Indiana schools strained by state to state migration

HAMMOND - Northwest Indiana school systems are straining under the impact of hundreds of new students arriving with their families from Chicago, often in search of cheaper housing and a better life.\nMany of the new arrivals bring big-city attitudes and often defiant behavior, some educators say. Often, they're grades behind their peers academically.\n"It's killing our test scores," said Robyn Payne, Hammond's director of Secondary Curriculum, Instruction and Student Services. "We find we need to run remediation with them before they can be successful."\nMore than 400 students from Chicago enrolled in Hammond schools this year, and more than 700 arrived in Gary.\nAt Caldwell Elementary in Hammond, which welcomed 237 new students this year, first-grade teacher Brenda Bogner said the mobility rate makes teaching more difficult.\nThe reason for the influx from Chicago is unclear.\nGary Mayor Scott King believes it's because the Chicago Housing Authority is tearing down high-rise public housing buildings, forcing residents to find new places to live.\nHowever, a Northwestern University researcher who has studied migration patterns said the majority of northwest Indiana's new residents probably are not coming from Chicago public housing projects.\n"People with Section 8 vouchers are moving for the same reasons the rest of us do -- a better environment, less crime and better schools," said Dan A. Lewis, professor of education and social policy.