommodate student needs for particular courses that are not
    available in the district in which they temporarily enroll);

-   Resources to guide continuous improvement of the interstate efforts
    via on-going and objective evaluations of both the process and
    results;

-   A means to guarantee students that partial or full credit for the
    work they have done will be granted, or else the economic pressures
    for students to work versus study will prove difficult to surmount.

It is interesting to note that the suggestions cited in Volume I by
Melaville and Black (1991) as critical to successful collaboration are
evident in the Donna-Van Buren-Manatee County case. As partners,
district staff have spent time learning how their counterparts operate
and have built respect for each other's needs. They engaged in periodic
communications to establish rapport with key players, to conduct joint
planning, and to keep all other staff well informed. Both formal and
informal communication structures were used and their efforts were
supported by higher levels of administration. The sites share a common
objective: to help secondary migrant students accrue the credits needed
to graduate from their home-base school. Although tested at times, the
credibility of the districts as partners has been sustained by
commitment to their promises. By enacting these processes, the staff in
the Donna‑Van Buren‑Manatee County case have demonstrated how personal
relationships and communication can play an important role in promoting
institutional understanding of shared responsibilities for delivering
appropriately coordinated educational services to migrant children.

In this case study, educators did report that most of the problems with
educational continuity concern secondary-level students. However, they
also stated that summer migrant education programs, especially in
receiving states, make an important contribution to the academic
progress of pre-school and elementary-level migrant students as well. In
fact, the summer programs may be more important now than they were at an
earlier time.

Currently, as part of their education reforms, many school districts in
Texas, Florida, and elsewhere are funding extended school-year services
to help all children learn what they failed to master during the regular
school year. Migrant children lose the opportunity to participate in and
benefit from these local summer programs when they migrate with their
families in search of temporary or seasonal work. If the migrant
children move to a place where there is no summer program, they will not
only stay behind, but will fall farther behind their non-migrant peers
who are enrolled in the Summer programs offered in the home school
district. Thus, ensuring access to Summer program services for
pre-school and elementary-level migrant children is a vital role that
the Migrant Education Program now plays.

**Yuma School District #1, Yuma, Arizona**

**and**

**Alisal School District, Salinas, California**

The Yuma‑Alisal case study differs from the previous cases in three
ways. First, it does not involve migrant students sent from Texas;
rather, it involves reciprocal exchanges of students between two
districts: Alisal in Salinas, California and Yuma School District #1 in
Arizona. Second, curriculum alignment, not credit accrual, is the
primary issue in this case study because the two districts share only
elementary-level students. Third, it offers the most straightforward
example of direct collaboration between two districts with identifiable
shared students and the sharing of resources toward the resolution of
mutually identified problems.

## *The Partners*

[Yuma School District #1 (SD1), Yuma, Arizona]{.underline}

Yuma sits on the Colorado River and borders California, only a few miles
from the Mexican border. Migrants in the Yuma area work with lettuce,
cauliflower, broccoli, onions, and citrus. Except for citrus, they are
the same kinds of crops as in the Salinas area. Migrants engage in all
aspects of agricultural work, from planting to tending crops to
harvesting to processing. The agricultural area centers around the
Salton Sea.

Major employers are D\'Arrigio, TNA, Dole, Nunes, Norton, Fresh Choice,
and New Star. TNA employs large numbers of migrants in both the Salinas
and Yuma areas. Those families are more likely to know that work is
waiting for them, and in what vicinity. They lose a little less school
time in the transition between sites than do other families.

Most migrant families have a base in either Yuma or Salinas and some own
their own homes. About 30 families who travel between Salinas‑Yuma also
work in Mexico part of the year. Since parents are trying to get their
children to attend the same school for the entire school year, the
children may have a permanent home with relatives, even if the parents
do not.

Yuma has one high school district, grades 9‑12, and four K‑8 districts
that feed into it; Yuma SD1 is one of the four K-8 districts. The Yuma
area represents at least half of all migrant students in the state of
Arizona. Approximately 1200‑1400 migrant‑qualified students are enrolled
in Yuma SD1. Increasingly, the students stay throughout the school year,
but even within a school year, there is substantial movement of migrant
students among schools within the district. About half actually move
during the year, and at least half of those who move go to the Salinas
valley area. Students from Salinas start coming in mid‑October through
the end of November. They return to Salinas at Spring break. The
majority lose 3‑4 days of school. Parents try to get their children into
school right away, in part so they can start working; however, they need
a street address in order to enroll in school.

Yuma SD1 dedicates about a third of its migrant funds to pre‑school
programming. Migrant pre‑school is conducted on an outreach basis.
Twenty-two migrant instructional aides are based in schools in the
morning and conduct outreach in the afternoons. They identify locations
where groups of parents and children gather, whether in homes or common
rooms in apartment complexes. They provide families with packets of
crayons, paper, glue and other items and show them how to work with
children on early childhood and school preparation skills.

At the elementary level, the instructional aides work within regular
classrooms. Ten of the 17 elementary schools are Title I schoolwide
programs, six are targeted assistance sites, and one does not have a
Title I program. In any of these settings, migrant assistants are
mandated to give priority service to migrant students.

Each of the four junior high schools has a migrant aide who works with
migrant students under the direction of classroom teachers, mostly in
English as a second language (ESL). The nature of English as a second
language services in Yuma SD1 varies from school to school. It may be
explicit ESL instruction or sheltered-content English classes. Only two
schools have bilingual services; one of them has begun a two‑way
bilingual education program, and in the other, the use of Spanish is not
very structured. The district encourages teachers to obtain the state
ESL endorsement, using a variety of sources. Most schools have one or
two ESL‑endorsed teachers per grade level.

For four years, the district also has employed a junior high school
advisor for migrant students who reviews student records to identify
students who need help, so that they may receive additional assistance
to prepare them for high school. The district sponsors summer school,
primarily for Title I students. The summer school charges tuition, but
the Migrant Education Program provides tuition assistance for migrant
students to participate in the program.

Yuma has made local accommodations on behalf of educational continuity
for migrant students, as seen in the decision of Pecan Grove Elementary
School not to move to a year-round schedule because they realized
migrant students from Alisal would lose considerable instructional time
due to the mismatch in breaks. A year-round calendar would mean school
was not in session when many students arrived.

[Alisal School District, Salinas, California]{.underline}

Salinas, California has a 7‑12 secondary district, two K‑6 districts
(including Alisal), and two K‑8 districts. Alisal Union School District
encompasses the eastern side of the city of Salinas in Monterey County,
California. A majority of the district\'s students are limited in
English proficiency, and 40 percent qualify for Migrant Education. The
district serves grades K‑6; when students move into secondary school,
they also move into a different school district. Other districts within
Salinas that enroll migrant students, including those who move between
Salinas and Yuma, Arizona have been invited to participate in planning
between Alisal and Yuma but have done so only sporadically.

The Salinas area is known for its agriculture. It was the setting of
many of John Steinbeck\'s works, including *The Grapes of Wrath*, which
described the movement of farm workers from Oklahoma to California
during the years of the Depression. After World War II, Hispanic
workers, primarily from Mexico, began to dominate farm labor. The major
crops in and around Salinas include lettuce, cabbage, artichokes,
cauliflower, strawberries, onions, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts.
Migrant workers are involved in every aspect of the crops, from planting
to harvesting to processing and packaging. The agricultural work season
begins in early Spring and lasts into the Fall. Families that migrate to
Yuma leave in the largest numbers around Thanksgiving and begin to
return in February to look for work and housing, if necessary.

