Reply to Roughly 25% of MCPS students are chronically absent, and absenteeism response plan delayed

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's an article with details spelled out more clearly. https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2023/11/more-than-20-per-cent-of-students-in-montgomery-county-schools-are-chronically-absent/

The first thing that caught my eye was the comments by Council member Gabe Albornoz who noted that, according to demographic data provided by the school system, 31.5% of the students who are chronically absent are Hispanic. That’s double the number of white students and nearly 12 percentage points above Black students who are chronically absent. He then went on to relate that to a increase in gang activity.

But, wait a minute - is that actually disproportional? According to these numbers, of the total students who are chronically absent (10% of school days) the demographic breakdown is:
31.5% Hispanic
15.8% White
19.6% Black
33.1% Asian, 2 or more races, & other (by subtracting from 100% total)

Hmmm. According to the data on MCPS website from 2022-23, the student body is:
34.6% Hispanic/Latino, 24.4% White, 21.8% Black, 13.9% Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander, 5.1% two or more races, and 0.2% other (19.2% for Asian, 2+, other).

So, Hispanic and Black students are actually slightly underrepresented, white students are significantly underrepresented, and [b]the actual scofflaws are students who are Asian & 2+ races[/b].  :shock:

I realize DCUM loves to jump into favorite stereotypes like a comfy pair of slippers, but it would be nice if occasionally people exercised some critical thinking.

Let's put some context onto the "chronic absences" category. This is 10% of school days, which for 1st quarter (45 days) is 5 absences. That's one bout of Covid and not coming on the half day. Hardly a crisis. Also, that is total absences, regardless of whether or not they are excused. What I wish we would first focus on are the students who are chronically truant (20%) absences.

I teach high school - here's a quick summary for 80 kids across three sections of an Honors class. Pretty mixed demographics.
8 kids out for Covid at some point for at least 4 days.
3 kids with serious medical issues (surgeries) out for more than a week.
2 kids with mental health issues out for more than a week, and another 4 or 5 with excused absences pretty regularly that I think are mental health related.
1 kid participating in an elite sport that was only supposed to be one absence a few times, but has ended up as many extra absences afterwards due to illness or injury.
9 kids who are actually unexcused absent fairly often (one specifically skipping my class) and who are definitely being affected grade-wise.

So, 35% of my students in Honors classes are chronically absent, but only about 11% of them are an actual problem. Do the absences affect the learning for all of them? Absolutely. But an awful lot of kids who are chronically absent have legitimate reasons (illness, appointments, funerals). Screaming about total numbers detracts from solving the real problems for a subset of kids who have unexcused absences.
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+1.  The chronically absent data needs to be broken out by excused vs unexcused absence, whole day vs certain periods, morning tardy/absent bs other times of day, %with overall grades of C or less.[/quote]

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