Absenteeism
Check out this report from the U.S. Department of Education. Know that grants are available. I included some high-lights from an Oregonian story on the issue and created a chart comparing BHSD schools to national data. Student Health
is Key to Reducing Chronic Absenteeism High Lights Chronically absenteeism is under 90% of class days. Last school year, nearly one in five Oregon students missed at least 10 percent of the school year, an investigation by The Oregonian shows. Those roughly 100,000 students were absent 3½ weeks of school or more – in most cases without raising alarms at their school. No other state has been shown to have a chronic absenteeism rate as bad as Oregon’s. Students are deemed chronically absent if they miss at least 10 percent of school days. Last school year, 24 percent of Oregon high school students missed that much – and so did 20 percent of eighth-graders and 18 percent of first-graders. Frequent absenteeism has devastating consequences. One Oregon study found that students who miss 10 percent of kindergarten lag, on average, almost a year behind in reading by third grade and are unlikely to ever catch up. Studies from multiple states show that chronically absent high school students are unlikely to graduate. Oregonian 1155 schools: Among the findings: » Chronic absenteeism affects schools in every Oregon community but is worst in rural Oregon. In Lincoln and Grant counties, chronic absenteeism averages 29 percent. It’s at least 20 percent in every school. » Statewide, attendance hits a high point in fourth grade and declines steadily every grade after that, culminating in 29 percent of high school seniors missing a tenth of the year. » Half of Oregon students attend school as regularly as experts recommend, coming to class more than 95 percent of the time. One-third land in a caution zone, missing 5 percent to 9 percent of school days but stopping short of chronic absenteeism. » Low-income students are almost 50 percent more likely to be chronically absent than other Oregon students. At some schools, nearly half the low-income students miss that often, including at La Pine High (48 percent), Summit High in Bend (47 percent), Talmadge Middle School in Independence and Taft Junior/Senior High in Lincoln City (both 45 percent). » Chronic absenteeism is a significant problem in nearly every school serving eighth-graders, including K-8 schools such as Portland’s Vernon School (where 31 percent of eighth-graders were chronically absent), big middle schools such as South Meadow Middle School in Hillsboro (25 percent) and small schools such as Banks Junior High (24 percent). » Certain students miss mind-boggling amounts of school. At Thurston High in Springfield, 50 students each missed more than 10 weeks of school last year, records show. At Llewellyn Elementary in Portland’s Sellwood neighborhood, nine first- and second-graders missed at least five weeks of school apiece.
Oregon has one of
nation's worst school absenteeism rates, contributing to
mediocre reading and math skills, study says The "Absences Add Up" study, to be released Tuesday, found that students who miss about a month of school per year are dramatically worse at both reading and math than students who attend regularly -- in every state, grade level, subject and demographic group studied.
In Oregon, students who reported they
missed that many school days were a full year behind in both
subjects in fourth grade and eighth grade, according to the
study, done by the national
pro-attendance nonprofit Attendance Works
The study examined performance
on
the only reading and math tests given to a representative
sample of students in every state Oregon's rate of chronic absenteeism ties for fourth-worst in the nation, with about 24 percent of fourth- and eighth-graders reporting they missed three days of school per month, a rate that translates to them missing about 15 percent of the school year, the study found. Nationally, about 20 percent of students reported missing that much school, with states including California, Texas and Georgia showing rates as low as 16 percent. Oregon's excessive absentee rate hurts the achievement of all students who miss a lot of school, even those from middle-class families, the study said. But it is most harmful to low-income students, who are far more prone to miss too much school and whose achievement suffers a bit more when they do. Therefore, it said, Oregon's huge
absenteeism problem contributes strongly to inequitable
school outcomes for minority and low-income students –
an
"achievement gap" that Oregon policymakers have vowed to try
to narrow Many of the states with the best rates, including Texas, California and Illinois, fund their schools not based on how many students are enrolled each day, as Oregon does, but on how many students actually show up. "That creates an incentive for making sure students are there," said Attendance Works director Hedy Chang. Schools that serve a concentration of low-income students have to work harder to keep attendance rates high, so those states also make sure to give schools extra funding for every low-income student, she noted. The study found that Oregon's rate of chronic absenteeism trailed only those of Montana, New Mexico and Oklahoma, all states with significant Native American populations. Native American students have the
poorest attendance rates of any racial group, including in
Oregon, where a tribal-funded study found that one of every
three children who are members
of Oregon's seven federally recognized tribes are
chronically absent from school
A five-part series by The Oregonian this year identified Oregon as having a chronic absenteeism epidemic that touches schools in every community. The series highlighted causes and potential solutions to Oregon's stark patterns of school absenteeism. The
Oregonian's analysis of 480,000 Oregon students' attendance
records The Absences Add Up study used a
slightly different, and somewhat less accurate, definition,
because it was the best available, said author
Alan Ginsberg, retired director of policy planning
A student who consistently misses three days a month would miss about 15 percent of the school year, Ginsberg noted. But some students can miss three days in a single month but miss almost no days the rest of the year and be academically unscathed, he said. The Oregonian's series showed that
many schools fail to track attendance and alert parents
before the problem becomes severe. It also showed that
Oregon's
history of men being able to make a good living without
getting a solid education by harvesting timber, fishing or
working in mills The series, "Empty
Desks," With a new school year opening Tuesday
in most Oregon schools, some Oregonians question whether
schools are doing a good enough job, particularly given
the
state's official goal of getting all students to graduate
from high school and 80 percent of them to earn a higher
education credential The Absences Add Up study says there is an "indisputable truth" about raising U.S. student achievement: "Students must attend school regularly to benefit from what is taught there." The study backs up that claim by citing reams of research, including: Absenteeism in kindergarten can affect whether a child develops the grit and perseverance needed to succeed in school. A recent study by Michael Gottfried of the University of California at Santa Barbara shows chronic absenteeism hurts both the academic performance and social-emotional skills needed to persist in learning. Source: www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2014/09/oregon_has_one_of_nations_wors.html
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