A Fall 1997 count revealed 331 Alisal students who travel between
Salinas and Yuma. These students do not differ from other local migrant
students in terms of their socioeconomic status, language proficiency,
ethnicity, or other significant characteristics. About half are based in
Salinas; the other half are based in Yuma.

Alisal USD offers a variety of instructional services for migrant
students, designed to overcome the educational problems faced by migrant
students in general. Migrant Education in Alisal USD supports
after‑school tutoring, Saturday school as well as summer and
intersession school.

The migrant program also assembles Continuous Learning Packets that give
students additional practice in grade‑level skills. These packets are
provided for intersessions and Summer breaks for students not attending
formal migrant programs during those times. Parents and students are
oriented to their use, and parents sign off to verify the students have
done the work. In addition, as packets are returned, migrant program
staff reviews the work to make sure it is correct, and if so, may issue
another packet.

Recently, educators decided to use summer school to promote faster
English acquisition. Therefore, at the time of the site visit, most
instruction was in English, using sheltered methods. Of 16 summer school
teachers, four were paid by \"core\" funds (basic education funds) and
12 from migrant funds. Although all the Title I sites operate as
schoolwides, and students are placed in classes according to their
language proficiency, students in summer school and other supplemental
services are served and grouped by funding source. In other words, the
teachers paid from Migrant Education funds served migrant students
exclusively. This follows a state requirement, not a locally instituted
policy.

#### **Problems Facing Migrant Students**

In the early 1990s, teachers in Yuma would comment that their migrant
students "left doing well and came back falling behind," referring to
both their English proficiency levels and academic achievement. The
decline was most apparent in English. Teachers in Salinas were saying
the same thing about students who left for Yuma. In both cases, the
perceptions were based on observations, not on collected language test
scores or academic data. These observations led to dialogue between the
districts that in turn uncovered several sources of educational
disruption.

Students who migrate between Alisal School District in Salinas,
California and Yuma, Arizona suffer educational disruption in a number
of ways. First, most of the students are Spanish dominant, and they
receive a bilingual program in Salinas but English‑only instruction in
Yuma. Second, many families do not obtain important documents such as
withdrawal slips and other academic information before leaving a
district which causes delayed entry into their new school. Therefore,
students arrive at each district without important information. Third,
instructional time is lost during transit and while parents look for
housing and work. The issue of secondary school credit accrual is not
relevant in this case study because the two districts share only
elementary students.

The primary difference between Yuma SD1 and Alisal USD lies in its
service to LEP students. Yuma provides no bilingual services, in part
because of the lack of bilingual personnel. Previously, LEP students
were placed strictly according to grade level and language assessment
according to the locally adopted measure, the IDEA Proficiency Test
(IPT). Limited English Proficient migrant students are served for the
most part in mainstream classes receiving whatever language assistance
the school provides, usually in the form of ESL. Alisal, as previously
stated, provides a comprehensive bilingual program with substantial
instruction in Spanish, but with a separate set of classes taught
through sheltered English methods for families who decline bilingual
services. The transition between all‑English and bilingual instruction
causes major disruption for students. Little if any academic information
was available to help teachers and inform instruction at the classroom
level in both districts.

Teachers in both districts are hampered by the lack of information about
newly arrived migrant students, particularly their English proficiency
and current academic levels. Yuma uses the IDEA Proficiency Test (IPT).
Alisal USD uses the Bilingual Syntax Measure (BSM) as its language
proficiency assessment upon entry. Annually after that, language
development is monitored through a locally developed instrument called
the ADEPTAlisal Development of English Proficiency Test.

While most families know that they should ask for withdrawal slips and
health records before leaving a district, one secretary said that fewer
than 50 percent of families inform the school of their imminent
departure.

There are several difficulties in facilitating records transfer, whether
between Yuma and Alisal USD or any other sites. The demise of MSRTS has
meant a loss of health and academic records transfer capabilities. The
difficulties are compounded by the need to integrate migrant records
with the new state STAR system, a comprehensive database. The migrant
portion is referred to as COE/STAR, including information on the
Certificate of Eligibility.

Local districts in California, such as Alisal USD, do not have
migrant‑purchased computers; therefore, the computerized database for
COE information can be found only at the county office. District
personnel must obtain COE information from that office by telephone or
fax. State rules prohibit purchase of computers with Migrant Education
funds by local districts; they are reserved for the county programs
funded directly by the state. For that reason, students who migrate
between Salinas and Yuma are identified through a COE hand count.

As noted earlier, Yuma has one high school district, 9‑12, and four K‑8
districts that feed into it. Salinas has a 7‑12 secondary district, two
K‑6 districts (including Alisal), and two K‑8 districts. The mismatch in
the grade spans causes further difficulties in communicating about
students in grades 7‑8.

Although the problem of lost instructional time was not specifically
addressed by the districts, both agreed that about three or four days
are lost during the move and search for work and housing. Workers travel
between Yuma and Salinas with no particular guarantee of employment or
pre‑arranged housing. Often they look for work and procure housing
before enrolling the children in school because the children cannot be
enrolled without a street address. Therefore, several days of school
time might be lost before a family secures a street address qualifying a
student to register in a specific school.

#### **Promising Practices**

The Yuma‑Alisal case focuses on mutually identified needs and solutions;
therefore, much of the information gained from Yuma duplicates the
information from Alisal. However, the two districts operate quite
differently, and thus the local accommodations to migrant students are
unique.

[Promising Practices in Yuma School District #1]{.underline}

When the problems of migrant students were being discussed locally in
the early 1990s, the Director of Federal Projects in Yuma asked the
migrant records clerks to identify the schools in Salinas the students
had attended. She then contacted the head of migrant programs in Alisal
School District and requested a meeting in 1991 to discuss mutual
concerns about shared migrant students.

As a result of this meeting, personnel from both districts agreed that
these were "shared students, not belonging to one or the other." That
attitude led to agreement to minimize differences in services, most
clearly in the type of language assistance programs provided to
students. Subsequent meetings identified the kinds of information that
teachers needed in order to begin serving newly arrived students
appropriately as soon as possible. Use of the internet and e-mail to
exchange data seemed a real possibility for both school districts.
Though direct electronic communication between teacher‑to‑teacher or
site‑to‑site was preferable because of the lag inherent in sending
information through a central data repository such as California\'s
regional offices.

The greatest coordination effort of these trading partners was the
creation of a migrant student identification card by Yuma School
District bearing such information as each state\'s migrant student ID
number, the student's name, parents' names, date of birth, prior school,
and teacher's e-mail address. With this information, the receiving
school can contact the sending school and/or teacher to determine
correct placement for grade and language of instruction. The information
can also be used to place students in other appropriate services if so
indicated. Teachers can contact each other for information for
appropriate classroom instruction and detailed information on a
student\'s academic performance. E‑mail also can be used for students to
maintain contact with former teachers and classmates.

An electronic template was devised by Yuma and contains the kinds of
information agreed to by teachers and administrators from both
districts. Two teachers from Yuma and Alisal piloted the use of the
student identification card during 1997‑98. Teachers in Yuma and Alisal
began exchanging information about students. Schools have some
flexibility about who and when the electronic template is filled out. In
some schools the counselors take the lead, while in other schools
teachers do.

