RCSD Attendance – An Update from Jerome Underwood on the First 57 Days
December 13, 2016 - Jerome Underwood, Director of Family Initiatives, led a discussion of chronic absence and helping schools to improve student attendance with senior District leaders in Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams’ Cabinet meeting today. The District is working to reduce chronic absence, which means a student misses 10% of school or more for any reason, which research shows is a more important marker of student achievement than tracking average daily attendance.
The team reviewed chronic absence results by school and grade level, and will be analyzing data further to determine the impact of early dismissal days. The following statistics are based on the first 57 days, as of 12/2/2016:
- 51.6% of three-year-old and four-year-old Pre-K students in District classrooms are chronically absent.
- More than 8,000 students in grades K though 12 (30.2%) are chronically absent.
The District’s own data show the strong correlation between school attendance and student achievement. For example, District 9th-grade students who attend school at a 95% rate or better are four times more likely to graduate than their peers with lower attendance. The good news is that more than 4,600 students Districtwide have perfect attendance so far this year, and another 8,000 students have attendance of 95% and higher.
As a result of today’s discussion, every Central Office department has committed two representatives to make home visits with community partners on the monthly attendance blitzes. These visits support the Superintendent’s call for schools to know every student by face and name, assessing their progress every five weeks and adjusting their support as needed to help them achieve. The purpose of attendance visits by schools or community volunteers is to understand the barriers that keep chronically absent children from attending school so that the District and/or community partners can help families to address them. The next “blitz” will take place Thursday, Jan. 19.