Keep 'em in school!

It's beautiful outside these days. I'm just as guilty as my students for daydreaming and wishing I was anywhere but inside the school. I do not, however, miss day after day from work without an excuse like my students do from school. I don't understand how it is possible for students to miss an excessive number of days and still receive credit and be promoted into the next grade level. Kids not coming to school and then returning the next day without an excuse or reason regarding their absence is common. I've never seen anything like it until I arrived in Charm City. My attendance is exponentially dropping and I'm nervous that my students will not be in class enough to learn the material for the final exam and/or be present for their REQUIRED HSA exam at the end of this month. I feel that motivation for student retention during the last months of the school year is something we all should work on. At JHU, we've discussed ways to retain teachers, but what about retaining students for the whole year? Other than receiving a fabulous free education from yours truly, what else do they have to look forward to?

With all this being said, you could imagine my surprise when I read an article in the Washington Post about the delegation from Prince George's County authoring HB 571 prohibiting students from receiving their driver's license if they've had 10 or more unexcused absences for the school year. Students would be required to show attendance records at the DMV when applying for their driver's license. Initially I thought that this was a fabulous tool to motivate students to get to and stay in school. But after some thought, I feel that this is an incentive for Maryland teenagers who are motivated by thoughts of driving around with their friends, blasting the radio, and asking mommy for the credit card to fill up the gas tank. Most of my students could care less about receiving their driver's licenses for a variety of reasons. So now I'm wondering which school districts the legislators were targeting at improving student attendance rates. It seems to me that BCPSS was NOT the district they wanted to help. I would bet tons of money that BCPSS has the worst truancy rates in all of Maryland...if I'm wrong, then we at least have to have one of the three highest truancy rates! The bill has passed both the House and Senate and is waiting for a signature from O'Malley. Supposedly, O'Malley had "no opinion" on the bill back in March and my guess is that he knew deep down that it wasn't written to help the students of his former city.

So here were are again. My students were overlooked by the rest of the state of Maryland and will be allowed to continue to do whatever has been done for years in this system. Although I don't have the right answer now, I suggest that we need to develop motivational tools for student retention quickly or they're all going to be at home enjoying the weather instead of in school learning about it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031502112.html