Maximizing Attendance: Unlocking Students' Potential

1. Attendance:Education’s Beachhead12th AnnualAttendance SymposiumOrlando, Florida Dr. George M. Batsche Co-Director Student Support Services Project University of South Florida

2. Attendance: What It Is? • Engagement • Trust-that something good, relevant will happen • Hope-for a future • Curiosity-to learn and be challenged • Being in a safe and positive place • Its all about “me”, its for “me”, “I” am important • Academic Engaged Time 330 Minutes Per Day 1650 Minutes Per Week 58,080 Minutes Per Year 696,960 Minutes of Education in a Life Time

3. Attendance: What it is not • Simply a presence • A requirement • A place that results in • Feeling about about myself • Feeling incompetent • Feeling isolated from a valued peer group • Ridicule • Bullying • Failure

4. Attendance and theProblem-Solving Method • Helps to identify the “real” issues • Verifies “why” the student is not attending school • Links data to evidence-based interventions • Provides a method to validate interventions • Gives us a consistent “direction” to follow

5. “Stop asking me if we’re almost there; we’re Nomads, for crying out loud.” People see change as an event: “But we just changed last year.”

6. Define the Problem Defining Problem/Directly Measuring Behavior Problem Analysis Validating Problem Ident Variables that Contribute to Problem Develop Plan Evaluate Was It Effective? Implement Plan Implement As Intended Progress Monitor Modify as Necessary Problem Solving Process

7. Defining the Problem:Is “Attendance” the Problem? • Should we set “attendance” rates as the goal? • Should we identify academic productivity? • Should we identify appropriate peer engagement? • Should we identify parent support? • Should we identify engagement with mentor? • Is attendance the “problem” or the desired “outcome”

8. Problem Analysis:Why is the student not…. • Student Factors • Lacks effective study, academic, social skills • Lacks cognitive skills, e.g., attention, concentration • Lacks motivation, self-control, goal-setting • Lack affective regulation/control • Family Factors • Understanding/support for value of education • Mentoring • Modeling/Expectations • Emotional conflict/adversity

9. Problem Analysis:Why is the student not…. • Peer Factors • Not engaged with positive school peers • Rejected by positive school peers • Engaged by peers who reject school • School Factors • Punitive consequences • Lack of mentors • “One size fits all policies” • Narrow range of academic/behavioral supports • Community Factors • Lack of linkages, partnerships, resources • School/community conflicts

10. Interventions:What We Know • Effective attendance programs share THREE themes • Collaborative, multi-agency approach • Early identification by schools with comprehensive interventions/parent involvement • Assume that the attendance problem is due to multiple factors (child, school, home) and interventions address THOSE factors

11. Evaluation:The Grist for the Mill • NCLB mentions evidence-based interventions 181 times in the law • IDEIA refers consistently to “scientifically-based” interventions • Most funding focused on improving student performance • Programs with supportive data most likely to get funding • Relationship between attendance and academic performance is VERY STRONG

12. What should be the “focus” of attendance programs • Increased student academic performance • Increased graduation rate • Increased student engagement in school-based, community-based activities • Increase in the number of “truant” students becoming mentors for current students with attendance problems • Reduction in ODRs, suspension, expulsion • Simply producing more “days” in school without increases in the factors above CANNOT be touted as successful

13. Quality Indicators:How We Know if Attendance Matters • “Attendance” problems given the same priority as academic problems for students who are attending • Funding for attendance programs • Attendance problems solved through the same problem-solving process that other school/home problems use • Attendance problems given the same access to resources as academic problems • “At-Risk for Attendance Problems” given high priority for early intervention support • Academic problems, low parent involvement, social difficulties/isolation

14. Next Steps • You, the people in this room, may be the most important contributors to successful education for at-risk students • We must advocate to establish this beachhead early, with support/resources, intensity, and advocacy • Who else in schools advocates for attendance? • Who else will bring the attendance/achievement relationship to the table? • Who else will explain that attendance is the result of many factors, not the cause?

15. 2005 Proven PracticeProgram YMCA Character Development Schools Sarasota, Florida

16. CDS Intervention Strategies • Attitudes toward drug, alcohol, tobacco use • Problem-solving anxieties • Academic/learning environment bonding issues • Employability skills • Anger management • Time/Life management skills • Resiliency/internal control development • Character development • Individual student data collection