MCPS Announces New Attendance Plan and Policy on 8/22

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is so bad at communication. How is it that no one can say for sure what this policy is?

Because they wanted to look like they were putting forth a new plan when in actuality, they weren't.

There's been some investments in data platforms with regard to attendance, which supposedly will allow for school-level oversight, monitoring and management of attendance issues, and then, later on, if specific schools have troubling patterns, MCPS might change its policies.

Oh, and the overarching theme is that MCPS is not to blame for chronic absenteeism. The issues are:

1. The pandemic and the lagging youth mental health crisis spurred by it
2. Teachers not creating "inviting" learning environments because they're racist

What they failed to address or acknowledge is MCPS's own systemic failures with regard to safety and security, which permits students to skip class easily, and the MCPS's lax attitude toward consequences for students who skip and know they can get away with it. Because student accountability is apparently a bad word in MCPS circles.

Everything is either the teacher's or the parent's faults. Not theirs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Underlying all of this is that there is no way to punish weak parenting without hurting the child even more. You can't take money from parents, or send parents to jail, as punishment for weak parenting, and expect that to help the child. There aren't better environments just waiting to host the child.

Punitive arrangements are useless, unless they are deferred until children are 18 or 21.

Examples of potentially plausible programs:

* Welfare subsidies are $X, plus $Y bonus for students who attend school and submit academic work. This discourages pulling kids out of school to do labor or just hang out

* If a parent fails to put a child through 11 valid years of schooling before age 21, parent does weekends in prison or community service.

Many of the parents in question already receive welfare benefits, so I don't think that works.

To your point: Some of the underlying problems are character, moral and ethical problems that the school district nor the county government can help.

What "welfare benefits" do you think the parents are getting, specifically?

Housing, food and likely medical insurance.

There is still cash assistance.

Not enough of any of this to be the reliable lever the PP seems to imagine.

Sorry, you will have to find some way other than denying basic needs to control people’s behavior.

I guess you can continue denied children's basic need for education, to enable neglect.

If you think denying food, housing and menial cash assistance is going to improve a situation in which a parent is not regularly getting a kid to school, you are at a degree of separation from reality that is notable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is so bad at communication. How is it that no one can say for sure what this policy is?

Because they wanted to look like they were putting forth a new plan when in actuality, they weren't.

There's been some investments in data platforms with regard to attendance, which supposedly will allow for school-level oversight, monitoring and management of attendance issues, and then, later on, if specific schools have troubling patterns, MCPS might change its policies.

Oh, and the overarching theme is that MCPS is not to blame for chronic absenteeism. The issues are:

1. The pandemic and the lagging youth mental health crisis spurred by it
2. Teachers not creating "inviting" learning environments because they're racist

What they failed to address or acknowledge is MCPS's own systemic failures with regard to safety and security, which permits students to skip class easily, and the MCPS's lax attitude toward consequences for students who skip and know they can get away with it. Because student accountability is apparently a bad word in MCPS circles.

Everything is either the teacher's or the parent's faults. Not theirs.

Parents also need to be informed each and every time and need to give consequences to their kids. It astounds me that so many posts are what MCPS isn't doing but some of these issues are parenting issue as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can think of at least 2 students last year that missed a month of school to visit family out of the country. One was in Africa and the other in South America. So would MCPS now unenroll them?

Also, what happens once these kids are unenrolled? I’m thinking of the many moms of MS boys that say “I can’t control him” and their son misses 65 days of school. There is no phone call or home visit that will get that kid to school.

Claim asylum in the U.S. due to "persecution," then go back on vacation...

It is not that easy to get asylum and you can’t go back and forth if you are claiming it.

[Anonymous]

This IG Investigation report probably spurred the new focus on attendance.

https://oige.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2023/01/22-0003-A-Final-Investigative-Audit-Report-MCPS-Enrollment-Counts-1.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is so bad at communication. How is it that no one can say for sure what this policy is?

Because they wanted to look like they were putting forth a new plan when in actuality, they weren't.

There's been some investments in data platforms with regard to attendance, which supposedly will allow for school-level oversight, monitoring and management of attendance issues, and then, later on, if specific schools have troubling patterns, MCPS might change its policies.

