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Why Attendance Matters
Starting in the Early Grades
Parent Teacher Home Visiting Project National
Conference
October 2013
www.attendanceworks.org
Warm-up Exercise
In groups of 3, share with each
other:
• One thing that made it hard for you to go to
school when you were a young child
• One thing that kept you attending school
even when going to class was difficult.
2
Unpacking Attendance Terms
•Nationally, ADA is generally understood as the % of enrolled
Average Daily students who attend school each day.
Attendance
Truancy
Chronic
Absence
•Typically refers only to unexcused absences and is defined by each
state under No Child Left Behind. It signals the potential need for
legal intervention under state compulsory education laws.
•Missing 10% or more of school for any reason – excused,
unexcused, etc. It is an indication that a student is academically
at risk due to missing too much school.
3
Moving into Action Requires Knowing
if Chronic Absence is a Problem
Most Schools only track average daily attendance and truancy.
Both can mask chronic absence.
Chronic Absence For 6 Elementary Schools in
Oakland, CA with @ 95% ADA in 2012
30%
25%
20%
12%
15%
10%
13%
13%
15%
16%
E
F
7%
5%
0%
A
B
C
D
% Chronic Absence
98% ADA = little chronic absence
95% ADA = don’t know
93% ADA = significant chronic absence
4
Chronic Absence Versus Truancy
Number of students missing 10%
versus 10 unexcused absences
(San Francisco Unified School District)
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
K
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
# chronic absentees - 2010-2011
# of students with 10 unexcused absences (as of May 16th 2011)
5
Chronic Absence: A Hidden National Crisis
 Nationwide, as many as 10-15% of students (7.5 million)
miss nearly a month of school every year. That’s 135
million days of lost time in the classroom.
 In some cities, as many as one in four students are
missing that much school.
 Chronic absenteeism is a red alert that students are
headed for academic trouble and eventually for dropping
out of high school.
 Poor attendance isn’t just a problem in high school. It can
start as early as kindergarten and pre-kindergarten.
6
The Campaign for
Grade-Level Reading
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is focusing
on three challenges to reading success that are
amenable to community solutions:
•
The Readiness Gap: Too many children from
low-income families begin school already far
behind.
•
The Attendance Gap (Chronic Absence): Too
many children from low-income families miss
too many days of school.
•
The Summer Slide (Summer Learning Loss): Too
many children lose ground over the summer
months.
7
8
Starting in preK, chronic absence affects learning and
school readiness. Attendance matters most for the
children who enter the farthest behind.
Analyses control for prior preschool experience, race, gender, neighborhood poverty and social status, special education status, ELL status, and
program type. Missing data points represent values with fewer than 30 students.
9
Students with more years of chronic absenteeism,
starting in preK have lower 2nd grade scores
Some risk
At risk
* Indicates that scores are significantly different from scores of students who are never chronically absent, at p<.05 level; **p<.01; ***p<.001
Students Chronically Absent in Kindergarten and 1st Grade
are Much Less Likely to Read Proficiently in 3rd Grade
Percent Students Scoring Proficient or Advanced on 3rd
Grade ELA
100%
80%
64%
60%
43%
41%
40%
17%
20%
0%
No attendance risks
Small attendance risks
No risk
Small risk
Moderate risk
High risk
Moderate attendance risks
High attendance risks
Missed less than 5% of school in K & 1st
Missed 5-9% of days in both K & 1st
Missed 5-9% of days in 1 year &10 % in 1
year
Missed 10% or more in K & 1st
Source: Applied Survey Research & Attendance Works (April 2011)
10
The Long-Term Impact of Chronic Kindergarten
Absence is Most Troubling for Poor Children
5th Grade Math and Reading Performance By K Attendance for Children Living In Poverty.
Academic performance was lower even if attendance had improved in 3rd grade.
Average Academic Performance
52
50
48
46
Reading
Math
44
42
40
0-3.3% in K
3.3 - 6.6% in K
6.6-10.0% in K
>=10.0% in K
Absence Rate in Kindergarten
Source: ECLS-K data analyzed by National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP)
Note: Average academic performance reflects results of direct cognitive assessments conducted for ECLS-K.
