Attendance & Absences – if 90% of life is showing
up …
1.
Did you know that in several Colorado districts, 25%–30% of students are
chronically absent—“absent 15 or more school days during the school year”[i]? (Neither did I!)
2.
Do we think families care about, and know, the attendance rate at the
school their child attends? If so, are they being told how many students are
NOT showing up—all too often?
3. We all want schools to be accountable for
student learning. To what degree is the
school responsible for a student’s absences?
If we can equate high absences with poor achievement, is it fair to ask
schools to be responsible for so many students being chronically absent?
It appears that Colorado (among
other states[ii])
will soon add chronic absences as a
key component for school accountability—at least for 2018-19, for K-8 schools. (See excerpt from draft of Colorado’s ESSA
Plan, 2/10/17.[iii]) As a teacher and coach, I always felt showing
up mattered, and I cheer all efforts to focus more on student attendance. A recent
report invites the question:
Do
we know how serious the problem is - especially for our high schools?
We first heard the figures last June, on the release of The 2013-14 Civil Rights Data Collection
(CRDC) (see PRESS RELEASE, below). This
fall, Preventing Missed Opportunity:
Taking Collective Action to Confront Chronic Absence[iv]
used the data to point out a tragically high number of students chronically
absent in districts across the country.[v]
Among Colorado’s larger districts with
many students frequently not in school, here are five. In just a handful of districts, we are
talking about 40,000 students ….
School District
|
No. Students Chronically Absent
|
% Students Chronically Absent
|
% Pop. in Poverty Age 5-17
|
% Minority Students
|
Pueblo
City – District 60
|
5,682
|
31.46
|
29.00
|
73.80
|
Adams
County – 14
|
2,315
|
30.40
|
29.40
|
86.80
|
Denver
|
21,133
|
24.50
|
27.20
|
78.80
|
Adams-Arapahoe
|
10,005
|
24.46
|
27.70
|
82.00
|
Harrison
– District 2
|
2,509
|
22.89
|
34.70
|
71.50
|
(Addendum
A presents a longer list from the report of chronic absentees—statistics on
25 Colorado districts for 2013-14. The CRDC found 9 districts with over 30% of
students chronically absent. In our
state, it found 16% of students chronically absent.
It is
startling, is it not—the notion that 3 in 10 students miss that much school in
Pueblo and Adams 14? That 1 out of 4
students in Denver are absent that often?
CDE-SchoolView-District Dashboard - 2013-14
|
|
School District
|
Attendance rate
|
Pueblo City – District 60
|
92%
|
Adams County – 14
|
92%
|
Denver
|
93%
|
Adams-Arapahoe
|
92%
|
Harrison – District 2
|
93%
|
And it is news when it tells a starkly different
message than what the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) reports in
presenting district numbers. For that same school year, here are the numbers CDE publishes for
those five districts. (See box)
So yes, this struck us as news. And important. No wonder
that over 20 publications across the country picked up the story—see examples
at http://www.attendanceworks.org/articles-preventing-missed-opportunity/. Sadly,
it was not reported by either The Denver
Post or Chalkbeat Colorado.
PRESS
RELEASE – CRDC
Washington,
D.C., June 7, 2016
|
NEW
OCR BRIEF SHOWS U.S. SCHOOLS FACING CRISIS IN STUDENT ATTENDANCE[vi]
The release of the first-ever national
compilation of data on how many public school students are missing so much
school they are academically at risk shows the country is facing a crisis of
chronic absence that’s keeping millions of kids from learning.
The national data released today by the
U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that more than
6.5 million students (13%) missed 15 or more days of school (nearly a month
of school) during the 2013-14 academic year....
Among high schools, three million students
(18%) were chronically absent….
The national data also shows that some
populations experience significantly higher rates of chronic absenteeism.
Within the high school group, chronic absence rates were 26% for American
Indian or Alaska Native students, 22% for African American students, 21% for
Multiracial, 25% for Pacific Islander students and 20% for Latino students.
|
Thanks to The Durango Herald, one Colorado
community had a look at the grim facts—specific to their schools. The Herald’s
Shane Benjamin dug into the Civil Rights report and produced a careful
analysis. (Any reason The Denver Post
could not blast this same headline across the top of page 1?)
