HSA countdown: 5 days

In a district plagued by chronic absences, transient students, and tardiness it is essential that we take time to create comprehensive differentiated review for all of our students. The only problem is--you can’t review with students that aren’t there. As I look down the empty hallway, I am beginning to question whose responsibility it is to ensure high rates of student attendance. Should teachers be required to call and send letters each time a child misses class? Should school leadership be responsible for instituting school wide attendance incentives for students? Should school districts enforce grade related consequences (ahem, less than a 60) for students who miss more than ten days a quarter? If we recruit the most talented individuals to teach our students and they don’t show up- are our efforts for nothing?
With the pressures of NCLB mounting on schools and school districts to increase attendance, some schools have tried to boost numbers by providing students with prizes, trips, and in some cases even cars as a reward for attending school. This practice has garnered mixed reviews from critics who argue that these programs deter students from developing intrinsic motivation.
In a district like Baltimore City, does the boost mobile carrot need to be dangled before we can instill this kind of intrinsic motivation in our students? How many of us could get through the day without our “bag of tricks” full of stickers, stamps, and other extrinsic rewards for students?
Alfie Kohn, author of the book “Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes” has argued that these incentive programs don’t help students, they actually harm them. Kohn argues that these programs destroy the ability of our students to become deep thinkers who love learning. “Dangling the equivalent of a doggy biscuit in front of them for coming to school not only does it not achieve those goals, it actually makes it less likely that those things would happen.”
Kohn and I certainly agree on the definition of education-- the process of instilling a love of deep thinking and learning in our students. However, I am fairly sure he would be hard pressed to write a similar book after teaching two years at Walbrook high school. I would love for him to walk into our building right now and analyze the school based motivational systems in place.
Districts and schools with such abysmal attendance rates must be creative about consistently reinforcing the importance of attendance and behavior by developing a plethora of school based incentives narrowly tailored to their student population. Combining these programs with solid engaging instruction is the first step to invalidating the dominant idea that attendance is optional.

Article source:
http://www.aclu-md.org/aTop%20Issues/Education%20Reform/About_ERP.html