Interim OSSE Report on Student Absenteeism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10% of schools days is 18 days: 3 for a family winter ski trip, 3 for travel team trips, 5 down with the flu, 1 random fever, 2 bad cold, 3 to visit colleges, 1 protest march, 1 more protest march, 1 dental appointment that lasted longer than expected.

Exactly. this is us and we live in Ward three and our kids are A and B students with 2 to 3 APs a year. This statistic is fime. Kids spend 180 days in public school--it's too much and many days are wasted with substitute teachers and generally the same inefficient pedagogy that plagues all formalized in-school classes, public or private. This is a meaningless metric for high achieving students, which comprises the remaining 55% of graduating students. Get a grip, OP. It could be better, but it's fine for most of the student population at Wilson.

You should be reported to truancy officers and CPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:60% of SWW graduates and 80%+ of Wilson graduates had absence rates of 10% or more. Damn.

And yet at Banneker only 25% had absence rates of 10% or more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10% of schools days is 18 days: 3 for a family winter ski trip, 3 for travel team trips, 5 down with the flu, 1 random fever, 2 bad cold, 3 to visit colleges, 1 protest march, 1 more protest march, 1 dental appointment that lasted longer than expected.

Exactly. this is us and we live in Ward three and our kids are A and B students with 2 to 3 APs a year. This statistic is fime. Kids spend 180 days in public school--it's too much and many days are wasted with substitute teachers and generally the same inefficient pedagogy that plagues all formalized in-school classes, public or private. This is a meaningless metric for high achieving students, which comprises the remaining 55% of graduating students. Get a grip, OP. It could be better, but it's fine for most of the student population at Wilson.

You should be reported to truancy officers and CPS.

DCPS should not have one policy for 'high achieving' students and another for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:60% of SWW graduates and 80%+ of Wilson graduates had absence rates of 10% or more. Damn.

Our DC is graduating from SWW this year and our experience has been that the attendance is often wrong. She was routinely listed with absences when she wasn't absent, and there was no good way to get mistakes fixed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who teaches at Ballou and she says that often 5 students show up to class out of 20. Sometimes only 1-2 show up. Truancy is especially bad in August and June and any type of adverse weather days. This is not your typical UMC family situation of taking a couple extra days for a ski trip.
Also, since the Rhee days, everything is considered the teacher’s fault. So if kids aren’t showing up to class, the teacher gets blamed for not making the class so compelling that students don’t want to miss it. Lot of pressure on teachers to be performers, etc.

I taught at Ballou, and you're friend is absolutely correct. A good number won't show up until after Labor Day. The weeks before and after a holiday break are usually sparse too. It's a ghost town after PARCC is administered. A lot of them come back during the last week of school looking for make up packets. At one point we were told that even if they hadn't come to school it was still our responsibility to mail the packets home with explanations of how many assignments they needed to do in order to pass.

[Anonymous]

From the chancellor's email -- will any of this help or is it moving deck chairs around.

"High School Diploma Verification: We are not a district where students will pass courses or graduate when they have not earned their diploma. Students must be in rigorous courses, and demonstrate competency in those courses. Going forward, DCPS will do a transcript review, and verify—starting with this year’s graduating class—that all students earned their diploma.

"Attendance: We have an attendance crisis in this city. It is our responsibility—our entire city’s responsibility—to ensure that every student is coming to school and that we remove the barriers that too many of our young people face. We have the mandate to prepare every young person for success, and that begins with supporting every student in getting to school. Going forward, we will alert families for any class period that a student misses, and we must partner with families and the community to ensure students come to school every day. I encourage you to help the students in your family and community get to school on time, every day.

"Grading: In May, DCPS will implement a new grading policy that includes teacher feedback, and we will ensure all school leaders and teachers are trained on the new policy. If you are the parent of a middle or high school student, I encourage you to check in on your student’s grades using ASPEN and reach out to your teachers or principal with any concerns or questions.

"IMPACT: We will make sure that our teacher evaluation program—which Stanford University and the University of Virginia showed leads to four months of extra student learning in both math and reading—is a tool for continued student success, not a tool implemented absent of teacher voice."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who teaches at Ballou and she says that often 5 students show up to class out of 20. Sometimes only 1-2 show up. Truancy is especially bad in August and June and any type of adverse weather days. This is not your typical UMC family situation of taking a couple extra days for a ski trip.
Also, since the Rhee days, everything is considered the teacher’s fault. So if kids aren’t showing up to class, the teacher gets blamed for not making the class so compelling that students don’t want to miss it. Lot of pressure on teachers to be performers, etc.

