High school transfer student transitions and changes: Risk, success, failure, and the vital role of the counseling curriculum

Transfer students move schools for reasons other than promotion. They typically change residence and can change country, cultures and/or languages of instruction. These students have twice the risk of failure or not graduating and total 15--18% of the United States high school population. Effective means of improving success rates are needed. Achieving this goal requires first understanding the problem(s). Perhaps transfer students themselves can help us in our search. What can we learn from talking with transfer students?;For this mixed method study, the investigator interviewed ten diverse but carefully selected transfer students. The data revealed that transfer students describe intense emotions related to mobility. The significance of this study is that it confirms the literature that each transfer student is unique but adds the need for a robust and diverse support system already in place. This study also highlights the need for the student to be involved in the decision to move, emphasizes that social, emotional and academic problems all create challenges and require balanced solutions, and emphasizes that the diversity of the students corresponds to the need for equally diverse supports with the role of the high school counselor vital and in concert with a school that supports a transfer curriculum.