Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this has been discussed before, but I got the text today that my kid has had an X number of absences. I should make sure they come to school, it continues to absenteeism, yadda yadda. My kid is a straight A student in honors and AP classes. They were sick. We are in the middle of flu season. Why don't they focus on what really matters.

It sure as hell makes me miss the country I emigrated from as a teenager where they did not give a damn how many days you missed but if you didn't pass your exams at the end of each quarter/year they sure as hell didn't move you to the next grade.

You got an automated text and you ran to DCUM to complain?

Huh.

NP. Yes, that’s what DCUM is for.

Anonymous wrote:I know this has been discussed before, but I got the text today that my kid has had an X number of absences. I should make sure they come to school, it continues to absenteeism, yadda yadda. My kid is a straight A student in honors and AP classes. They were sick. We are in the middle of flu season. Why don't they focus on what really matters.

It sure as hell makes me miss the country I emigrated from as a teenager where they did not give a damn how many days you missed but if you didn't pass your exams at the end of each quarter/year they sure as hell didn't move you to the next grade.

You got an automated text and you ran to DCUM to complain?

Huh.

Anonymous wrote:I do not have a single kid failing with <10 absences. I have multiple per class failing with >10 absences. I have 6 kids this year with >30 absences. All failing.

You cannot fail if you come to school. They've basically forced us to structure the gradebook to make sure of it. Attendance is the easiest way to insure kids graduate on time.

The emails/letters/texts you receive aren't personal. They are form letters. If your kid is passing and has excused medical absences, they aren't going to follow up or do anything. They are busy enough chasing down the ones who have over 50% absence rates and are failing multiple classes.

In the "old days", over 3 unexcused absences was an automatic fail for the quarter. Now the school employees are just tasked with begging kids to come to school because it looks bad for them to fail.

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My first year teaching was 2001–2002, back when we used IG Grade Pro and ClassXP for grading and attendance. I’m old enough to remember when three UNTs equaled one UNX. If a student was unexcused on a test day, they received a zero and there were no retakes. Late work generally wasn’t accepted. Those were the expectations.

And yet, our SOL pass rates were still high. Some students passed the SOL but failed the class because they didn’t do the work or didn’t show up—and that was accepted. Accountability was on the student.

Now passing is a 60% (it used to be 64%), retakes and makeup work are required, and when a student is failing, the blame often shifts to the teacher instead of the student. At the same time, attendance is worse than ever.

This quarter I currently have about six Fs, and most of those will disappear once missing work is turned in and retakes are graded. But the reality hasn’t changed: when students miss school and they’re not sick, they miss instruction. You can’t replace that with packets, retakes, or gradebook adjustments.

Lowering standards didn’t fix attendance or engagement—it just changed who gets blamed.

Anonymous wrote:Absences are a huge issue. Many kids who miss multiple days are missing for reasons other than being sick. Kids who miss a lot of school tend to struggle academically.

I am sure that they have an automated system that sends out an email to anyone who has missed X number of days. They don't cross check for grades and what classes kids are in.

+1 Just hit delete on the email since it doesn't apply to you.

attendance is also now tied to a school's accreditation. So schools are getting pressure from central office and the State DoE to do everything they can to get butts in seats

I do not have a single kid failing with <10 absences. I have multiple per class failing with >10 absences. I have 6 kids this year with >30 absences. All failing.

You cannot fail if you come to school. They've basically forced us to structure the gradebook to make sure of it. Attendance is the easiest way to insure kids graduate on time.

The emails/letters/texts you receive aren't personal. They are form letters. If your kid is passing and has excused medical absences, they aren't going to follow up or do anything. They are busy enough chasing down the ones who have over 50% absence rates and are failing multiple classes.

In the "old days", over 3 unexcused absences was an automatic fail for the quarter. Now the school employees are just tasked with begging kids to come to school because it looks bad for them to fail.

Absences are a huge issue. Many kids who miss multiple days are missing for reasons other than being sick. Kids who miss a lot of school tend to struggle academically.

I am sure that they have an automated system that sends out an email to anyone who has missed X number of days. They don't cross check for grades and what classes kids are in.

I know this has been discussed before, but I got the text today that my kid has had an X number of absences. I should make sure they come to school, it continues to absenteeism, yadda yadda. My kid is a straight A student in honors and AP classes. They were sick. We are in the middle of flu season. Why don't they focus on what really matters.

It sure as hell makes me miss the country I emigrated from as a teenager where they did not give a damn how many days you missed but if you didn't pass your exams at the end of each quarter/year they sure as hell didn't move you to the next grade.