11
Why Interrupting Chronic Early
Absence Matters
Each year of chronic absence in elementary school is associated with
a substantially higher probability of chronic absence in 6th grade
18.0x
Increase in
probability of
6th grade
chronic
absence
Chronic absence in 1st
grade is also associated
with:
7.8x
5.9x
•
•
Lower 6th grade test
scores
Higher levels of
suspension
Years of Chronic Absence in Grades 1-5
Oakland Unified School District SY 2006-2012, Analysis By Attendance Works
12
The Effects of Chronic Absence on
Dropout Rates are Cumulative
With every year of
chronic
absenteeism,
a higher percentage
of students drop out
of school.
http://www.utahdataalliance.org/downloads/ChronicAbsenteeismResearchBrief.pdf
13
Chronic Absence is Even Higher Among
Students of Color
% Chronically Absent Students By Ethnicity
2011-12 School Year
% of Active Students
30%
25%
African
American
20%
Asian
15%
Latino
10%
5%
White
0%
K
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Grade Level
14
Solutions Only Work if Grounded in Understanding of
What Leads to Chronic Absence
Myths
Absences are only a
problem if they are
unexcused
Sporadic versus
consecutive absences
aren’t a problem
Attendance only
matters in the older
grades
Barriers
Aversion
Child struggling
academically
Lack of access to
health care
Lack of engaging
instruction
Poor
transportation
Poor school climate
and ineffective school
discipline
No safe path to school
Parents had negative
school experience
15
Going to School Every Day Reflects
Hope
for a better future
+
Faith
that school will help you or your child succeed
+
Capacity
Resources, skills, knowledge needed to get to school
16
Universal Strategies for Building a Culture of
Attendance & Identifying Barriers
17
Increased Attendance Involves a 3-Tiered
Approach that Fits with Most Reform Efforts
Students who were chronically
absent in prior year or
starting to miss 20%
or more of school
Students at risk for
chronic absence
All students
in the school
High
Cost
Recovery
Programs
Intervention
Programs
Universal/Preventive
Programs
A small fraction
of a school’s
students
Some
of a school’s
students
All of
a school’s
students
Low
Cost
18
Ingredients for Success & Sustainability
in a District and Community
19
New Britain Connecticut
• Professional development: trained site administrators and
teams to interpret attendance data, adopt best practices and
engage in peer learning.
• Actionable data: sent report every 10 days with information on
how many and which students are chronically absent
• School attendance teams: monitored the data and ensured
appropriate support s are in place.
• Home visits: hired two outreach workers to conduct home
visits to chronically absent kindergartners.
• Parent engagement and communications: Messaged thru
newsletters, daily interactions with parents & attendance
incentives.
• Community partnerships: used community agencies to offer
supports at school sites and thru a district Attendance Review
Committee formed to avoid referrals to juvenile court.
New Britain, CT – Year 1 Results
Chronic Absence Drops from 20% to 13% in
grades K-8 in New Britain, CT
30%
2011-12 Baseline
2012-13
24%
19%
18%
13%
K
24%
1
14%
2
20%
19%
15%
15%
15%
13%
11%
11%
12%
11%
3
5
6
4
14%
7
15%
13%
8
ALL
Key Messages
1. Good attendance helps children do well in school and
eventually in the work place.
2. Absences add up. Excused and unexcused absences
result in too much time lost in the classroom.
3. Chronic absence, missing 10 percent of the school year
or more, affects the whole classroom, not just the
students who miss school.
4. We need to monitor how many days each student
misses school for any reason— excused, unexcused or
suspensions— so we can intervene early.
22
Key Messages
5. Chronic absence is a problem we can solve when the
whole community, including parents and schools, gets
involved.
6. Relationship building is fundamental to any strategy
for improving student attendance.
7. Reducing chronic absence can help close achievement
gaps.
23
Available Resources
• Parent Engagement Toolkit
• Parent Flyers
• Infographics (English and
Spanish
• Video
• Interactive exercises
– Illustrating the Gap
– Example: Washing the
Elephant
24
Potential Role of Home Visiting
• Builds a relationship so you can unpack issues of
attendance when they arise.
• Help parents and students understand why going
to school every day matters starting in the early
grades.
• Inspire parents and students to monitor absences
• Reach out to parents as soon as attendance
becomes problematic.
• Encourage parents to help each other get their
children to school
• Other?
25
Reflection
• Does this resonate?
• What is one thing you could to improve
student attendance?
26
Attendance Works
Hedy Chang, Director
[email protected]
Cecelia Leong, Associate Director
[email protected]
Phyllis Jordan, Communications Lead
[email protected]
(301) 656-0348
Elise Dizon-Ross, Manager, Research & Evaluation
[email protected]
www.attendanceworks.org