Absentee rates above average in our schools
A fourth of
students miss 15 days or more of school in La Plata County
July 2, 2016 (Bold
mine)
Nearly a quarter of students
attending public schools in La Plata County during the 2013-14 school year
missed 15 days or more – almost twice the national average, according to the
most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education.
It
is an alarming statistic considering what educational experts know about
chronic absenteeism: Excessive absences can be an early sign that children are
experiencing physical abuse, sexual abuse, substance abuse, mental-health
issues, symptoms of poverty, suicidal tendencies and other problems in the
home….
“Clearly, absenteeism is a concerning problem across the country
and in Colorado, because children cannot learn if they are not in school.
Research has shown that chronic absenteeism is one of the greatest causes of
low academic achievement...”
Katy Anthes, Commissioner of Education
|
John B. King Jr., U.S. secretary of education, called it a
“national problem. Frequent absences
from school can be devastating to a child’s education,” he said in a news
release. “Missing school leads to low academic achievement and triggers
dropouts. Millions of young people are missing opportunities in postsecondary
education, good careers and a chance to experience the American dream.”
Colorado absenteeism ranked even higher [than the 13% national average],
at 16.3 percent, and La Plata County ranked higher yet, at 24.2 percent –
meaning almost 1 in 4 kids missed 15 days or more.
Chronic absenteeism
was highest in Ignacio School District (37.2 percent) followed by Bayfield
School District (29.4 percent) and Durango School District (20.8 percent),
according to numbers crunched by the Associated Press.
(More
excerpts from The Herald’s look at
attendance and truancy in La Plata County at Addendum B.)
Do you doubt these numbers?
And if they are true, why do
we see those 92% and 93% figures for our districts, quoted earlier? The national initiative, Attendance Works – Advancing Student Success by Reducing Chronic
Absence, explains:
Most schools pay
far more attention to average daily attendance (the percentage of students who
show up each day to school) and unexcused absences (truancy.) Both figures can
mask the problem with chronic absence. For example, a school of 200 students
with 95 percent average daily attendance could still have 60 students missing a
month of school over the course of the year. http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/What-is-Chronic-Absence.pdf (For more, see comments from Robert Balfanz,
John Hopkins University’s School of Education, Addendum C.)
Furthermore, we know the district rate includes all 13
“grades,” K-12, and we know that elementary attendance is much better than it is
for high schools. So let’s look more
closely at attendance and truancy rates at individual high schools, which CDE
also reports. We find many where fewer than 90% showed up on an average day
last year. Now we see how plausible it
is that, with so many students not in
class on any given day, a large percentage might well fit the category: “chronically
absent.” (The problem is all too real for elementary schools as well, even if
less pronounced. See quote from Judith
Martinez, director of the office of dropout prevention and student re-engagement for the Colorado Department of Education, in Addendum B on
kindergartners and reading. See also Addendum D.)
North High, West High, others too - in the mid 1990’s
In looking at specific high schools, I recall my visits
to West and North High roughly
20 years ago. Richard Bock was one of the most dedicated and capable
teachers I met during my years in Denver.
The number of students enrolled in his English class might be 34. But on
my visits, the number present was often half that. Richard connected well with
his students; no one could blame him for the absences.
Last year, a better story: attendance at West Leadership
Academy was 90%, and at North High, 91%. Overall, though, figures for many high
schools in Denver and the metro area look terrible.
Denver Public Schools – Over 21,000 students chronically absent?
The Civil Rights Data
Collection found that over 21,000 Denver students were chronically absent. And what we see reveals the correlation (cause
or effect? both, don’t you agree?) between attendance and academic performance. It should surprise no one to see the match here
between Denver’s top middle and high schools—and strong attendance. Or conversely, to see schools Accredited on Priority or on Turnaround—where attendance is often
below 90%.