The ID card was slated to be issued to parents at a meeting in December,
1998. Not many parents come to meetings, so letters about this new card
were prepared in English and Spanish. In some cases, home‑school liaison
workers delivered the ID card in person. In other cases, they were
mailed.

E‑mail communication between teachers promises applications in
instruction as well as information exchange. Migrant students from Yuma
are assigned journals to work on while migrating and family projects
such as describing new locales and their experiences. These assignments
can be used to obtain better grades in some classes, including classes
at the receiving site. Students who write journals on the computer can
send them via the Internet to teachers in Salinas. Many California
schools do not have computers, so the work is sent to teachers\' home
e‑mail addresses when teachers so agree. "E‑mail journals" can start
electronic communication with other teachers.

Anticipated outcomes of the electronic information exchange include
easier student transition with appropriate placement; improved
information for teachers about newly arriving migrant students; and
instructional continuity because students will be able to communicate
with the other site. The e‑mail transfer will have a direct impact on
placement in language assistance programs. Teachers will know whether
LEP Alisal students arriving in Yuma should be placed in ESL sites or at
Pecan Grove, which has inaugurated a two‑way bilingual program. And
students will be able to scan their work and send it to readers at the
other site. These are tangible examples of ways to overcome the academic
and social disengagement that Rumberger and Larson (1998) said results
in mobile students' dropping out.

The e‑mail communication has several possibilities. For example, the
migrant counselor at Pecan Grove used the term "attachment disorder" in
describing an emotional state migrant students suffer when they leave
friends and familiar surroundings behind. That term strongly echoes the
"social disengagement" identified by Rumberger and Larson. She sees the
potential of an "electronic pen‑pal" arrangement through the technology.

At 9th grade, e‑mail communication between the districts would offer a
greater opportunity of credit continuity. It would help erase ambiguity
about content of cognate courses. The system has also major implications
for academic counseling.

*Obstacles to Implementation*. At intake, staff largely rely on students
or their parents to provide the information that they came from Alisal
(or any other given district.) Parents have gotten better at notifying
schools that they are leaving, but it is continues to be a problem.

There are some legal issues that affect the information that can be
sent. At the time this study concluded, a decision still needed to be
made about the level at which the actual template information will be
shared: school or teacher. The school level would affect placements,
such as grade level and language program, and the teacher level would be
more detailed and encompass decisions about instruction.

The problem with the e‑mail information exchange was related to
hardware: Alisal does not have the same degree of hardware capabilities
as Yuma. Every teacher in Yuma is on line; this is not the case in
Alisal.

[Promising Practices in Alisal USD]{.underline}

To provide instructional continuity to students, migrant staff at Alisal
USD are careful to enroll students from Yuma SD#1 into the sheltered
English strand of LEP instruction as it closely reflects Yuma's
curriculum. However, newly assigned resource teachers may not be aware
of this practice, and some Yuma students may be misplaced into bilingual
classes.

Yuma is moving toward more sheltered English instruction as opposed to
mainstream with some ESL support; this will bring the two districts\'
methods of serving LEP migrant students into closer alignment. Meetings
between staff of the two districts have determined equivalencies among
the Bilingual Syntax Measure, ADEPT and IDEA Language Proficiency Test
to allow language proficiency information to be mutually understood and
communicated.

*Obstacles to Coordination*. More formal, complete, and timely exchange
of migrant student information is hampered by the lack of direct access
to relevant technology. Migrant student information for Alisal USD is
housed at the county office and cannot be accessed directly by Alisal\'s
migrant staff; it must be requested by telephone or fax. The lack of a
computerized migrant student database in Alisal makes it difficult to
retrieve student information that could be used to assess effectiveness,
such as language proficiency and/or academic achievement scores. This
kind of information must be retrieved by looking through student folders
by hand. Essential student information is kept on the main district
database, but staff reported difficulties getting access to the data.
Therefore, the migrant program personnel perceive a need for a separate
migrant student database. However, the Alisal USD does not have the
technological requirements, such as computers, nor does it have direct
access to the COE information kept at the county office. Individual
teachers do have computers, so the teacher‑to‑teacher e‑mail exchange is
feasible, and was planned for piloting during the 1998‑99 school year.
The county office has agreed to provide the district one IBM computer;
however, one per building would be needed to allow the e‑mail system to
relay information or information requests from the school to the
district to the county.

#### **Discussion**

The ID card solution was devised in the series of meetings held between
the districts since 1992. As described above, the meetings identified
different practices in language assessment and language support
programs. They led to agreement on the kinds of information teachers
needed to facilitate students\' entry into the new school and classroom.
When the student identification card is fully implemented it will help
avoid duplication of a myriad of services, such as dental screening and
testing. Staff at the receiving school will know what kinds of support
services the student has received, such as extended day tutoring.
Knowing levels of academic performance will also tell the receiving
staff how to gear services.

Interstate coordination between Yuma and Alisal has come about because
of the perseverance of individuals at each end. Both districts have
modified local instructional or scheduling practices to enhance
continuity and achieve a degree of congruence. They have identified
needed student information and set in process a means of sharing that
information electronically.

The migrant students shared by Yuma and Alisal face a set of problems
commonly encountered by migrant students everywhere:

-   Instructional time lost during the move and search for housing and
    employment;

-   Lack of information to help inform instruction at the classroom
    level;

-   Dissimilarities between the language assistance programs for LEP
    migrant students.

In Yuma, solutions to the first problem of lost instructional time
consist primarily of tutorial assistance by migrant aides in regular
classrooms and use of Migrant Education funds to help migrant students
attend summer school. Alisal has devised several local solutions to the
problem of lost instructional time, such as intersession study packets,
summer school, after‑school tutorials and Saturday classes.

Solutions to the problems of lack of information and dissimilarities
between language assistance programs required strong coordination
between Yuma SD1 and Alisal School District. Coordination between the
districts has been initiated and sustained primarily at the level of the
special programs offices, including Migrant Education. At times it has
included other administrators, specialists, and some teachers. To date,
coordination of services for migrant students has occurred in the form
of unilateral modification of local instructional practices.
Specifically, Alisal USD has expanded its English instructional
component and placed students who spend part of the school year in Yuma
in its sheltered English strand. Yuma has endeavored to strengthen its
services to LEP students. It does not have the resources to offer
bilingual instruction, but it is moving toward a model similar to Alisal
USD\'s sheltered English program.

The steps taken in Yuma and Alisal to create a common body of shared
student information reflect effort expended toward coordination. Without
giving up their local language assessment practices, both districts have
coordinated their practices to achieve mutual understanding of student
test scores to guide their placement in language assistance programs.
The student ID card and e‑mail system may lead to greater mutual
understanding of student needs and thus to more consistent instruction.
In this way, these efforts may promote greater curricular and
methodological congruence, thereby lessening educational discontinuity
for migrant students.

The Yuma‑Alisal case may offer special lessons to trading partners who
share substantial numbers of identifiable, individual students who
regularly travel back and forth between two districts. It shows how
direct communication between two districts can lead to the
identification and resolution of mutual problems with sustained
communication, the commitment of some local resources, and the
willingness to change local practices. The fact that these two districts
share only elementary students simplified the situation. The list of
needed information did not include the complexities of graduation
requirements and partial credits that posed such challenges in the other
cases. Nevertheless, timely information access and understanding of each
other\'s instructional practices were critical to lessening the effects
of educational discontinuity.

