Chronic Absenteeism: New York City Makes Strides Toward Keeping Kids In School
In the battle to conquer chronic
absenteeism, students who already have a track record of
skipping class can be a particularly tough crowd to sway. But a
new report out of New York City — where one out of every
five students missed a month or more of school last year –
suggests an intensive community-wide initiative is gaining
ground.
First, some background: chronic absenteeism is defined as missing
at least 10 percent of the instructional days over the course of
an academic year, which amounts to about 18 days in the average
district. The national advocacy group Attendance
Works considers chronic absenteeism as an early
warning system that too many schools, parents and students are
failing to heed.
Compounding the challenge, researchers say, is that the scope of
the problem is largely unreported. That’s because the statistic
typically reported by schools is average daily attendance, which
can mask the fact that many students are missing significant
amounts of seat time. (I’ve written previously
about some of the
reasons why kids say they skip class, and the role
motivation can play in their academic
success). It’s also important to note that it’s
not just the later grades that matter. A recent Chicago
study found absenteeism in
preschool contributed to social-emotional developmental
delays as well as academic hurdles that students were still
trying to overcome years down the road.
Now on to the New York City report,
compiled by the Everyone Graduates Center
at Johns Hopkins University, which looked at the impact of a task
force created by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2010 to address the
city’s high rate of school absenteeism. The task force’s pilot
program targeted at-risk students and launched with 25 high-need
schools in its first year and has since grown to 100 schools
with more than 60,000 students participating. The initiative
crafted an intensive network of mentors, support services, staff
training, better tracking and sharing of data of individual
student attendance, and community outreach — particularly to
parents.
Among the
key findings of the report:
- Students living in poverty were 15 percent less likely to be absent at the task force schools than their peers at similar campuses. The gains were even greater for students living in temporary shelters – they were 31 percent less likely to be absent. The city’s Department of Homeless Services was given access to student data and staff received specialized training and support. One city official told the researchers that ”It seems like common sense, but until now we just didn’t have the tools, data, or knowledge to do it,” according to the report.
- Assigning mentors to work one-on-one with students was the most successful intervention, with kids adding an average of nine days (nearly two full school weeks) of attendance per school year. High school students working with mentors were 52 percent more likely to be enrolled the following academic year than their comparison peers, suggesting the program also contributed to dropout prevention.
- Students who were chronically absent in the 2009-10 academic year at the task force schools were 20 percent more likely to still be in school three years later when compared to similarly situated students at campuses that didn’t participate in the task force’s programs. That suggests the initiative was also effective as a means of dropout prevention.
A couple of takeaways that particularly caught my attention: The
Johns Hopkins researchers point out that much of what the task
force accomplished could be carried over into other cities, and
be funded by reallocating existing resources — an important
consideration for cash-strapped districts. What’s also worth
highlighting is that schools, public agencies, and community
organizations effectively joined forces to focus their combined
energies on a common goal. That kind of multi-pronged approach is
critical, the report’s authors concluded, noting that “no school
system can tackle this problem alone.”
Should any of this be a surprise? Probably not to researchers and
policymakers who are increasingly focusing on the growing body of
evidence about the long-term effects of even short-term
absenteeism. Will it raise the volume on calls for more
interventions and programs targeting what many educators consider
to be an under-addressed factor in student success? That remains
to be heard.
Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter?
Email EWA public editor Emily Richmond at erichmond@ewa.org.
Follow her on Twitter: @EWAEmily.
Have a question, comment or concern for the Educated Reporter? Contact Emily Richmond. Follow her on Twitter @EWAEmily.