Strategic Use of Data and Opportunities for Growth in Attendance Presentation for Wednesday’s board meeting
Improving student attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism is an urgent issue for many school districts in California, including WCCUSD. Although chronic absenteeism has gone down (improved) in the past few years, it remains well above pre-pandemic levels. Strong attendance is vital for improving student outcomes– chronic absenteeism can significantly impact learning to read in the younger years and passing required classes for graduation in later years. Attendance also has a significant impact on the district’s finances– for every day a student is absent, for any reason, the amount of funding the district receives from the state is decreased.
With this in mind, we are happy to see that the district is fulfilling the commitment they made previously to provide regular updates on attendance data and strategy throughout the year. The presentation scheduled for Wednesday’s board meeting has helpful data, thoughtful reflections, and describes how and why the district has made some shifts in their attendance campaign strategy.
The presentation includes data showing a significant decrease in chronic absenteeism, but this has not been accompanied by an increase in the overall attendance rate. So, they have shifted strategy beyond focusing on students with chronic absenteeism to focus on improving universale/school-wide efforts to increase attendance for all students.
Key elements of the district’s plan include:
- Target support for the schools with the lowest daily attendance
- The launch of a district-wide attendance toolkit
- Requiring all schools to implement activities to positively reinforce attendance
- Increased family engagement efforts
- Coaching and check-ins to schools/leaders to monitor implementation
In evaluating the presentation using our Strategic Use of Data Rubric, we were able to see some key strengths in this presentation as well as some areas in need of improvement. Six categories received a “basic” rating, three categories received an “emerging” rating, five categories received a “strong” rating, and zero categories received an “exemplary” rating for an overall score of 13 points, which is in the “Emerging” category.
Areas that could be improved in the strategic use of data include:
- Naming clear, measurable goals for improving attendance or reducing chronic absenteeism (e.g., target numbers). The presentation was generally framed around wanting improvement in these areas, but when specific targets are set, the community and leaders can better understand if we are on the right track and evaluate the impact of shifts in strategy.
- Defining and setting measurable goals for what “strengthened partnerships with families and community” will look like, how progress in this will be measured, and how we will see if this is having an impact on attendance.
- Having clear criteria for what schools are designated as “struggling with attendance” and in need of more structured support. (These elements might be in the internal plan, but were not visible in the presentation).
- Including a budget discussion. Given the district’s current budget crisis, every presentation should include the costs to administer a strategy as well as the budget implications if it is successful or not.
Overall, we are encouraged to see the ways in which the district’s strategy was shaped by focusing on data trends, and plans for continued monitoring and improvement. An important next step will be to increase clarity on what specific targets they are aiming for, so we can have a shared understanding of progress and urgency.