The principal coordination strategy, the e-mail information exchange,
holds promise for applications at the district, school, and classroom
level. At the district level, the consistent information the ID cards
and e-mail templates provide may allow better planning because it can
focus on large numbers of students from a single sender. This case
showed how identifying large numbers of shared students resulted in
modified curriculum practices in both districts. At the school level,
the information allows more timely, accurate classroom and program
placement. At the teacher level, the information allows within-class
placement and instruction that meets individual needs. As the discussion
noted, the system may allow students to build more stable connections
and overcome feelings of isolation by allowing them to remain in contact
with teachers and friends. All of these potential benefits accrued from
the identification of a shared problem and the commitment of time and
personal attention toward its resolution.

**COORDINATING MECHANISMS: "THE REST OF THE STORY"**

The trading partners study found several coordinating mechanisms (which
included both special resources and educational innovations) that had
been put in place on the part of state offices of migrant education or
in collaborative consortia among state directors and other interested
persons. These mechanisms repeatedly appeared as important elements for
coordination and continuity of migrant educational services. They
provided a type of metaphorical glue or cement that allowed local
projects to align local programs with the students' home bases,
particularly in the case of districts that received students from Texas.
Also, they provided the means for districts to gain access to the
information needed to make appropriate placements, calculate partial
credits, and ensure that local coursework was posted to the students'
records in their schools of origin.

For these reasons, the mechanisms merit description in this report.
Indeed, without these descriptions, the preceding case studies are not
complete. They provide further information on what migrant educators
have done to collaborate and, through their collaborative efforts,
devise creative solutions to the problems migrant students face. The
mechanisms are presented and discussed under three categories in which
they cluster naturally:

1.  Technical Assistance and Support

2.  Instructional Technologies

3.  Information Technologies

## *Technical Assistance and Support*

[Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP)]{.underline}

The Texas Migrant Interstate Project (TMIP) was established in 1980 to
address the needs of both "interstate" and "intrastate" migrant students
because the State Director of the Texas Migrant Education Program
recognized that Texas was sending students to 40 different states (the
current number is 44 states), and would need to work actively with the
receiving states to improve the continuity of education for migrant
students.

From its inception, TMIP was intended to increase the graduation rate of
migrant students by promoting coordination/cooperation of migrant
education programs that provide services to migrant students. The Texas
Migrant Interstate Program focuses most of its efforts on
secondary-level credit accrual; in particular, it provides follow‑up on
calls that require interventions to ensure students are granted credit
for work done in several states.

The Texas Migrant Interstate Program is funded by the Texas Education
Agency (TEA). The Pharr‑San Juan-Alamo School District serves as the
Program's fiscal agent. The Texas Migrant Interstate Program's office is
in Pharr, Texas which is located within Region 1 in the lower Rio Grande
Valley, where initially 75 percent (currently 65 percent) of the
migrants in Texas lived. Up until a few years ago, Pharr had the largest
number of migrant students in the nation and even now enrolls over
5,000. Currently, nearby Weslaco and La Joya enroll larger numbers of
migrants.

The Texas Migrant Interstate Program began its activities with
information dissemination and training about the Migrant Education
Program in general and the national Migrant Student Record Transfer
System (MSRTS). In 1982, TMIP introduced the annual Secondary Credit
Accrual Workshop to provide educators with detailed instruction on how
to facilitate credit accrual through a variety of activities involving
information exchange, matching course content, and the calculation of
partial credits.

The annual workshop, now in its 17th year, is convened for one full day
of presentations and meetings, followed by several days of fact-finding
visits to schools in the Rio Grande. During the workshop, concurrent
sessions provide updated information on Texas's secondary education
requirements, on alternative opportunities for students to gain course
credits, and on new uses of technology in information transfer and
instruction. For example, Texas is moving from the "essential elements"
to the new "essential knowledge and skills" (TEKS). The Texas Migrant
Interstate Program's Director noted that "if the curriculum changes a
little bit in Texas, then the upstream states must adjust their programs
if the students are going to get credit."

Another very important feature of the annual workshop are the
"verification" meetings. In these meetings, out-of-state participants
meet face-to-face with local school district staff to verify credits
immediately and address unresolved difficulties in credit accrual for
individual students. These meetings not only help to resolve the credit
accrual problems, but perhaps equally important, provide an opportunity
to create and sustain the personal relationships necessary to solve
problems effectively and provide adequate follow-through. In the days
following the workshop, TMIP also schedules several trips for
out-of-state participants to schools in the valley. During these field
trips, out-of-state participants can see and hear first-hand local
school faculty discuss their curricula and programs. The participants
can also meet with individual schools or districts as necessary.

Over the last ten years, a core group of participants have come
regularly to the workshop to sustain their connections. But the workshop
also supports new personnel who need to make those connections and find
out what they need to do to satisfy the requirements of a Texas school.
This is particularly pertinent for new staff, who could expend their own
time and students' time on services that will not accrue course credits.

An example of the value of this workshop occurred in 1998, a counselor
from Maine came to meet with people at a school in Brownsville, Texas
because the migrant students (who were now coming to Maine in the
summer) were not enrolling in the Summer program. The students did not
enroll because the Brownsville school would not accept the work they had
done in the previous Summer program for credit. The counselor from Maine
met with the counselor at the Brownsville school and found out what they
needed to do in order to have the students get credit if they
participated in the Summer program.

Twenty states participated in the 1998 workshop, and there are 17 states
that consistently attend. Participants include local administrators,
counselors, and people responsible for awarding credit. In the early
years, state Directors of Migrant Education Programs came to the
workshop, but TMIP found out that it was critical to bring in the people
who actually worked with the instructional programming and record
systems. Some states now send six or seven people because of the
different sites they operate within the state and the opportunity to
talk with the appropriate administrators, principals, and counselors
invited from Texas. In addition, TMIP invites registrars, who with local
counselors in each school district to award credits to migrant students.
Last year, 17 of the 20 regions in Texas sent a representative to the
workshop and 50 school districts also sent a representative.

When TMIP staff talk with prospective participants about the value of
attending the annual Secondary Credit Accrual Workshop, they emphasize
the value of personal relationships:

> It is a chance to sit across the table, face‑to‑face, with the people
> you are going to be dealing with throughout the year. It\'s a little
> expensive, but once you get to know each other, it works much, much
> better. You get to know each other by name and you are able to pick up
> the phone and talk when any issue comes up. (Director, TMIP)

All three of the professional staff at TMIP (a Director and two program
specialists) are certified counselors in Texas and remain up‑to‑date on
the requirements of every graduation plan available in Texas. They can
provide current, expert advice on the proper courses of action with
respect to credit accrual, grade promotion, and graduation.

