Providence—One Third of Teachers ‘Chronically Absent’

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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Editor

More than one third of Providence public school teachers are chronically absent, costing the city millions of dollars and significantly lowering test scores, according to data obtained by GoLocalProv.

A full 37 percent of teachers missed 19 or more days of school in the last school year, according to school district data obtained by GoLocalProv. Specifically, 11.5 percent of all teachers were out for 37 or more days—equivalent to more than seven weeks—a rate classified as “excessively” absent. (See below chart.)

“If one out of every five teachers is missing more than 15 days of school, I think that’s a problem,” said Kathleen Crain, the school board chair. “If 10 percent of them are missing more than six weeks a year, that’s a problem.”

Elementary schools: more teachers absent than students

In the elementary schools, the number of teachers absent on any given day exceeded the number of student absences, the data shows. For example, at the Fogarty Elementary School, an average of 14 teachers was absent each day, as compared with seven students. At the Messer Annex School, 16 teachers were out any given day, while nine students were absent. In the middle schools the numbers are nearly even. Only in the high schools do student absences exceed teacher absences.

“It’s eye-opening,” said city Councilman David Salvatore. “We have to get to the root cause of the problem, if there is a problem.”

Crain warns that the chronic absences are directly affecting student performance. “If we’ve got a teacher who’s missing 30 days, that’s very disruptive to a child’s education,” Crain said.

Impact on test scores

Already the impact is showing up on some test results. For example, students in grades 6, 7, and 11 with teachers who were out only two days or less before October 1 did “significantly better” on the math portion of the NECAP test.

“I am deeply concerned about the high rate of teacher absenteeism in the Providence Schools. Teachers are the single most important factor in a child’s education and we can’t expect our children or schools to succeed if teachers are not in the classroom,” said Maryellen Butke, an education reform advocate and executive director of RI-CAN. “I hope that the Mayor and school committee change the policies that allow this pervasive absenteeism to continue.”

Disproportionate impact on Hispanics and blacks

The data also shows that teacher absences disproportionately affect minority students and those who are poorer:

■ Minorities: 59.6 percent of Hispanics and 22.6 percent of black students had teachers with many absences—defined as 30 or more days missed. Just 11 percent of whites had chronically absent teachers.
■ Poorer students: 77.9 percent of those in the free lunch program had a chronically absent teacher.

“What our kids need the most is consistency and when you have various faces or different subs placed in front of them then that breaks down that consistency,” said city Councilman Kevin Jackson.

When a teacher is out, the substitute teacher called into the classroom may not be highly qualified or even have a certificate in the area in which they are substituting. Beyond that, chronically absent teachers undermine the opportunity to build relationships between students and teachers and interrupts the continuity of instruction. At the elementary level, schools sometimes cover for an absent teacher by putting an older student in a different grade-level classroom.

Chronic absenteeism also costs the district in financial terms. Earlier this year, GoLocalProv reported that the city spent $13 million on substitute teacher compensation in the same year. Part of the problem is that the district pays its substitutes more than the state average, said Councilman Sam Zurier. But he said teacher absences are also creating a need for more substitutes.

Sick days seen as key to the problem

The school district says sick days overwhelmingly account for the bulk of the absences. On any given day, the number of teachers absent for sickness ranged between 150 and 250, while those taking professional days and personal days hovered around 50 teachers or less.

“This raises questions as to whether it’s strictly medical, but I can’t speculate as to what the answers to those questions are,” said Councilman Sam Zurier, who is also a former school board member. He said the district has to look for patterns in the number of sick days being taken. For example, there were more than one hundred daily absences last June than there were in September.

Currently, the Providence teacher contract allows up to 20 sick days a year and teachers can accumulate up to 150 sick days. On top of that, teachers can “buy into” an Emergency Sick Leave Bank to receive more than 20 sick days a year. Crain said the number of sick days permitted has increased over the years as an alternative to raises. “Giving sick days has sort of become a panacea for negotiating contracts when we don’t have money,” Crain said.

As a result, Crain said some teachers have come to see their 20 sick days as an entitlement that they must use, rather than time for actual sickness.

Union president: school environment leads to more illnesses

Steve Smith, president of the Providence Teachers Union, said he opposes any abuse of the system, but he said mold, heating issues, and lack of cleanliness in some schools do lead to what may seem like unusually high rates of illness among teachers, as well as students. He said many teachers also catch illness from students.

But Smith said the district also had not done a thorough enough analysis of the data—nor has it reached out to the union to help solve the problem. “Until they sit down with us and go over the hard numbers it’s hard to make a determination,” Smith said.

He also questioned why—if administrators believe there is abuse—they have not met with suspect teachers and reprimanded them. “If there is an abuse of sick time, I would expect management to pursue that,” Smith said. “They have not.”

Possible overhaul to sick days?

The district has made several recommendations to the school board on how to fix the problem:

■ Set a policy stating what the board views as an acceptable number of sick days each year.
■ Allow teachers to cash in unused sick days when they retire, lowering the incentive for them to use them all up.
■ Require earlier notice for teachers calling out sick.

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