I taught at Ballou, and you're friend is absolutely correct. A good number won't show up until after Labor Day. The weeks before and after a holiday break are usually sparse too. It's a ghost town after PARCC is administered. A lot of them come back during the last week of school looking for make up packets. At one point we were told that even if they hadn't come to school it was still our responsibility to mail the packets home with explanations of how many assignments they needed to do in order to pass.

So maybe school should start after labor day and we should have fewer three day weekends /random Fridays off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the chancellor's email -- will any of this help or is it moving deck chairs around.

"High School Diploma Verification: We are not a district where students will pass courses or graduate when they have not earned their diploma. Students must be in rigorous courses, and demonstrate competency in those courses. Going forward, DCPS will do a transcript review, and verify—starting with this year’s graduating class—that all students earned their diploma.

"Attendance: We have an attendance crisis in this city. It is our responsibility—our entire city’s responsibility—to ensure that every student is coming to school and that we remove the barriers that too many of our young people face. We have the mandate to prepare every young person for success, and that begins with supporting every student in getting to school. Going forward, we will alert families for any class period that a student misses, and we must partner with families and the community to ensure students come to school every day. I encourage you to help the students in your family and community get to school on time, every day.

"Grading: In May, DCPS will implement a new grading policy that includes teacher feedback, and we will ensure all school leaders and teachers are trained on the new policy. If you are the parent of a middle or high school student, I encourage you to check in on your student’s grades using ASPEN and reach out to your teachers or principal with any concerns or questions.

"IMPACT: We will make sure that our teacher evaluation program—which Stanford University and the University of Virginia showed leads to four months of extra student learning in both math and reading—is a tool for continued student success, not a tool implemented absent of teacher voice."

It's infuriating to read all his goals because they are such low bars! Those are things that DCPS (and charters) should be doing anyway. Always. So to act like these "goals" are in any way lofty annoys me to no end. Students needs to want to come to school...because it's a positive community, because they have inspiring teachers, because they are learning things that get them excited. So working on school community, supporting teachers, holding teachers accountable, enabling leadership to deal with bad teachers quickly are all necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10% of schools days is 18 days: 3 for a family winter ski trip, 3 for travel team trips, 5 down with the flu, 1 random fever, 2 bad cold, 3 to visit colleges, 1 protest march, 1 more protest march, 1 dental appointment that lasted longer than expected.

Exactly. this is us and we live in Ward three and our kids are A and B students with 2 to 3 APs a year. This statistic is fime. Kids spend 180 days in public school--it's too much and many days are wasted with substitute teachers and generally the same inefficient pedagogy that plagues all formalized in-school classes, public or private. This is a meaningless metric for high achieving students, which comprises the remaining 55% of graduating students. Get a grip, OP. It could be better, but it's fine for most of the student population at Wilson.

You should be reported to truancy officers and CPS.

DCPS should not have one policy for 'high achieving' students and another for everyone else.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend who teaches at Ballou and she says that often 5 students show up to class out of 20. Sometimes only 1-2 show up. Truancy is especially bad in August and June and any type of adverse weather days. This is not your typical UMC family situation of taking a couple extra days for a ski trip.
Also, since the Rhee days, everything is considered the teacher’s fault. So if kids aren’t showing up to class, the teacher gets blamed for not making the class so compelling that students don’t want to miss it. Lot of pressure on teachers to be performers, etc.

I taught at Ballou, and you're friend is absolutely correct. A good number won't show up until after Labor Day. The weeks before and after a holiday break are usually sparse too. It's a ghost town after PARCC is administered. A lot of them come back during the last week of school looking for make up packets. At one point we were told that even if they hadn't come to school it was still our responsibility to mail the packets home with explanations of how many assignments they needed to do in order to pass.

So maybe school should start after labor day and we should have fewer three day weekends /random Fridays off.

doesn't really matter since the Chancellor is not spouting off about how DC will have the nation's LARGEST credit recovery program. Great, send the message that getting it right the first time isn't important. Send the message that it doesn't matter how much you screw up or how lacking in responsibility you've been as a student approaching adulthood, we'll make sure we give you as many chances as it takes. Don't worry....we'll spoon feed you, wittle baby. it's fine to have credit recovery but to suddenly promote how you're going to make your district's program the largest in the country is just a very strange goal in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

*now not not (spouting off)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the chancellor's email -- will any of this help or is it moving deck chairs around.

"High School Diploma Verification: We are not a district where students will pass courses or graduate when they have not earned their diploma. Students must be in rigorous courses, and demonstrate competency in those courses. Going forward, DCPS will do a transcript review, and verify—starting with this year’s graduating class—that all students earned their diploma.