2015-16 – Denver’s School Performance Framework and Attendance/Truancy Rates
High Schools
SPF rating*
|
% points
|
Attendance**
|
Truancy Rate
|
|
KIPP Denver
Leadership Academy
|
Distinguished
|
87.67
|
94
|
2.8
|
DSST Green
Valley Ranch
|
Distinguished
|
85.38
|
94.8
|
3.3
|
DSST Stapleton
|
Distinguished
|
83.7
|
92.3
|
1.6
|
Manual
|
Accredited
on Priority Watch
|
42.8
|
86
|
11.4***
|
John Kennedy
|
Accredited
on Priority Watch
|
40.33
|
87.9
|
6.9
|
Martin Luther
King Jr./Sr. High
|
Accredited on
Priority Watch
|
40
|
89.3
|
6.6
|
Abraham Lincoln
|
Accredited on
Priority Watch
|
35.3
|
84.5
|
12.1***
|
Venture Prep
High
|
Accredited
on Probation
|
30.85
|
87.9
|
9
|
West Early
College
|
Accredited
on Probation
|
26.06
|
86.2
|
10.7
|
**Colorado Department of
Education–Attendance Information-http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/truancystatistics
***NOTE: Most of
the 18 schools in DPS with truancy rates in
double digits are Alternative Education Campuses. But this is not the case for Abraham Lincoln and Manual.
Middle Schools
SPF rating
|
% points
|
Attendance
|
Truancy Rate
|
|
DSST
Byers Middle
|
Distinguished
|
81.48
|
95.3
|
1.2
|
DSST
Conservancy Green Middle
|
Distinguished
|
75.4
|
96.8
|
2.1
|
Kepner
Middle
|
Accredited
on Probation
|
29.1
|
87.9
|
8.6
|
Henry
World Grades 6-8
|
Accredited
on Probation
|
28.2
|
87.7
|
7.2
|
**
Aurora – A lack of choice
At least Denver 8th graders searching for a good
high school for next year have a range of choices. But in Aurora, all four of its large high
schools have poor attendance rates. Note
that as the attendance figures drop, so does the rating on the state’s School
Performance Framework.
The 4 large APS high schools
|
2015-16
|
# students enrolled
|
2016 - Colorado’s School
Performance Framework
|
|
Attendance*
|
Truancy rate*
|
|||
Rangeview
|
87.2
|
7.7
|
2,375
|
Performance
(highest rating)
|
Hinkley
|
83.8
|
11.1
|
2,288
|
Improvement
|
Gateway
|
82.9
|
12
|
1,803
|
Priority
Improvement (2)**
|
Aurora Central
|
76.5
|
20.1
|
2,172
|
Turnaround –
(6)**
|
**(2- second year on Priority
Improvement; 6 – sixth year in a row on Priority Improvement or Turnaround)
It was good to see Aurora Central High speak directly to
this issue in its Innovation School Application to the Colorado Department of
Education (spring 2016). (Bold mine)
“While the
average attendance rate at ACHS remains steady, it has not surpassed 82% in the
past four years. Additionally, chronic
absenteeism is a significant problem for nearly two-thirds of all students. ACHS
will not be able to increase attendance rates dramatically without additional
targeted efforts to address chronic absenteeism.” http://www.boarddocs.com/co/cde/Board.nsf/files/A9ELVQ586E1C/$file/2016%20Aurora%20Central%20High%20School%20Innovation%20Application%20FINAL.pdf
As a small
school advocate, I would like to show much better attendance at Aurora’s two
small high schools. Well, it is true for William Smith High (317 students;
94% attendance rate). But not at Aurora
West College Preparatory Academy (395 high school students). AWCPA was also quick to acknowledge the empty
chairs in classrooms in its own Innovation School Application to CDE. (Bold mine)
Another area of
concern, though not a Priority Performance Challenge on the most recent UIP, is
a high rate of chronic absenteeism, at
33%. This rate shows that currently many students are not engaged at AWCPA;
they are at high risk of dropping out or graduating without the skills they
need to succeed in the workplace. AWCPA’s graduation rate is about 59%. http://www.boarddocs.com/co/cde/Board.nsf/files/A99PGL62A554/$file/Aurora%20West%20Innovation%20Application%20Final_04122016.pdf
**
Questions as state leaders debate what role attendance and chronic absences should play in school
accountability
My main purpose here is to show that attendance is a huge
problem, and to raise questions. I know
too little to make any recommendations, but just enough to ask ….
From
Colorado’s ESSA Plan (bold mine)
“Although
this indicator is considered by researchers to be important in high schools, this will not be applied and/or
considered for the high school level until consistent reporting methods
are established for determining absences for high schools.” http://www.cde.state.co.us/fedprograms/essastateplandraftsection4
|
1. High schools - If
Colorado decides that chronic absences are important enough to make it part of school
accountability for K-8 schools, why not high schools? (The current draft of Colorado’s ESSA
plan—see box—gives one reason.) People
will offer innumerable reasons for why “it’s
different with high schools, we can’t compare ….” And many are valid.