The most important service provided by TMIP is the "follow‑up" by staff
whenever an educator or student calls in for information or help. As one
staffer said:

> During the course of any day, people contact TMIP for assistance. Each
> call is recorded in on a contact log. As counselors, we then call the
> person and assist them with their request or problem and document our
> work on a response log. If a school district up north wants student
> information, they call us. We get them together with the person they
> need to talk with in the Texas school district. Once they start to
> have the conversation, we can step out and let them work it out. It is
> always better to let them deal with each other directly than through a
> third person. (TMIP Program Specialist)

Locating a student's record, finding the right person to talk to, or
being able to make an appropriate referral are a large part of the TMIP
staff's work. In making appropriate referrals, TMIP staff rely on the
NGS, the Texas Migrant Education Program Directory, the National Migrant
Education Program Summer School Directory, a directory listing all
schools in the state of Texas, a Directory of Services for Migrant and
Seasonal Farm Workers, and a listing of all the universities in Texas
and their entrance requirements and scholarship information.

Increasingly NGS is becoming the key tool. States who participate with
NGS can get usually the information they need almost instantly, on their
own. However, if a state is not a NGS member, TMIP queries NGS for them
to obtain the required student data. If for some reason the information
is not on NGS, TMIP then calls the schools directly to get the
information requested by the state.

Although NGS has demonstrated how it can link schools to current
information, at the time of this study only 12 of the 44 states that
share students with Texas had adopted the NGS. To help other school and
district personnel make direct connections on their own, TMIP
disseminates the "program directory" with the names of contact persons,
addresses, and telephone and fax numbers of schools in Texas that are
serving migrant children.

In cases where local policies present a barrier to credit accrual, the
credit accrual work of TMIP has been facilitated by the appointment of a
Migrant Services Coordinator. The role of the Migrant Services
Coordinator is to advocate for migrant children, coordinate migrant
projects at the district level, and coordinate with other migrant staff
and projects (such as TMIP). Whenever TMIP staff (on behalf of an
upstream state or another district) have a problem with a local school
policy, they can call on the Coordinator to help TMIP handle what they
need to do to award credit. The Texas Migrant Interstate Program also
supports other services, such as the Texas Exemplary Recognition
Program, the Texas Migrant Student Transfer Packet System, the
out-of-state TAAS Testing Program, and Project SMART for curriculum
dissemination.

In its work with the Texas Exemplary Recognition Program, TMIP selects
the top ten students in the state (often they are the valedictorian or
salutatorian of their entire class). Candidates must be migrant students
who migrated during their high school years and have been assisted by
the MEP. Each year TMIP receives over 250 applicants. Although just the
top 10 are honored at the annual Texas Migrant Education Conference, all
250 are recognized in a book that is published and distributed to school
counselors. The book is used to show other students that these students
(as role models) can succeed; in this way, success for other migrant
students becomes tangible. One student from Progreso migrated to seven
states and still was able to be the salutatorian of her class,
indicating that personal effort, supported by coordination initiatives,
can be successful.

The Texas Migrant Student Transfer Packet System or, as it is often more
commonly referred to, the "Texas Red Bag," is a relatively new service
for TMIP. At first, the "red bag" was a temporary means of transferring
student records when the MRSTS was eliminated. It was an actual red bag
issued to migrant families to carry school records with them and had
TMIP's toll-free 800 number on it if questions arose. During its early
implementation, migrant educators in Texas soon recognized that the
MSRTS might have had an unintended consequence: decreasing migrant
parents' awareness of and active involvement in the record transfer
process. Texas wanted all migrant parents to be more aware of this need
and to take all the records with them. Therefore, a temporary solution
was transformed into a system of educating and assisting parents to be
responsible for requesting and bringing their children\'s academic
records with them as they traveled.

The general idea for "transfer packets" is that parents or students will
take the pertinent records with them, take out their records and add new
records before they leave each school attendance area, as they move from
state to state. The information contained on a student's records is
intended to help with enrollment in school immediately upon arrival in
the receiving state, to facilitate proper placement of the student in
the right classes, to indicate where the student left off in his studies
and what is needed for completing course credits, and to provide contact
information if follow-up is needed to make credit accrual decisions.
Currently the "red bag" is no longer used as districts provide parents
with their own folders or boxes to hold student records.

There were two phases in the implementation of the project. In the first
phase, all parents were informed that the MSRTS was no longer in
operation and that they would need to use the transfer packet to
exchange student information. This information was communicated through
a video and also through trainer‑of‑trainer workshops for staff with
migrant program responsibilities at all of the Education Service Centers
(ESCs). These ESCs then provided information to parents in the school
districts. In the second phase, TMIP put together a set of materials on
the education system to empower parents to know their rights and what
they need to do. Staff at TMIP did this because many schools do not
access the NGS. Parents are provided the materials (i.e., *Migrant
Parent's Resource Guide to Understanding the Educational System*) during
locally scheduled training sessions. Districts have been asked to train
all previously identified migrant parents over a multi‑year period and
then provide training for new parents only (this training is already in
place within the valley). Data on how many parents have been trained has
been sent to TMIP and is now being entered in NGS.

At present, the transfer packet has been in use in most of the states
that share students with Texas. Currently, most districts in the valley
accept information brought to the school in a transfer packet. Sometimes
if the course name differs from the name of a course in that district,
the school district may need to call the receiving state to confirm the
appropriateness of the grade/credits accrued. Evaluation data is
collected only on the number of parents trained.

The out‑of‑state Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test is the
last new major project for TMIP. The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
measures the statewide curriculum in reading and mathematics at grades 3
through 8 and the exit level; in writing in grades 4, 8, and the exit
level; and in science and social studies at grade 8. Satisfactory
performance on the TAAS exit-level tests is prerequisite to a high
school diploma. Persons with access to test materials must maintain and
preserve the security and confidential integrity of the test.

In previous years, the TAAS was administered in March, and then in
October. This timing meant that migrant students often missed both
opportunities to take the TAAS. Ensuring that migrant students had
sufficient opportunities to take the TAAS was important because
test-taking experience helps students, particularly when they must pass
the TAAS later in order to graduate from high school. Again, under the
direction of the State Director of Migrant Education, TMIP was charged
with supporting an out-of-state TAAS testing program to provide migrant
students with additional opportunities to take the TAAS and to remove
one more obstacle to graduation.

When the TAAS first became a part of Texas state policy, the state did
not allow anyone outside the state to administer the test. In the first
year (1992), TMIP staff and TAAS coordinators from local school
districts visited different states and administered the test. At the
time this study was conducted, a cooperative agreement has been signed
by both Texas and any receiving state that wishes to administer the
TAAS. Training to administer the TAAS is conducted at the National
Migrant Education Conference. The training lasts 90 minutes to 2
hoursnot a barrier for staff interested in acquiring this skill.
Participants also receive copies of the forms, test guidelines, and
study guides.

Texas Migrant Interstate Program staff provide approval to administer
out-of-state TAAS tests through an interstate registration process with
Summer migrant programs. States receiving migrant students prepare lists
of students who are interested in taking the TAAS; TMIP then confirms
that the students are eligible to take the TAAS (via school district or
the Texas Education Agency's test processing center). If the student is
not already on the database (thus confirming eligibility to take the
test), TMIP calls the school district to check on the student's status
to take the TAAS for the first time. To be eligible to take the TAAS,
students should have completed their sophomore year in Texas and
completed freshman English and Math. The Texas Migrant Interstate
Program then sends the information and registration list to the local
site, which tests on the designated date, returns the test roster to
TMIP, and sends the test materials directly to Iowa City, Iowa to be
scored.

