A sign that our current K-12 system is in trouble is the fact that 1 million students who were enrolled in that system before the pandemic have disappeared. Oh, they’re still alive and kicking, but they aren’t seated in the schools they were in for the 2019-2020 school year. It’s difficult to know if those kids will ever come back, or if they have voted with their feet and walked away from schools that weren’t meeting their needs.
Worse yet, that same system that lost 1 million kids is now blaming their parents for the rise in chronic absenteeism seen in our traditional public school system.
Recently, The 74 reported that,
“A quarter of district leaders in a recent survey said chronic absenteeism has gotten so bac that none of their strategies are working, a problem some attribute to increased parental ‘apathy’ about the importance of school since the pandemic.”
“Most districts try to prevent chronic absenteeism through early warning systems that identify students who miss too much school, according to the report by the Rand Corporation. Districts also conduct home visits, call families when students are out and hire staff who specifically address attendance.”
“But those efforts meet with pushback from parents. Some say, for example, that letters sent home nudging students to attend school are ‘too harsh.’”
“’Parents’ overall feelings about the important of school have changed,’ said Jessica Hull, executive director of communication and community engagement for the Roseville City School District, outside Sacramento. Chronic absenteeism in the district has dropped from its pandemic high point of 26% to 11%, but that is still roughly double its pre-COVID rate.”
“Some students with family members outside of the U.S. can be gone for weeks at a time. Others frequently miss Fridays and Mondays, while some older children are asked with caring for younger siblings.”
“’I’m generally a very positive person,’ Hull said. ‘But I don’t know that we’ll really dramatically change those things.’”
“The report comes as more states are showing leadership on the issue. …Attendance Works, an advocacy and research organization, announced that 14 states have committed to cutting chronic absenteeism in half over five years in response to a challenge it issued in July along with the American Enterprise Institute and EdTrust. Chronic absenteeism peaked at 28% nationally in the 2021-22 school year. The Rand survey of nearly 200 district leaders estimates that rates dropped to about 19% last school year, but that’s still above the pre-COVID level of 15%.”
“In a statement, Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, said states are ‘uniquely positioned to alert everyone to the size of this challenge.’”
“But the Rand report suggest district leaders feel a sense of urgency to reach families with children who miss the most school now.”
“’The leaders we interviewed were frustrated because there are chronically absent students for whom their interventions aren’t working,’ said Lydia Rainey, a researcher with the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which collaborated with Ran on the survey. ‘Some of the leaders had ideas for new programs to try; others were at a loss for what to do next. No one talked about giving up.’”
“The authors urged districts to emphasize approaches that foster stronger relationships between students and staff – an ingredient that even discouraged leaders say is the key to more successful strategies. Parents need to understand how poor attendance impacts their children’s academic performance, researchers said, and districts should collect better evidence on which methods make students want to come to school.”
…
The article goes on to report that teaching kids to ride bikes, supplying gas cards to families who can’t afford to fill up, encouraging homeless families to change schools if their living situations have changed, offering food, and the tried and true (tongue in cheek here) practice of issuing truancy citations to parents are all strategies schools are employing to get their absent learners back in school.
But here’s the problem. None of these strategies face up to what the real problem is with many of these young learners who have voted to leave traditional school and go elsewhere or not. What if the real problem is that these young learners are disengaged and, more worrisome, bored out of their minds with what the traditional system is offering in terms of teaching and learning?
It’s sad that our K-12 system is quick to blame the parents of these young learners and not willing to look in the mirror to explore how their teaching and learning strategies could improve over time.
Here’s a suggestion. If you want kids to re-engage with your school, ask them the following question:
What would you like to learn today? And then start building a learning plan with that answer as the plan’s first goal.
My guess is that very few traditional school districts will try this strategy, because our current K-12 system just isn’t built to be able to support all young learners in exploring the answer to that question.
Instead, our schools will continue to blame parents, offer food, write truancy tickets, and teach kids how to ride bikes.
Friday News Roundup coming tomorrow. Til then. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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