However, can we say it does not matter? That it’s OK if—most days—15% of the students
enrolled are missing on a daily basis, or that 25% of the students miss three
weeks or more? Especially when, as I believe
the evidence tells us, woeful attendance in so many high schools is a key
factor in their poor results?
At the very least, why not insist that any school required
to write a Unified Improvement Plan speak to its attendance/chronic absence
figures, and commit to a plan to improve them?
(See Addendum E.)
2. (Good) SPF ranking versus (Bad) attendance
figures: I find it revealing that,
in spite of what I suggest earlier about a correlation between a low SPF and
poor attendance, several high schools show attendance rates under 87%-and yet,
on the latest SPF, are on Performance
or Improvement. Examples: Centennial and East High in Pueblo
60; Northglenn and Thornton High in Adams 12; and Greeley West and Northridge
High in Greeley. (See details, Addendum F.) If attendance and chronic absences were included in the accountability
report for these high schools, wouldn’t their scores go down?
3. Is the school responsible for who shows up?
- Then again, would a lower score be fair? Most of us believe schools can and should do
more to see that students come—and stay. For many, this is the heart of
education reform: creating a strong school culture where we know students well,
and where students feel we care about them; rethinking school and class size to
foster good relationships and a strong community; improving our teaching and
the curriculum to meet students where they are and to nurture their growth, etc.
etc. All key factors to strengthen
student engagement, their very desire to show up and learn.
But do we make schools “accountable” for what, in many ways,
is out of their hands?
I do not know. It can
seem quite simple to add attendance figures, and to “apply the algorithm” in a
way that factors them into a school’s ranking.
But is it right?
A colleague, teaching in
Denver, tells me of her “own daily frustrations” on this issue. “No matter how
good my instruction, if the student missed it, they didn’t learn. It is SO hard
to be up against those odds. But … we really do try everything we can to get
them to school. So what’s the solution? …. the dilemma cannot be
overstated.”
“Judging” high schools for
chronic absences, she believes, “neglects to recognize the impact of
poverty.” Policymakers would do well to
hear her prediction if this becomes a new measure of high school
accountability. “You will find many
teachers who will say, ‘How can they put this
on us too?’”
“There are some tough cases in which no matter what
a school does, a child is going to have attendance difficulties because of what's
going on at home. However, there are
many things that are well within a school's ability to control. These include addressing school climate
issues such as bullying. And they also
include making sure disciplinary policies are geared toward repairing damage
and bringing kids - including the offenders - closer to the school community
rather than pushing them out with unnecessary suspensions. Many schools have come a long way from the
inadequate ideology that ‘we're here to teach the kids who want to be here,’
but there is more work to be done.”
Jodi
Heilbrunn, National Center for School Engagement
|
All I can say with certainty is this: A tragic number of students are, all too
often, absent, and we must do more to tackle the issue. And we can. (See box.
Statement to me from the National Center for School Engagement.)
One obvious
suggestion: to anyone who thinks the U.S.
Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights got it wrong—who doubts that
16% of Colorado’s students are chronically absent, that nearly 1/4 of Denver’s
students and nearly 1/3 of the students in Adams 14 are chronically absent—let’s
gather the data so we can all agree on the facts. Preventing
Missed Opportunities points to useful studies in several cities and a few
states. See Addendum G: Examples
Colorado can learn from.)
Preventing Missed Opportunities
recommends six key steps “to reduce chronic absence.” The first two are:
1. Invest in consistent and accurate data.
2. Use data to understand need and disproportionate
impact in order to target resources.
Perhaps a good place to start. Anything to avoid debating alternative facts.