"Attendance: We have an attendance crisis in this city. It is our responsibility—our entire city’s responsibility—to ensure that every student is coming to school and that we remove the barriers that too many of our young people face. We have the mandate to prepare every young person for success, and that begins with supporting every student in getting to school. Going forward, we will alert families for any class period that a student misses, and we must partner with families and the community to ensure students come to school every day. I encourage you to help the students in your family and community get to school on time, every day.

"Grading: In May, DCPS will implement a new grading policy that includes teacher feedback, and we will ensure all school leaders and teachers are trained on the new policy. If you are the parent of a middle or high school student, I encourage you to check in on your student’s grades using ASPEN and reach out to your teachers or principal with any concerns or questions.

"IMPACT: We will make sure that our teacher evaluation program—which Stanford University and the University of Virginia showed leads to four months of extra student learning in both math and reading—is a tool for continued student success, not a tool implemented absent of teacher voice."

I liked this line: "DCPS administration did not provide sufficient training, support, or accountability for teachers and staff to ensure the policies and procedures were followed at Ballou." So it was all a lack of training? Got it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the chancellor's email -- will any of this help or is it moving deck chairs around.

"High School Diploma Verification: We are not a district where students will pass courses or graduate when they have not earned their diploma. Students must be in rigorous courses, and demonstrate competency in those courses. Going forward, DCPS will do a transcript review, and verify—starting with this year’s graduating class—that all students earned their diploma.

"Attendance: We have an attendance crisis in this city. It is our responsibility—our entire city’s responsibility—to ensure that every student is coming to school and that we remove the barriers that too many of our young people face. We have the mandate to prepare every young person for success, and that begins with supporting every student in getting to school. Going forward, we will alert families for any class period that a student misses, and we must partner with families and the community to ensure students come to school every day. I encourage you to help the students in your family and community get to school on time, every day.

"Grading: In May, DCPS will implement a new grading policy that includes teacher feedback, and we will ensure all school leaders and teachers are trained on the new policy. If you are the parent of a middle or high school student, I encourage you to check in on your student’s grades using ASPEN and reach out to your teachers or principal with any concerns or questions.

"IMPACT: We will make sure that our teacher evaluation program—which Stanford University and the University of Virginia showed leads to four months of extra student learning in both math and reading—is a tool for continued student success, not a tool implemented absent of teacher voice."

I liked this line: "DCPS administration did not provide sufficient training, support, or accountability for teachers and staff to ensure the policies and procedures were followed at Ballou." So it was all a lack of training? Got it.

Right. As if none of it was planned or willful. They knew precisely what they were doing. They announced a ridiculous goal (everyone will get into college) so they have to meet that goal some how. And by George, they were going to get there one way or another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Satisfactory attendance is defined as 5% or fewer missed instructional days (be they excused or unexcused absences).

So riffing off 10:34, how many days have your kids missed this year (for any/all reasons)?

My kids:

8th 4
11th 2

The report card says 7, but the truth is 4. Not worth the effort to fix it. It is like this every year, even in elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the chancellor's email -- will any of this help or is it moving deck chairs around.

"High School Diploma Verification: We are not a district where students will pass courses or graduate when they have not earned their diploma. Students must be in rigorous courses, and demonstrate competency in those courses. Going forward, DCPS will do a transcript review, and verify—starting with this year’s graduating class—that all students earned their diploma.

"Attendance: We have an attendance crisis in this city. It is our responsibility—our entire city’s responsibility—to ensure that every student is coming to school and that we remove the barriers that too many of our young people face. We have the mandate to prepare every young person for success, and that begins with supporting every student in getting to school. Going forward, we will alert families for any class period that a student misses, and we must partner with families and the community to ensure students come to school every day. I encourage you to help the students in your family and community get to school on time, every day.

"Grading: In May, DCPS will implement a new grading policy that includes teacher feedback, and we will ensure all school leaders and teachers are trained on the new policy. If you are the parent of a middle or high school student, I encourage you to check in on your student’s grades using ASPEN and reach out to your teachers or principal with any concerns or questions.

"IMPACT: We will make sure that our teacher evaluation program—which Stanford University and the University of Virginia showed leads to four months of extra student learning in both math and reading—is a tool for continued student success, not a tool implemented absent of teacher voice."

I liked this line: "DCPS administration did not provide sufficient training, support, or accountability for teachers and staff to ensure the policies and procedures were followed at Ballou." So it was all a lack of training? Got it.

Right. As if none of it was planned or willful. They knew precisely what they were doing. They announced a ridiculous goal (everyone will get into college) so they have to meet that goal some how. And by George, they were going to get there one way or another.

Except that absences are excessive and growing at every DCPS high school, particularly all the neighborhood high schools, not just Ballou.

They brought this attention on themselves with that goal, but much what they were doing was happening across the city