Attention to Attendance

Throughout this school year, there has been a dramatic call to attendance. My administration has threatened that inaccurate attendance data can ultimately result in losing your job. BCPSS truancy teams echoed these warnings in professional development meetings as well. Our CEO wanted us to get students back in school in order to boost attendance. All of these actions draw attention to attendance data and its relevance in the school setting.

It is obvious that kids cannot learn unless they are in school, but by knocking on their home doors is not going to change attendance problems. I believe that accurate collection of attendance data is a tool to better understand how dire attendance problems are, but ultimately we need to figure out why students are not coming to school. At my school, we have a full-time position supposedly dedication solely to attendance. The school has also purchased technology that tracks students' entrance into the building and attendance for each class period. Even with these additional resources, our attendance is the worst in school history.

As a teacher, I am frustrated with the narrow focus on attendance. I constantly call students' homes in an effort to understand where students are at when they are not in school, but I do not feel as though this brings students back into the classroom. Overall, I think there are only a hand full of students who are chronically absent. I believe these cases should be handled by the additional support teams put in place to improve attendance. I rather focus on ensuring that the rest of my students improve upon their attendance and are in class daily.

The National Center for Education Statistics suggests coding each absence in an effort to see where students are when they are not in school (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009804). I think this coding would give me a better understanding of the reasons why students miss school. Even though the coding would be time consuming, I would be able to look for patterns in the data and work with my teaching team to address specific reasons for missing school. By addressing the reasons students are absent, we would be able to improve behavior patterns and in turn raise attendance.

I want my students in class each day, but I do not believe the recent attention to attendance will change attendance patterns, only create sudden rises in attendance, followed by drops.