**
Addendum A
School District
|
No. Students Chronically Absent
|
% Students Chronically Absent
|
% Pop. in Poverty Age 5-17
|
% Minority Students
|
Locale
|
Urban, metro
|
|||||
Sheridan
|
679
|
33.81
|
47.70
|
84.50
|
|
Pueblo City –
District 60
|
5,682
|
31.46
|
29.00
|
73.80
|
|
Adams County - 14
|
2,315
|
30.40
|
29.40
|
86.80
|
|
Denver
|
21,133
|
24.50
|
27.20
|
78.80
|
|
Adams-Arapahoe
|
10,005
|
24.46
|
27.70
|
82.00
|
|
Harrison – District
2
|
2,509
|
22.89
|
34.70
|
71.50
|
|
Northglenn-Thornton
– 12
|
9,342
|
22.08
|
12.40
|
45.60
|
|
Jefferson
|
18,030
|
20.91
|
11.20
|
32.60
|
|
Greeley – District 6
|
3,908
|
19.05
|
26.30
|
64.40
|
|
Brighton – District
27J
|
3,116
|
18.60
|
8.70
|
51.60
|
|
Littleton
|
2,760
|
17.39
|
7.20
|
25.20
|
|
Poudre
|
4,911
|
17.24
|
12.20
|
26.20
|
|
Mesa County Valley -
51
|
3,473
|
15.77
|
14.10
|
28.50
|
|
Academy - District
20
|
3,755
|
15.30
|
4.60
|
25.50
|
|
St. Vrain Valley –
District 12
|
4,068
|
13.42
|
11.40
|
35.10
|
|
Colorado Springs
|
3,611
|
12.66
|
21.30
|
47.30
|
|
Boulder
|
3,665
|
11.87
|
8.20
|
29.90
|
|
Cherry Creek
|
6,344
|
11.82
|
8.00
|
44.80
|
|
Towns and Rural
|
|||||
Centennial - R-1
|
103
|
47.25
|
47.00
|
90.40
|
|
Trinidad - District
1
|
489
|
46.05
|
28.80
|
78.80
|
|
Ignacio – District
11-JT
|
267
|
37.19
|
14.70
|
65.30
|
|
Lake Cty - R-1
|
397
|
35.23
|
28.20
|
72.30
|
|
Alamosa District -
RE-11J
|
678
|
33.07
|
11.70
|
69.20
|
|
Platte Valley - RE-7
|
357
|
32.60
|
12.50
|
33.00
|
Addendum B
Other excerpts from “Absentee
rates above average in our schools”
The
Durango Herald,
July 2, 2016
Missing classes creates a domino effect, making it increasingly
difficult for a child to acquire fundamental building blocks to become
successful readers in kindergarten or pass math classes in high school, said
Judith Martinez, director of the office of dropout prevention and student
re-engagement for the Colorado Department of Education. “Attendance, or lack of attendance, is
an early warning sign that a student might be in the process of leaving school
without completing it,” Martinez said….
“There’s an interesting culture here in Durango that attendance is not
important,” said Julie Popp, spokeswoman for Durango School District 9-R. “It
really is trying to shift that culture with parents and the community as a
whole that attendance really is critical to good academic success.”
Haves and have-nots
Poverty also presents a barrier to good attendance, she said. Parents
who work two jobs or maintain odd hours are less likely to make sure their kids
get to school or complete their homework.
Some parents pull their kids out of
school to go on vacation or allow them to miss school to join a snowboard team,
said Jennifer Turner, a program coordinator for La Plata Youth Services.
Those are the lucky ones. Impoverished
children experience more stress, tend to be malnourished and are less healthy
overall, she said. She recalled one
student who withdrew from school because fellow students made fun of him for
wearing Barney socks, which were handed down from his older brother. And
another boy struggled with attendance after kids made fun of him for being
dirty, Turner said. He was the youngest of four children, and all four had to
share the same bathroom, so he never got his chance to shower and brush his teeth
before going to school, Turner said.
“We have a lot of kids in our community who are facing some really
adverse life situations. They’re just not on the radar of our mainstream
community,” she said….
Tip of the iceberg
Ignacio School District may have been dealt a double whammy: About half
of its students receive free or reduced-price lunches, meaning they come from
poor families, and more than half are of Native American or Latino descent.
According to the U.S. Department of Education data, ethnic minorities,
especially Native Americans, are at a higher risk of being chronically absent.
Of the 174 Native American students enrolled in the Ignacio School
District during the 2013-14 school year, about 57 percent were chronically
absent, according to the data.
The school district works with families to identify the root causes for
absenteeism, said Jaceson Cole, social worker for the district.
Attendance problems tend to be the “tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Some students at disadvantage
“It can be very frustrating to work with chronic absenteeism, because
the problems are so complex,” Cole said. “Often, it’s issues that involve
poverty, institutionalized racism, historical traumas, unaddressed
mental-health issues – we find those across the board.”
