INTERRUPTED LESSONS - TEACHER VIEWS OF TRANSFER STUDENT EDUCATION

This study examines how teachers teach when transfer students enter th eir classrooms during the school year. Eight schools participated, two from each of four community types: agricultural, military, urban, and stable. According to the teachers, transfer students experience learn ing problems because schools use different curricula and new students miss instruction while adjusting. However, these beliefs about the imp act of transfer did not predict strategies teachers used to identify a nd address educational needs of transfer students. Most teachers outsi de agricultural communities planned their teaching as if their entire class remained with them from September to June even though as many as 50% of their students would transfer schools. The inconsistency of te acher beliefs and strategies may be due to teacher goals for integrati ng new students into classwork, to the limits teachers set to their re sponsibility for transfer students' education, and to an assumption of population stability that underlies the educational system.