by David Ruff
Since the start of the pandemic, across the U.S. we have seen an increase in the percentage of students who are chronically absent (usually defined as students who are absent from school for 10% or more of scheduled school days). A recent report unpacking data from the 2021-22 school year notes that 14.7 million students (30% of all students in the country) were chronically absent1. This same report notes disturbing equity trends with absenteeism rising most dramatically for Black and Hispanic students as well as students attending rural schools. Students who have historically received less support and help prior to COVID-19 are bearing an uneven negative impact in its aftermath. Even more troubling, the authors of the report go on to note that “this attendance crisis has a broad impact on learning given that two-thirds (66%) of enrolled students attended a school with high or extreme levels of chronic absence. When chronic absence reaches high levels, the educational experience of peers, not just those frequently missing school, is also affected.” Clearly, ensuring equitable learning for all students requires us to figure out ways to increase attendance rates.
Recognizing that the Great Schools Partnership (GSP) is well known for our extensive work to support proficiency-based learning, I want to start by clearing up a common misconception. As can be more deeply learned by visiting the resources on our website, achievement in proficiency-based classrooms is based on students demonstrating their learning, a pretty basic idea that is too often disregarded in U.S. education systems. Students don’t “pass” classes because they have perfect attendance or work hard, but because they demonstrate achievement of agreed-upon performance levels. But while hard work and attendance should not be the criteria to pass a class or demonstrate achievement of a learning standard, both of these factors are crucial aspects that support deep learning and should be expected of students. Simply stated, a commitment to implement proficiency-based learning is not an invitation to students not to attend school.
Going a bit deeper, our work with proficiency also promotes personalization for students. We should be clear on what we expect students to know and be able to do while we are open and supportive of different students learning in different ways—and still attending school. Importantly, recent increases in technology have made virtual collaborations a key tool to deepen learning. Asynchronous learning opportunities can support learning for some things, but engagement with others is required for most deep learning. There are numerous learning situations that use virtual capacities to bring people together to learn, strategies I would support and note that being in attendance in these events is required. Attendance can be virtual in some circumstances when everyone is virtual, but it is still attendance.
Why attendance matters
It’s a legitimate question to wonder why we should be concerned about attendance if students can demonstrate high levels of performance; my response is to more fully understand the value of learning in our schools. Beyond core academic skills, teachers and other students provide opportunities for student-to-student engagement. While learning requires deep study and thinking frequently done in isolation, learning is also enriched by engagement with other learners. Ideas are shared and explored, tried and tested, discussed and debated all with the purpose of deeper understanding. Of course, recent advances in virtual communications have increased the strategies to create such environments beyond physical attendance in a classroom, but again, students are attending the learning event.
Recently, GSP worked for several years with the community of Springfield, MA, to create a Portrait of a Graduate that identifies key characteristics to be demonstrated by all students who earn a high school diploma from Springfield Public Schools. Importantly, the citizens of Springfield identified several key characteristics that involve engagement with other people:
- Communicate: I listen to others and convey ideas with respect, openness and clarity.
- Lead: I will lead with confidence, empathy, and kindness in my family, my community, in Springfield, and beyond.
- Learn: I have the academic knowledge and skills to critically understand the world, form opinions, and solve problems.
These are valuable skills that require engagement with others to learn and to demonstrate. These skills are not learned in a day or week, but honed and refined over years of engagement with other people. And these are not skills learned in isolation.
Increasing student attendance
So how do we increase student attendance? Essentially, there are two paths, and I would argue a need to follow both. First, district policy has to set expectations for students to be present in school. Such expectations should not create erroneous reporting on grades as strong or weak attendance should not be a factor in judging the quality of learning. But it is entirely possible to establish district policy that sets clear expectations for attendance and provides incentives or consequences for attendance. Some pretty clean policy strategies could include car parking privileges or the loss of car parking privileges for students, the ability to participate in co-curricular activities on days when students are absent, expectations for extended days to make up for lost learning in class, or other special perks in school.
The second, and more important pathway, is to increase student engagement. Student engagement can be increased by increasing student interest through shifts in instructional practice, curriculum, or assessment strategies. Our schools are filled with good examples of this. Instructionally, strategies that provide students with increased choice on how to learn, decision-making abilities on timing, or opportunities to collaborate with friends all have strong research bases demonstrating increased student learning. GSP has created a powerful resource for shifting instructional practice called Elements of Effective Instruction, which can be found on our website.
Curriculum wise, proficiency requires a set of common learning standards and performance expectations for all students, but it does not demand the same curriculum for all students. Students should be able to identify enhanced areas of personal interest and be provided with opportunities to explore and learn in these areas. Students could explore two different government systems to reach a common understanding about how political systems operate. Real world mathematics problems could be student-designed to build interest while attending to similar mathematical skills. The skills and knowledge expectations remain consistent while the content can vary in many different ways.
If we break from assessment as a paper and pencil exercise, we can create performance assessments that challenge students to engage in deeper and extended learning and to own how they want to demonstrate their skills and knowledge. These assessments can be multilayered, include individual and group efforts, and operate from simple requirements to remember specific information to complex tasks asking students to interpret, analyze, or create information. Years of data collected by GSP regarding student engagement in classrooms shows a consistent level of increased engagement when learning expectations are actually harder. Students want to learn hard stuff and they want to demonstrate their greatness; we need to create ways to do this.
Finally, I’d add a strategy that crosses instruction, curriculum and assessment—working to racially, ethnically, and linguistically diversify the educator workforce. Diversifying the educator workforce benefits all students, not just students of color. Collective teacher insight regarding the students in a school increases and cultural understanding deepens, which leads to increased student engagement, and, as noted, increased learning.
Increasing attendance is a basic equity challenge for public education today. Current data have clearly demonstrated that chronic absenteeism has disproportionately impacted students who have always been marginalized by our education system; engaging students to deepen their learning is crucial to counteracting this reality.
1
https://www.attendanceworks.org/todays-chronic-absenteeism-requires-a-comprehensive-district-response-and-strategy/, December 14, 2023