If a student is absent, the school district calls a family member, and
if staff can’t get a hold of a family member, they often attempt a home visit,
he said.
“We really need the family’s involvement so we can identify exactly what
is causing those symptoms, those underlying issues,” Cole said….
“If the kids are not in the classroom, how can we educate them?” said
Rocco Fuschetto, superintendent of Ignacio School District. “You’ve got to
change the whole culture of the community. It’s tough. It takes a couple of
generations to make some changes.”...
The habit of being absent –
truancy and absentee
“It’s not enough to just focus on truancy,” Martinez said. “You have to
focus on attendance overall, because a student missing 15 days of school,
whether it was excused or unexcused, is 15 days of missing important
instruction.”
Martinez said schools need to create a culture of expectation around
attendance. Parents might think it’s OK to pull a kindergartner from school,
because they’ll miss coloring, she said. But kindergartners also receive the
fundamental building blocks to learn how to read, and missing a few days can
make a huge difference in their future education, she said.
Missing school can become habit-forming at the secondary level. It is
important for parents and school officials to respond immediately to identify
and address the cause, which might include social anxiety or bullying, Martinez
said.
Addendum C
The New York Times, May 17, 2012
‘Chronically Absent’ Students Skew School
Data, Study Finds, Citing Parents’ Role
By Richard Perez-Pena
(Bold mine)
Up to 15 percent of American
children are chronically absent from school, missing at least one day in 10 and
doing long-term harm to their academic progress, according to a new study by
researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
They argue that policy makers
tend to look at absenteeism in the wrong way, requiring districts and states to
measure average daily attendance rates, but — with the exception of a few
states — not focusing on the relatively small number of students who account
for most absences. They found that some schools
report an average of more than 90 percent daily attendance, masking the fact
that 40 percent of their students are chronically missing.
“We don’t see the problem clearly because, in most places, we don’t
measure it, and average daily attendance really skews the way we view this,”
said one of the authors, Robert Balfanz, a research professor at the
university’s School of Education.
Addendum D
Elementary Schools – 11% chronically absent
Hedy Chang, co-author of Preventing Missed Opportunity, makes a strong
case that attendance matters enormously in the first few years of school; see
her report: Parent, Engaged and Accounted
For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades.
And the Civil Rights Data Collection found that “more than 3.5 million
elementary school students – or 11% of all elementary school students – are
chronically absent” (www.ocrdata.ed.gov).
Addendum E
UIP’s: Isn’t poor attendance a “root cause”?
Each year, schools rated on
Priority Improvement or Turnaround must complete a Unified Improvement Plan
(UIP) for the Colorado Department of Education.
One would expect low-performing high schools to examine their poor
attendance and high chronic absences in a section called Root Cause Analysis. But we
seldom see it. Occasionally we’ll see a
school address it, as Manual High did in its 2015-16 UIP:
Average daily
attendance was consistently lower than district averages, so students regularly
missed valuable instructional time; effective systems to increase attendance
were inconsistently implemented.
More often than not, though,
total silence on poor attendance—and what the school can do about it.
If Colorado adds chronic absences to the portrait of a
school’s performance (see new ESSA plan), surely low-performing K-8 schools,
and I would hope eventually high schools, won’t have a choice in their reports
to the state. We have too much evidence that it is a crucial matter. Schools
must confront the issue. A good place to
insist they do so is in their UIP.
Addendum F
(Good) SPF ranking versus
(Bad) attendance figures:
On PERFORMANCE (highest
rating) or IMPROVEMENT – but fewer than 87% show up
Attendance,
Truancy - 6 High Schools and SPF
Ranking (2015-16)
Attendance
|
Truancy rate
|
Colorado School
Performance Framework
|
|
East High –
Pueblo
|
82.6
|
11.5
|
Improvement
|
Northridge High
- Greeley
|
82.7
|
12
|
Performance
|
Thornton High
School – Adams 12
|
83.2
|
12.5
|
Improvement
|
Northglenn High
– Adams 12
|
83.7
|
11.63
|
Improvement
|
Centennial High
- Pueblo
|
85.3
|
8.25
|
Performance
|
Greeley West
High - Greeley
|
86.1
|
8.9
|
Improvement
|
Addendum G
Reports on Baltimore, Oakland, NYC, New
Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island
Preventing Missed Opportunities also highlighted more detailed
reports for the cities of Baltimore, Oakland, and New York, and for the entire
state of Rhode Island—“looking at the intersection between grades and other
dimensions like income, special education status or ethnicity…. Data from Rhode
Island, for example, revealed that chronic absence is not only high in the
early grades, it is much higher for children from low-income families and
students with disabilities … in Oakland, Calif., the analyses reveal especially
high rates of chronic absence in kindergarten, especially for black students.”
