Largest education hurdle to clear is attendance

In 2001, the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), increased accountability to improve the learning of all students. Schools are now data-driven watchdogs on student learning. Schools test students so often I wonder if someone out there really believes if we just weigh the cow more often it will gain weight. Who knows? They may be right — it happens to me.

Now, NCLB meets RTI. If NCLB changed how states and districts do business (and it has), RTI changes how schools operate.

RTI, or Response for Intervention/Instruction, uses universal screeners to respond quickly to students needing extra time and support. A universal screener is an assessment given to all students. For example, AIMS web is a reading fluency test used at the elementary school; MAP tests are used in both elementary and middle school; and all schools use the state SBA test.

This data collected on kids helps schools catch academic weaknesses early, intervene with good teaching and keep close watch to measure any and all growth. Not a bad idea actually, and a natural evolution from NCLB. First, determine that all kids will learn, and then consider what they will learn. Finally, fill in the gaps for what they haven’t learned.

At WMS, teachers and administrators meet twice a month to check the progress of kids at risk of failure. We discuss strategies, accommodations, intervention classes and, of course, test scores. Between teachers, tests and think-tanks, our students can’t be left behind. There is simply no place to hide.

Still, in all our wisdom, we fail to recognize the one universal screener whose data doesn’t rely on a test: attendance.

I bet my prep time that with 80 percent accuracy I can spot a student needing intervention just by counting absences, without ever looking at the myriad of data. Make it 90 percent accurate for spotting a potential high school dropout, especially if chronic absences occurred in elementary school. But don’t trust me. I’m not proud. There are studies out there on the subject.

The National Center for Education Statistics through the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Educational Sciences reports, “Students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels than students who do not have regular attendance.”

The disparity of academic success correlates to attendance. For every five days absent data trends a decrease in the number of students earning a 3.0 grade-point average drop by more than 10 percent. For example, 60 percent of a student body missing zero to five days of school may have a 3.0 GPA, but only 50 percent who miss six to 10 days earn a 3.0, and a mere 38 percent earn a 3.0 after missing 11 to 15 days.

Sixty-six percent of the students on my team needing interventions have chronic attendance issues. These students aren’t terminally ill; they just don’t attend school five days in a row. Perhaps they take extended vacations during school. Maybe they need to go to Anchorage with their families. Sometimes they are home alone and oversleep — every Friday.

Attendance policies for middle schools are such that if a student misses school I count him absent and when he comes to school, I count him present. The rub isn’t the difference between excused and unexcused absences. The rub isn’t even the complexity of make-up work. The rub is, for whatever reason and whoever’s fault, when students miss school they miss the instruction. They miss the information. They miss the learning.

Unfortunately, there are no scaffolded interventions for missing school. Eventually, when absent students fail enough, they simply drop out. And, the only one held responsible at that point is me and NCLB.

Please don’t misunderstand; I applaud the efforts of NCLB and RTI. Keeping schools and teachers accountable for student learning is a good thing. But, until states and districts walk the talk and expect all students to come to class, schools will never succeed. Until parents encourage and support their children to get to class, we — as my dear grandfather would say — are just pissing in the wind. And no law, no additional test, no supplemental intervention class, not even an after school meeting of the minds, can change that.

Emily Forstner is a seventh-grade teacher at Wasilla Middle School.