In the first year 159 students were tested, and that number went up to
483. Currently that number is decreasing (238) because staff in Texas
are doing a better job, the receiving states are getting better material
to work with, and more students are passing the TAAS the first, second,
or third time.

The Texas Migrant Interstate Program has a rich history of supporting
interstate coordination initiatives. In the early 1980s, TMIP sent
"interstaters" to upstream states to spend the Summer working as
counselors with the students who arrived from Texas. The contacts made
across the states proved helpful; these contacts formed a base for
future efforts.

The TMIP has also worked too build awareness of the Migrant Education
Program among Superintendents of Schools. This activity is supported
annual by the Educational Service Center I. The Executive Director of
Region I believed that unless the superintendent becomes committed to
the success of the Migrant Education Program, the coordination among
districts would not be supported at a level needed for staff to succeed.
She has invited the 38 superintendents in the valley to visit at least
once one of the states that receive the largest number of migrant
students (i.e., Washington, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio).

The TMIP staff is the core of its service delivery capabilities. They
build relationships with both Texas school faculty and out-of-state
migrant educators or district personnel. TMIP staff work with district
and school personnel on a daily basis to work out the difficulties in
helping migrant children to accrue credits, have grades consolidated,
take the TAAS, and involve and empower parentsall efforts geared to
help migrant students graduate from high school.

##  Summary of Texas Migrant Interstate Program (TMIP) Services*.* As described above, the TMIP offers comprehensive services to assist in the coordination of educational services for migrant students nationwide. Key services include:

-   Conducting training about secondary credit accrual and graduation
    issues at national conferences, state conferences, and out-of-state
    conferences.

-   Helping build relationships between educators in different districts
    and states via its conferences and telephone conference calls.

-   Providing general advice to states about what students need to
    accomplish to graduate in Texas (especially the new graduation
    requirements and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills).

-   Working with school counselors to confirm what courses are needed by
    individual Texas students.

-   Interpreting out-of-district student information for Texas
    districts.

-   Supporting credit accrual via the "transfer packet."

-   Using NGS as a tool to check on student information.

-   Using mail/fax of documents to support credit accrual.

-   Overseeing the out-of-state TAAS testing program.

-   Disseminating contact materials (i.e., site directories)

-   Promoting migrant student graduation through the Exemplary Migrant
    Student Project.

-   Disseminating Project SMART Materials.

-   Disseminating informational videos (e.g., the migrant experience).

-   Conducting the parent training on the education system for some of
    the Education Service Centers.

[Florida Migrant Interstate Project]{.underline}

The Florida Migrant Interstate Project (FMIP) is headquartered in
Immokalee, Florida. It was initiated in 1992 and is funded through the
Florida Department of Education as a resource center that coordinates
activities for states and districts that send or receive Florida migrant
students. The FMIP is the information hub for migrant education in
Florida and maintains a paper file system of all migrant kids in the
state. The FMIP\'s objectives are to:

# 

# Increase the number and percent of Florida migrant students identified in Florida and in receiving states;

# Facilitate curriculum-matching between states;

# Serve as a resource center to the Florida Department of Education on inter‑state coordination issues;

# Empower migrant parents to get them more involved in their children\'s school success. 

Services provided by FMIP to meet these objectives include:

-   Sharing education and health information with receiving states on
    Florida migrant students through the FMIP Newsletter, interstate
    meetings, and telephone/fax contacts;

-   Conducting follow‑up on interstate identification and recruitment
    issues;

-   Providing training and technical assistance at local, state,
    regional, and national workshops;

-   Assisting receiving states make direct contact with Florida
    home‑base schools through the Florida Schools Directory and
    telephone/fax contacts;

-   Coordinating curriculum-matching between states;

-   Empowering parents to play a more active role in their children's
    education through information provided on two toll free telephone
    lines.

The annual Directory of Florida Contacts for Florida Home‑based Migrant
Students (the "Directory") is FMIP's cornerstone resource for both
Florida districts and the receiving states. District staff use school
contact information in the Directory to connect with a sending or
receiving district. If necessary, districts can call FMIP on one of its
800 numbers for assistance. The FMIP will make the appropriate contacts
directly and try to resolve the information request. Calls are evenly
divided between requests for individual student information and for
information on educational programs for migrant students. About
two-thirds of the calls come from receiving districts in other states.
Along with the Directory, the phone and the fax are the primary vehicles
used by FMIP for sharing information. A print vehicle for disseminating
information, the FMIP Newsletter, goes to all FMIP contacts throughout
the nation, primarily to Michigan, Texas, and Florida.

The bilingual teacher exchange is an example of curriculum-matching and
came about because of a request from Pennsylvania for help in placing
bilingual teachers to work with Spanish-speaking migrant students in
that state\'s Summer programs. The exchange expanded to include eight
states. In summer 1998, FMIP sent 12 bilingual teachers to the eight
states, including three to Pennsylvania. Language assistance now
includes Haitian Creole along with Spanish. The FMIP pays for the
teachers\' round-trip air transportation, hotel lodging, and car rental
for the four to six weeks of the Summer program. The receiving state
pays the teachers\' Summer salary.

The FMIP has maintained a close connection with ESCORT (originally the
Eastern Stream Center on Resources and Training), which provides
material resources to the FMIP through from headquarters in Oneonta, New
York. ESCORT staff provide additional technical assistance to FMIP
through its subcontract with the Comprehensive Center in Tampa operated
by ETS. ESCORT also provides financial help to FMIP by funding its toll
free 800 phone number parent hotlines. ESCORT has an informal
relationship with FMIP; there is no formal plan or budgeted cooperative
activity. Staff from both offices communicate weekly, and ESCORT staff
represent Florida migrant education and FMIP at interstate conferences.
They do this primarily by presenting "Florida 101" at in-service
conferences. This consists of an overview of the services FMIP offers to
migrant students and educators; use of the Florida Schools Directory;
awareness of the Florida State Assessment and its test administration
dates; Florida graduation requirements; and information on migrant
advocacy.

Like the Texas Interstate Migrant Project, FMIP sponsors an annual
interstate meeting that is broader in focus than that offered by TMIP.
The FMIP maintains a K‑12 focus, whereas Texas targets secondary credit
accrual. The FMIP brings in the staff of receiver states operating
Summer programs (principals, guidance counselors, teachers) so that they
can meet with their Florida counterparts and become familiar with the
sending districts.

Typically, 200 people attend the meeting, representing 15‑17 states. The
first day features a keynote speaker and breakout sessions in which
attendees discuss interstate issues and concerns in migrant education
such as block scheduling. The conference also highlights exhibit booths
from the Florida districts where staff from receiving states can visit
and become familiar with the originating districts. On the second and
third days of the conference, staff from receiving states visit those
Florida school districts who share migrant students with them. This is
an opportunity to network, plan programs, and develop personal
relationships among staff of the originating and receiving districts.

#### **Instructional Technologies**

## *[Project SMART]{.underline}*

Project SMART (Summer Migrants Access Resources through Technology) is a
national distance learning instructional program that is broadcast via
satellite from ESC-20 in San Antonio, for eight weeks over the Summer.
This broadcast is targeted to Texas migrant students who live
temporarily in other participating states around the country. Project
SMART is intended to help migrant students earn credits needed for high
school graduation. The TMIP disseminates Project SMART materials; it
also conducts workshops and presentations on SMART. Project SMART can be
implemented in various ways, including site‑based and home‑based models.