Reports such as Showing Up
Matters: The State of Chronic Absenteeism in New Jersey; Showing Up, Staying In by Oregon’s Children’s Institute, or REL West’s Reducing Chronic Absence video offer
excellent examples of how bright spots can be thoughtfully used to inspire
action.
[i] U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2013-14 Civil Rights Data Collection, https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices
/list/ocr/docs/2013-14-first-look.pdf
[ii]
“Connecticut
recently launched the Next Generation Accountability System. Chronic
absenteeism is one of 12 indicators included in this new, broader set of
performance measures aimed at offering a more comprehensive and holistic
picture of how schools and students are performing.” http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/PreventingMissedOpportunityFull_FINAL.pdf
“Virginia
is leaning toward a plan that incorporates chronic absenteeism alongside test
scores in gauging school performance, said Steven Staples, the state
superintendent of public instruction.” http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/01/04/tricky-balance-in-shifting-from-essa-blueprint.html?qs=Quality+Counts
“Indiana
is one of many states that now requires schools to track chronic absence, and
districts from Grand Rapids, Mich. to Milwaukee are tackling the challenge of
tracking and reducing absences.” http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/in/2017/01/26/indianapolis-public-schools-are-using-new-ways-to-reduce-absenteeism-and-theyre-working/
[iii]
FROM CURRENT DRAFT OF COLORAO’S ESSA PLAN – Once
finalized and signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper, to be submitted to federal
government in April 2017.
Section
4: Accountability, Support, and Improvement for Schools
“School Quality or Student Success -
Elementary/ Middle Schools -
Reduction in Chronic Absenteeism for Elementary/Middle Schools (Student
engagement)”
“Chronic Absenteeism rates are currently
being collected as part of the Colorado Department of Education School
Discipline and Attendance data submission. The submission includes the
reporting of the number of chronically absent students by school both overall
and disaggregated by ethnicity/race, gender, special education, English
language learner status, and homeless status. Starting with the 2018 data
submission, the addition of free and reduced lunch status will need to occur to
address the inclusion requirement for the disaggregated income subgroup.”
(This excerpt is just the first paragraph
of a far more detailed explanation in the full draft http://www.cde.state.co.us/fedprograms/essastateplandraftsection4).
[iv] Preventing
Missed Opportunity: Taking Collective Action to Confront Chronic Absence September
6, 2016, produced by Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center. Principal authors, Hedy Chang, Executive
Director of Attendance Works, and Robert Balfanz, John Hopkins University. (http://www.attendanceworks.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/PreventingMissedOpportunityFull_FINAL9.8.16_2.pdf)
[v] My findings from studying the report and its map of
Colorado and districts. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=7f567623f36744dda5ad339aba32aca2).
[vi] "Securing Equal Educational Opportunity"
TO- Report to the
President and Secretary of Education
FROM - U.S. Department of
Education Office for Civil Rights
https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/ocr/report-to-president-and-secretary-of-education-2016.pdf
The CRDC “is a survey of
all public schools and school districts in the United States. The CRDC measures
student access to courses, programs, instructional and other staff, and
resources — as well as school climate factors, such as student discipline and
bullying and harassment — that impact education equity and opportunity for
students.”
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/2013-14-first-look.pdf
Much else was explored in
this report. I appreciate why the civil
rights complaints to the Education Department—“ranging from teacher and
staffing inequities to … racial disparities in school discipline policies”—were
given greater emphasis than the issues of absences and attendance. But this former teacher and coach latches on
to what he experienced and understands. Participation in discussion, a fundamental
part of any English class I taught, is nil on the days a student is absent. I
often felt I had more clout as a coach—miss a practice and you don’t start or
don’t play—than I did as a teacher.
