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Melrose Area Public Schools
The 74
Analysis: What Does ‘Attendance’ Mean for Remote Learners in a Pandemic?
How 106 Districts Are Dealing With Absenteeism, Student Engagement & Grades
Center for Reinventing Public Education
As districts close out their first academic quarter, educators are
reporting increased absenteeism rates for both remote learners (double
the rates they saw before the pandemic) and in-person learners. About a
third of educators say unexcused absences will impact student grades
and, potentially, prevent some kids from passing to the next grade
level.
Our analysis of reopening plans in 106 large, high-profile districts
finds that they have taken student engagement and attendance far more
seriously this fall than they did after schools first closed last
spring. But many school systems have struggled to create consistent
rules, especially for remote learners. The districts we’re tracking
show that much can be done to improve how attendance is recorded and
what actions can be taken to maintain high expectations without
penalizing students for challenging circumstances.
While 32 percent (26 of 82) of districts in our database waived
attendance expectations last spring, almost all (87 percent, or 92 of
106) directed schools to collect daily numbers this fall.
However, what “attendance” means, especially for remote learners, is
not so clear. As is the case with so many other aspects of schooling
this year, students’ experience with attendance varies greatly by state
to state and district to district.
Districts run the gamut on remote attendance approaches
Students in some districts face attendance policies designed to keep
them in school. Others experience adjusted expectations that redefine
attendance from presence in class to task completion.
Students in Chicago Public Schools, for example, are considered present
if they receive at least five hours of instruction a day. Long Beach
Unified School District in California counts students present so long
as they complete the tasks assigned for that day. Similar policies
abound across California, where the state has directed school districts
to calculate the “time value” of work assigned to students. St. Paul
Public Schools has adopted an entirely different approach, asking
children’s caregivers to report their attendance.
Of the 100 districts reviewed, 16 provide detail on how they measure
attendance using “engagement” metrics for remote learners, which
generally include a combination of logging into online platforms,
completing assignments or communicating with their teacher.
South Dakota’s Sioux Falls School District, for example, lists an array
of measures for marking attendance, including student activity and
submissions in course software and teacher-tracked work time.
At least three other districts link attendance to attaining course
credit. Texas school systems say students are still subject to the “90
percent rule,” which states that students who miss more than 10 percent
of class sessions will be denied credit even if they earn a passing
grade. Students who miss more than 25 percent of a class become
ineligible for credit restoration. But some state systems, like the
Fort Worth Independent School District, give students multiple options
for meeting these percentage requirements — including making progress
in Google classroom, communicating with teachers and turning in
assignments.
Two districts have decoupled attendance from grading policies. The New
York City Department of Education, which temporarily shut down all
school buildings Nov. 19, released guidelines stating that a lack of
attendance will not hurt students’ grades. In Utah, Alpine Public
Schools has taken similar measures, advising staff to remain flexible
and consider the needs of each student.
A few districts created wellness policies that aim to prevent
absenteeism by actively promoting student engagement. New York’s
Buffalo Public Schools explicitly committed to shifting its attendance
policy away from punitive measures and toward a strategy to reconnect
students and families to school. Similarly, Indianapolis Public Schools
is working to create a culture where all district students, families
and staff understand the link between sustained attendance and overall
well-being.
Districts are balancing high expectations with flexibility
Districts’ stances on attendance likely reflect different philosophies
about what students need during the crisis. Do they need strong
incentives and high expectations to encourage attendance and
engagement, or more flexibility as they cope with disruptions both to
the learning process and their everyday lives? School and district
leaders are trying to navigate these tensions in the face of state laws
and regulations designed to fund schools based on the amount of time
students spend in physical classrooms — rules that may have been
outdated before the pandemic and are now untenable under remote or
hybrid learning plans.
Districts must balance their responsibility to get students to school
(albeit remotely) with flexibility for unique circumstances. Attendance
Works, a national initiative working to improve school attendance
through policy and practice, recommends that districts offer three
tiers of intervention: basic strategies to encourage good attendance,
early assistance for students at risk of chronic absenteeism and
intensive support for children facing the greatest challenges to
attending school. Some of these policies include eliminating punitive
approaches to absenteeism that can lead to legal consequences,
calculating future school-year funding based on pre-pandemic attendance
data and collaborating with community partners to eliminate technology
gaps.
At minimum, students experiencing unusual circumstances should not be
penalized for low daily attendance, but instead given options to
demonstrate content mastery. Districts must take absenteeism seriously
but maintain flexibility. Wellness-centered approaches can help balance
holding students to high expectations and forgoing punishments that
only set students back. But ultimately, if children are not showing up
for class or logging in to virtual lessons, schools must ask why. They
must understand and address the root causes of low attendance or poor
engagement. And they should advocate for state policies that fund
schools based on students’ needs and hold schools accountable for
student learning, rather than the amount of time they spend in class.
Bree Dusseault is practitioner-in-residence at the Center on
Reinventing Public Education, supporting its analysis of district and
charter responses to COVID-19. She previously served as executive
director of Green Dot Public Schools Washington, executive director of
pK-12 schools for Seattle Public Schools, a researcher at CRPE, and as
a principal and teacher. Alvin Makori is a junior research assistant at
the Center on Reinventing Public Education.
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