In the "site‑based model," exemplified in this study in Sidney, Montana,
students participate interactively in a classroom setting with the SMART
television and their local "SMART Partner" teachers who prepare the
students for the instructional broadcast, facilitate interactions by
telephone with the SMART television teacher, and conduct follow‑up
instruction and assessment. Alternatively, students can view the live
instruction later on videotape or view a previously taped lesson. Only
high school courses are offered for credit. One high school course is
taught each Summer on a revolving basis. The videotapes offer students
the opportunity to view the current course at a later time if they
cannot attend class, or they can view a previously broadcast course if
that fits their course accrual needs better.

The home‑based SMART model is implemented for migrant students who
remain over the summer in Texas. Migrant home visitors function as
"SMART Partners" in this model. Expected outcome indicators for SMART
include accrual of high school credits, grade promotion, and high school
graduation.

The Educational Service Center-20 is the instructional delivery and
support center for the Project SMART. Project SMART is funded by the
Texas Education Agency through the state legislature using the Pharr-San
Juan-Alamo ISD (PSJA) as its fiscal agent. The ESC-20 broadcasts SMART
to 42 states, including Texas. More broadly, ESC-20 is a private
non‑profit organization with a separate board of directors and a
distance learning focus. It operates the Star Schools consortium, for
example, in conjunction with the State Education Agencies from Texas,
Illinois, and North Carolina.

The ECS-20 became involved with distance learning in 1985 by developing
the capability to deliver curricula to small schools in Texas who
otherwise could not meet the added credit demands placed on them from
curriculum restructuring in Texas at that time. The ESC-20 had the
requisite distance learning infrastructure in place when first
approached by the state migrant director to develop a distance learning
curriculum for migrant education. The ECS-20 then submitted a proposal
that the Texas Education Agency funded as a pilot project with Montana.

In 1993, a national advisory committee of migrant directors and
practitioners recommended expanding Project SMART beyond the pilot
phase. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) then picked up the
broadcasts for national showing. With expanded funding, ESC-20 set about
developing the SMART curriculum and its instructional delivery at the
San Antonio site. The Summer broadcasts are designed to encourage
secondary-level credit accrual in Texas and to offer Texas‑based
students with culturally relevant instruction while they are in another
state over the Summer. Project SMART is also broadcast in Texas over the
Summer as a supplemental home instruction program.

The ESC-20 controls the development and delivery of the SMART broadcasts
but is not responsible for the selection and implementation of specific
SMART models. It is important for local site staff to know how to match
appropriate SMART models to the needs of the migrant students. One of
the problems ESC-20 faces is the need to deliver onsite training on
demand, including consultations on the models.

Project SMART began as a pilot project between Montana and Texas, but by
1998 it had grown to serve approximately 35,000 migrant students in 17
states. The operating cost per site is about \$2,000 for the satellite
dish, curriculum, and related materials.

##### *Project ESTRELLA*

As described earlier in this volume, Project ESTRELLA supports
interstate coordination through the use of laptop computers. It is one
of six technology projects funded by the Office of Migrant Education and
works with the Migrant Education Programs of Montana, Illinois, New
York, and Texas, all of which offer evening programs in the Summer with
instructional staff and components. Participating local sites in Texas
are Pharr‑San Juan‑Alamo (PSJA), Weslaco, La Jolla, and Eagle Pass.

Project ESTRELLA provides the core curriculum and support systems to
enhance the services offered through NovaNET. It relies on the
participating states' direct instructional support through certified
teachers. Summer programs make a commitment to find instructional
personnel with appropriate areas of expertise to support the NovaNET
courses.

Project ESTRELLA selects high school migrant students based on
nominations from their school sites and the Summer sites in receiving
states. Students are selected on the basis of demonstrated dependability
and likelihood of success, although they are not necessarily the most
academically talented.

Students are allowed to work on only one NovaNET course at a time. This
policy is intended to encourage completion of courses attempted, by
removing the possibility of taking on too much and not completing the
work.

ESTRELLA works with counselors at the students' high schools to
determine which courses to offer. Priority is given to courses where the
students have partial credit, to allow them to complete those courses.
Priority is also given to courses students have failed in previous
attempts, or where credit was not given for any reasons. They try to
keep the students on track for graduation. The project intended to give
priority to juniors and seniors, but currently, most participants are
freshmen and sophomores. The project intends to work closely with
seniors for post‑secondary enrollment, for example, helping them with
application information and writing the college entrance essay.

The ESTRELLA Interstate Student Coordinator works with school counselors
to recruit student participants, trouble‑shoots technical problems, and
monitors student participation. The Coordinator monitors students\' time
on-line along with their coursework progress using data collected by the
system. The Interstate Student Coordinator also works with counselors to
ensure that credit is posted to transcripts. He continues to work with
students even after they have returned to their home schools in Texas to
monitor their progress and see if they still need to work on the Nova
Net curriculum.

Each State uses ESTRELLA differently. New York\'s program operates
through BOCES, and the state agencies are the partners in Montana and
Texas. New York and Montana have contracts with Illinois. Texas does not
have a contract but contributes in‑kind support. Contracts specify that
the states have primary responsibility for implementation within their
jurisdictions. The contracts also specify unique partner
responsibilities. BOCES oversees the cybermentors component, and Montana
is responsible for professional development. The Texas Education Agency
assists in liaison with the Texas districts.

For the cybermentors component, the Project ESTRELLA contracts with the
University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, which has a service
learning orientation and a special interest in minority students.
Students at the university volunteer time as mentors for participating
high school students. They maintain communication via e‑mail and serve
as role models, letting the high school students know that college is
possible for them. They provide information on college life and the
campus experience, such as assistance with application processes and
applications for financial aid. Many migrant students' families have no
experience with college, so this personal contact is important for them.
Project ESTRELLA supports a program assistant at the university to
disseminate information, recruit mentors, and provide monthly training
for the mentors.

The mentors have 24‑hour computer lab access with e‑mail provided
through the university\'s system. Some of the mentors have laptops
loaned through another migrant program. The high school students have
e‑mail through NovaNET.

Project ESTRELLA also includes a Visual Learning component, through the
Polaroid Education Program. It emphasizes student writing and
incorporation of visual images in writing. Student writing is published
in Project ESTRELLA's newsletter; a recent issue featured three articles
about recent floods in Eagle Pass, where some of the students live. The
articles included poetry and photographs.

Project ESTRELLA also focuses on parents and attempts to involve them in
their children's education. The Interstate Student Coordinator has taken
the lead on this component. When migrant students express interest in
Project ESTRELLA, parents are required to attend an orientation before
their children will be considered for the project. At the orientation,
the project's benefits are explained to parents, as well as their own
responsibilities, such as providing enough time to their children to be
on line.

After students are accepted to participate in the project, training is
provided and laptops are distributed. Parents must sign a contract to
notify the project of any problems; they must file a police report if
the laptop is stolen. As part of the training, parents and other family
members learn how to use the laptops. Ease with laptops is encouraged by
the project so family members can model for younger children in the
family. However, parents' main responsibility is to provide a home
environment conducive to learning.