Oh, and the overarching theme is that MCPS is not to blame for chronic absenteeism. The issues are:

1. The pandemic and the lagging youth mental health crisis spurred by it
2. Teachers not creating "inviting" learning environments because they're racist

What they failed to address or acknowledge is MCPS's own systemic failures with regard to safety and security, which permits students to skip class easily, and the MCPS's lax attitude toward consequences for students who skip and know they can get away with it. Because student accountability is apparently a bad word in MCPS circles.

Everything is either the teacher's or the parent's faults. Not theirs.

So true.

[Anonymous]

Haven’t read all of this, and my kida graduated but attendance and lateness were issues (by classmates and them at times) their entire k-12 experiences bc there were no consequences in mcps for these things.

Here’s an easy start, mcps - notify parents if the kid is late/absent before 6pm! That always shocked me - what could I do about it then?? They should do the robocalls by 9am (schools starts at 7:45 for goodness sake) so parents can figure out where their kid is and get their butt to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haven’t read all of this, and my kida graduated but attendance and lateness were issues (by classmates and them at times) their entire k-12 experiences bc there were no consequences in mcps for these things.

Here’s an easy start, mcps - notify parents if the kid is late/absent before 6pm! That always shocked me - what could I do about it then?? They should do the robocalls by 9am (schools starts at 7:45 for goodness sake) so parents can figure out where their kid is and get their butt to school.

+1 We have an automated system at work for texts, emails, and phone messages that fill in the patient’s name and appointment time. Couldn’t the same type of technology be used for giving parents attendance notifications so alerts are sent as soon as a teacher logs the student absent? Isn’t attendance taken at the beginning of every class?

For families who have multiple children at the same school, having a name with the notices would help to know which child the robocall is about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This IG Investigation report probably spurred the new focus on attendance.

https://oige.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2023/01/22-0003-A-Final-Investigative-Audit-Report-MCPS-Enrollment-Counts-1.pdf

Per the report -

“The OIGE discovered 604 instances of ineligible students being included on MCPS’ enrollment counts for state aid, which resulted in $4.4 million in misallocated funds to MCPS.

The errors in eligibility determination were a result of attendance not always being properly recorded and school staff not properly withdrawing chronically absent students…”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Underlying all of this is that there is no way to punish weak parenting without hurting the child even more. You can't take money from parents, or send parents to jail, as punishment for weak parenting, and expect that to help the child. There aren't better environments just waiting to host the child.

Punitive arrangements are useless, unless they are deferred until children are 18 or 21.

Examples of potentially plausible programs:

* Welfare subsidies are $X, plus $Y bonus for students who attend school and submit academic work. This discourages pulling kids out of school to do labor or just hang out

* If a parent fails to put a child through 11 valid years of schooling before age 21, parent does weekends in prison or community service.

Many of the parents in question already receive welfare benefits, so I don't think that works.

To your point: Some of the underlying problems are character, moral and ethical problems that the school district nor the county government can help.

What "welfare benefits" do you think the parents are getting, specifically?

Housing, food and likely medical insurance.

There is still cash assistance.

Not enough of any of this to be the reliable lever the PP seems to imagine.

Sorry, you will have to find some way other than denying basic needs to control people’s behavior.

I guess you can continue denied children's basic need for education, to enable neglect.

If you think denying food, housing and menial cash assistance is going to improve a situation in which a parent is not regularly getting a kid to school, you are at a degree of separation from reality that is notable.

Did you have an absenteeism problem as student? It seems you didn't fully develop your skills in reading informational texts.

[Anonymous]

https://wjla.com/news/back-to-school/montgomery-county-attendance-action-plan-schools-first-day-lgbtq-books-lessons-parents-rally-teacher-staff-bus-shortage-covid-learning-superintendent-monifa-mcknight-mcps-education-maryland

(Doesn't say anything beyond poorly summarizing the document, plus a photo of some cheerleaders to cheer everyone up for school. I don't think the cheerleaders are part of the Attendance Action Plan ... yet )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wjla.com/news/back-to-school/montgomery-county-attendance-action-plan-schools-first-day-lgbtq-books-lessons-parents-rally-teacher-staff-bus-shortage-covid-learning-superintendent-monifa-mcknight-mcps-education-maryland

(Doesn't say anything beyond poorly summarizing the document, plus a photo of some cheerleaders to cheer everyone up for school. I don't think the cheerleaders are part of the Attendance Action Plan ... yet )

Yeah, didn't understand why WJLA bothered with the piece.

