John Monfredo: This School Year Let’s Stop Chronic Absenteeism From Occurring…

Saturday, August 23, 2014

John Monfredo, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER

School is right around the corner and school districts need to consider launching a drive for September for “Attendance Awareness Month.” It’s an issue that is a major problem within school districts and we need to address this problem with vigor. Statistics show that students with more than 20 absences per year have less than a 1-in-5 chance of graduating. By ninth grade, school attendance is a better predictor of graduation than eighth-grade test scores, according to a study by the University of Chicago.

Research continues to show that attendance at all ages is exceedingly important and as mentioned is correlated to student success and graduation rates. Many times parents think my child is only in the kindergarten so if they miss school for a week what’s all fuss about? Well, researcher Hedy Chang found that when students are chronically absent (Absent 10% of the school year or over 18 times during the year) during the kindergarten years that the students perform lower academically in first grade. This is true “regardless of gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.”

According to the report it is especially strong for Latino children who had a much lower first grade reading scores if they were chronically absent in the kindergarten. The report also showed that children living in poverty suffer more academically when they miss school during the early years. Among poor children, chronic absence in the early grades predicts the lowest levels of achievement at the end of fifth grade. In addition, these same children have trouble mastering reading and math by the end of the third grade. A common sense approach suggests that attending school regularly helps develop a strong foundation for learning and during the elementary years, children are gaining basic social and academic skills critical for further learning.

All students, but especially students in poverty, benefit from being in school. Thus one of the most effective strategies for providing pathways out of poverty is to do all that it takes to get these students in school every day. This alone, even without improvements in the American education system will drive up achievement, high school graduation, and college attainment rates.

"You want to improve test scores? Get your kids to show up," said Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, a policy group focused on chronic absence and a strong advocate on this issue. She went on to say, "You can innovate all you want, but if the kid’s not there, the benefit from the innovation is going to have limited impact."

Despite awareness campaign on absenteeism last year the Worcester Public Schools, like all urban centers, still has a chronic absenteeism problem. What has to be done is to review last year’s strategies and make modifications. The data for last year shows that 12.2% of the student body had a chronic absentee problem. It was about the same in the previous year. Thirteen of our elementary schools out of 33 have percentages close to 12% or more. Schools with the lowest chronic absentee rates were our level one schools. What does that tell you? On the secondary level all but three schools out of twelve had a high level of chronic absenteeism with several of our high schools over 25% or one-fourth of their student body having a problem with attendance.

Everyone needs to take the issue of attendance improvement as a priority for the schools need to create a climate of change including a plan, responsibilities, timeline and resources. As a school system we need to renew our efforts to improve attendance and continue with our public media campaign about the importance of attending school. Let’s continue to reach out to the community for assistance. With limited resources there is no way the school district can do this by themselves for partnerships with the community are needed. Here are some suggestions:

Let’s set up bench marks to reduce those numbers for this year. Could we reduce the number by three percent? An effort needs to be made to have a close, often weekly, measurement of tracking absenteeism.

At the start of the new school year flag students who were chronically absent and start individual education plans for those students at risk. (As we do for Special Education Students). Data analysis is the key to figuring out which schools need the most help.

Start communicating with parents in the early grades about the importance of attendance and let them understand the importance of attendance in their home language and in culturally appropriate ways.

Monitor attendance, as mentioned, weekly and follow-up with those students who are a risk. Have those students assigned a buddy… it could be an older student, staff member or a community volunteer.

Look for health support for students inside and outside of the school.

Make every school a place where students feel safe and respected and make relationships between students and the schools more personal. Be sure adults (secretaries, aides, etc.) make individual contact with high risk students on a daily basis and give appropriate training to those staff members.

Make home visits a priority and consider a flexible schedule for counselors so that they can visit families over the weekends.

Hold educational meetings for parents whose students are chronically absent and make resources available at the meeting for them. The meeting should be educational but not punitive. Include in the workshop tips for parents on homework, organizational skills at home and information about absenteeism.

Schools need to reward and recognize individuals and classes for improved attendance and not just perfect attendance. Have a monthly assembly and pass out certificates and other prizes for attendance improvement. Put the names of those students in your monthly newsletter that goes home.

Although families, especially those with limited resources, face significant challenges in getting their children to school, attending school must be a priority for the community. As mentioned, there should be a partnership within the community with everyone working on addressing the assortment of barriers that many children face such as a lack of transportation to access health care opportunities. Making positive changes with attendance will lead to better parent engagement in other aspects of a child’s education.

This issue will not go away by itself and will need a community effort to resolve it. Let’s get the ball rolling now and start planning now for the new school year. Look for more information on this issue in future columns for all of us must be vigilant in making a difference for our children in this community.

John Monfredo: This School Year Let’s Stop Chronic Absenteeism From Occurring…

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