The project currently works with Global School Net on professional
development and intends to submit a plan to the U.S. Office of Migrant
Education. This component would bring people from upstream states for
hands‑on experience with the laptops and Office 97, to show them how to
integrate the technology with their own teaching. It also will address
methods of working collaboratively among schools and with students. The
training will be followed by on‑line workshops and by presentations at
selected state Migrant Education Conferences.

## *[University of Texas (UT) Migrant Student Program]{.underline}*

The University of Texas (UT) Migrant Student Program is an independent
study option for students who have fallen behind in their schoolwork
because of illness, work, or family moves; these students need a
flexible way to earn high school credits. The UT Program allows students
to study independently using an assigned study guide and text. An
accredited UT teacher grades the completed lessons by mail and sends the
student individualized written feedback on their lesson performance. The
UT teacher is also available to the student through a tollfree 800
number for telephone conferences. The UT Program is funded by the Texas
Education Agency (TEA) and offers 22 semester-length high school
print-based courses and two computer-based courses (using IBMs,
MacIntoshes, or laptops) in English language arts, mathematics, social
studies, science, health, home economics, and Spanish. University of
Texas Program courses are approved for credit by the Texas Education
Agency and count toward Texas graduation requirements. Print-based and
computer-based courses are also offered by UT in math and language arts
to prepare students for the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS).
Six models are available for implementing the UT Migrant Student
Program. They include:

-   On-Site Grading

-   Correspondence Courses

-   Computer Courses

-   Credit-by-Exam

-   Partial Work

-   Teleconferencing

For example, the correspondence model is typically combined with on-site
grading by interstate migrant students. Texas-based migrant students who
spent the summer of 1998 in Sidney, Montana, and needed credit-bearing
English literature courses, enrolled in a University of Texas
correspondence course which integrated the study of authentic literature
with reading, writing, and communication skills. The Sidney teachers
supervised and graded the students' UT English literature coursework
over the summer. When these students traveled to other states for
migrant work with their families in the Fall, the UT teachers took over
the instructional supervision and grading. Outside of Texas in 1997, the
UT correspondence model was used by 145 Texas-based migrant students in
8 states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, Michigan, Indiana, North
Dakota, Ohio, and New York). Within Texas, the credit-by-exam and
partial work models are most frequently used. In Eagle Pass, Texas, for
example, migrant students can make up incomplete course work using the
partial work approach. Alternatively, migrant students can earn high
school course credits by passing a proficiency exam covering the
appropriate essential knowledge and skills.

[Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS).]{.underline}

The Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS) Program was developed in
California in the late 1970s as an approach to secondary school dropout
prevention. It has since been nationally recognized as an exemplary
program by the U.S. Department of Education and adopted by over 30
states.

Florida began implementing PASS in 1993 after determining that PASS
courses met Florida Public Education curriculum requirements. Florida's
PASS Program offers 32 credit-bearing courses in art, health, language
arts, life skills, mathematics, science, and social studies. These
semester-length courses consist of five units of study; students must
pass all five unit tests to get credit for the course. The PASS is a
collection of semi-independent public education courses for students in
grades 9-12. The program allows students to participate in high school
classes and accumulate credits toward graduation through home-study or
as they travel with their family for employment-related reasons.

In Florida, the dominant PASS model involves home-study for intra-state
migrant students whose families tend to pull them out of school during
the academic year for agricultural or fishing work with the family. This
work takes place either in the local school district or involves a
temporary move to another county in Florida. Florida's interstate
migrant population is much smaller than its intra-state population. The
PASS Program serves the needs of such students because it is a
self-contained, portable curriculum. Migrant students can take PASS
course materials with them, either as independent study at home or as a
correspondence course on the road. A PASS Facilitating Teacherin either
the home school district or in the receiver school districtwill meet
with the migrant student on a weekly basis to monitor progress and to
assess the student at appropriate intervals with a unit test. The
Facilitating Teacher then sends the unit tests to the Florida PASS
office to be scored. Once a course has been successfully completed, a
Grade Report is sent by fax from the Florida PASS office to the national
PASS office in California requesting credit for the course. Based on an
interstate agreement between Florida and California, PASS credits are
awarded by Roosevelt High School in California and accepted by the
student's home-base school in Florida. After receiving the transcript
from California PASS, Florida PASS makes a copy for its files and the
original to the appropriate district contact person to record.

Florida and Michigan began coordinating their PASS Programs in 1998
through a partnership between the Manatee County, Florida, and the Van
Buren County, Michigan, public schools. The Florida PASS Program
attempted to enroll Florida home-based migrant students in PASS prior to
their departure for Michigan so the students could continue their
Florida coursework while working with their families out-of-state. This
partnership succeeded with several Manatee County students who continued
to use Florida PASS materials while in Van Buren County over the summer
of 1998.

#### **Information Technologies**

## *[New Generation System]{.underline}*

The New Generation System (NGS) was designed by a consortium of state
migrant education programs in response to the unavailability of migrant
student data following the discontinuation of MSRTS. Staff members from
the consortium states are trained as trainers at the national conference
to provide consortium states with in‑state NGS coordination and
expertise. The New Generation System is centralized and contains 400,000
records. All the data are resident in the server located in Austin,
Texas. The system was designed as a central system (versus distributed
system) to facilitate efficiency in system maintenance. All of the data
are encrypted (32 bit key) for security purposes; sites are given access
passwords. Because the system is centralized and Internet‑based, NGS
does not have to upload new versions to the site users. To access the
system, all a user needs is a browser and a connection to the Internet.

This database consists of student records and does not yet contain
"family" records. The system requires that each student have a unique
identification number. The search system and "key" data items used to
identify student records are not yet as sophisticated as the MSRTS.
Because of the system's design, any change a user makes is available
instantly to any other user.

Critical education data maintained on NGS includes:

-   Secondary-level credits earned by the student

-   Grade placement (and comments from staff)

-   Immunization records

-   Migrant contact information

-   Required course of study (secondary-level)

-   Type of course schedule (block, traditional, etc.)

-   Medical alerts.

At any one time, 60‑80 people may be on-line out of the current 1,000
users. There are two different levels of access. One is "read and write"
only; this status precludes deleting records. The other is simply "read"
(the same provisions against deleting records apply). Inactive records
are archived. Users are able to print individual records or portions of
a record. Full reports are sent by e‑mail to users upon request. The
"home‑page" of NGS provides users with updates on the system and other
relevant notices (e.g.., scheduled system shutdowns).

Major changes to the system are approved by the national and Texas
advisory boards. Each of the other NGS member states is encouraged to
have its own advisory board. Programmers hold final approval rights as
well as the authority to set priorities (in case of excessive costs or
complications). For example, a recently requested enhancement to the
system included the ability to complete "mass" (batch) transactions.

Although consortium states cannot download NGS information directly to
create a local database, files can be created for state use upon
request. Staff in Texas's ESC-1 provide technical assistance and support
to users, although the growing system needs and user demand for these
services already may have exceeded current staff and resources. If NGS
expands beyond its current membership, the support of a more robust
technical support capability will be a pressing issue. The system costs
each state approximately \$2.72 per student per year.

To make NGS work better, more states need to be involved in the system.
Currently, all the data on students is not complete because enrollments
and withdrawals in non‑member states are not entered on the system.
Texas only enters the last qualifying move. And because many of the
states are reluctant to give up the systems they have developed, further
cooperation to improve the system remains problematic.