[Anonymous]

There was a comprehensive op-ed in MoCo 360 that addressed chronic absenteeism and specifically used Kennedy as a glaring example of how MCPS is failing, since it's not transparent, targeted or even really strategic in addressing these kinds of problems:

SOURCE: https://moco360.media/2023/08/26/how-to-break-down-mcps-barriers-to-academic-proficiency/

A good example of the challenge is Kennedy High School in Silver Spring. Last year Kennedy experienced an 50% absentee rate and is a high-needs school with 84% of its students low-income (> 35%have now or in the past received free and reduced meals), 90% Latino/Hispanic and Black, and a very high dropout rate of 9% in the 2022 school year (Schools at a Glance).

Kennedy students are struggling academically. This could be a cause of the high absentee rate. The most recent public dashboard data for the school year that ended in 2022 shows Kennedy’s 11th grade Hispanic/Latino students had 59.7% literacy proficiency and 36.1% math proficiency, while the smaller cohort of Black students had 76.2% literacy proficiency and 47.6% math proficiency. This performance did not meet the strategic plan’s District wide targets for literacy (65.9%) and math (64.1%) for that school year. Performance for grades 9, 10 and 12 are not disclosed to the public, and may have been worse since Kennedy’s 11th graders were only 14.3% of its students (Schools at a Glance).

Fifty three percent of Kennedy teachers have more than 15 years of experience (per Schools at a Glance), but are they effective? MCPS doesn’t disclose how many Kennedy students received help from teacher-managed tutoring and teacher interventions, or the percentage of Kennedy parents who were contacted by teachers and told about tutoring and intervention opportunities. Does MCPS collect data on these strategies, and does it guide them with details in its budget, policies or strategic plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was a comprehensive op-ed in MoCo 360 that addressed chronic absenteeism and specifically used Kennedy as a glaring example of how MCPS is failing, since it's not transparent, targeted or even really strategic in addressing these kinds of problems:

SOURCE: https://moco360.media/2023/08/26/how-to-break-down-mcps-barriers-to-academic-proficiency/

A good example of the challenge is Kennedy High School in Silver Spring. Last year Kennedy experienced an 50% absentee rate and is a high-needs school with 84% of its students low-income (> 35%have now or in the past received free and reduced meals), 90% Latino/Hispanic and Black, and a very high dropout rate of 9% in the 2022 school year (Schools at a Glance).

Kennedy students are struggling academically. This could be a cause of the high absentee rate. The most recent public dashboard data for the school year that ended in 2022 shows Kennedy’s 11th grade Hispanic/Latino students had 59.7% literacy proficiency and 36.1% math proficiency, while the smaller cohort of Black students had 76.2% literacy proficiency and 47.6% math proficiency. This performance did not meet the strategic plan’s District wide targets for literacy (65.9%) and math (64.1%) for that school year. Performance for grades 9, 10 and 12 are not disclosed to the public, and may have been worse since Kennedy’s 11th graders were only 14.3% of its students (Schools at a Glance).

Fifty three percent of Kennedy teachers have more than 15 years of experience (per Schools at a Glance), but are they effective? MCPS doesn’t disclose how many Kennedy students received help from teacher-managed tutoring and teacher interventions, or the percentage of Kennedy parents who were contacted by teachers and told about tutoring and intervention opportunities. Does MCPS collect data on these strategies, and does it guide them with details in its budget, policies or strategic plan?

Montgomery County Taxpayers League is a good and responsible organization and has offered many good and responsible suggestions to MCPS through the years, but no one at MCPS listens.

There is a famous Chinese saying: 对牛弹琴, playing the lute to a cow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they want better attendance, how about keep kids safe from viral infections like COVID? Especially mine who is medically vulnerable

My Kindergartener isn’t allowed to wash his hands after recess and before lunch and buses have 4 kids per seat.

When/if Covid gets bad, it’s going to be really bad.