Providence Schools in Crisis: 37% of Students are ‘Chronically Absent’
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Nearly two in five Providence students – 9,074 in total – were absent for at least ten percent of the school year in 2010/11, according to data provided to GoLocalProv.
Thirty-seven percent of students (K-12) missed at least 18 days, putting them dangerously close to a citywide policy that requires students absent 20 times during the year to either demonstrate “grade level proficiency” or not be promoted.
The extreme levels of chronic absenteeism – those absent at least 18 days – exist across all grades, including 33 percent of kindergartners, 30 percent of sixth graders, 60 percent of ninth graders and 54 percent of high school seniors.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“We have already failed a lot of children and we're going to fail a lot more until we address this problem,” said Providence City Councilman Kevin Jackson. “This conversation is way overdue.”
A Huge Wake Up Call
Part of the reason the school district hasn’t addressed the problem, school officials say, is that it wasn’t tracking chronic absenteeism until recently. The data was compiled by Hedy Chang, the director of a California-based policy group called Attendance Works, which tracks absenteeism in cities across the country.
Chang said Providence isn’t the only community around the country that hasn’t tracked students who consistently miss school, but acknowledged that the city’s rate is especially high. Chang said the national rate for chronic absenteeism in the early grades was about ten percent before the recession. In Providence, the lowest percentage of chronically absent students last year came in fifth grade, when 23 percent missed nearly a month of school.
“It's certainly on the high end, but we don't have all the numbers,” Chang said. “There are other communities, particular urban areas, with similar levels.”
Angela Romans, Mayor Angel Taveras’ senior advisor on education, said the city is working on creating a plan to address the issue, but acknowledged that the numbers are too high.
“This is a huge wake up call,” Romans said. “No matter how good the quality of teaching is in our classrooms, it won’t matter if kids aren’t in their seats to learn the material.”
Nearly One in Four Drop Out
Chang said chronic absenteeism is a sign that either the school isn’t working or something in the community is happening where students can't get to school. Either way, the effects can be devastating.
A student who is chronically absent in kindergarten is not building up the skills that will allow them to learn as they grow older. Chang said research indicates that even if students begin to attend school regularly, they tend to show a lack of proficiency in several areas as they move toward middle school
“There's something that happens if you miss too much school,” she said. “You can't make it up.”
All too often, the end result of chronic absenteeism is that the student drops out of school entirely. In Providence, the 2009/10 dropout rate was 23.4 percent, with ninth grade being the year that saw the largest amount of students quitting school.
Education Commissioner Deborah Gist said parents, students, teachers, and school leaders all share the responsibility for improving attendance.
“It’s very important that students attend school regularly,” Gist said. “Students are not learning when they’re not in school, and chronic absenteeism can set students far behind their peers – sometimes leading to poor performance, retention in grade, or dropping out of school. Absenteeism can be a problem in any school district, not only in urban communities.”
Councilman: Talk is Cheap
Gist said the most effective way of improving attendance is to make sure that students feel engaged.
“The question shouldn’t be: How do we enforce attendance requirements,” she said. “The question should be: How do we make sure our schools are places where our students want to be every day?”
But Jackson said Gist and other education officials are missing the big picture. He said all the reform efforts in the world do not matter when a child is hungry or doesn’t have a bed to sleep in at night. He said the city has made little progress addressing poverty among children.
“Unfortunately this is a sign that the system is not making connections with our families,” Jackson said. “We've made progress for the young people who are coming to school, but we haven't done anything for those who aren't. We talk a good talk, but lip service is cheap. We give a lot of money to Crossroads and we give to the Institute [for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence]. Those are the results of poverty. We're acting after the fact.”
Can’t Case Manage Our Way Out
For now, school and community leaders say they’re trying to create a system that will help them take action. As part of Taveras’ Children and Youth Cabinet, a new working group focused solely on school attendance has been created. The group is expected to work with the city and the district to create a plan.
“With this many kids absent, we can't case manage our way out of it,” said Rebecca Boxx, the Director Full Service Community Schools and one of the group’s co-chairs.
"Turning around our absence rate will require all hands on deck, from city and district officials, to teachers, parents, students and community partners,” said City Year executive director Jennie Johnson, the group’s other co-chair. “What makes me optimistic is that we're already seeing that critical collaboration happen.”
37 Percent Way Too High
The problem, Providence Superintendent Sue Lusi said, is the city isn’t quite sure why the chronic absenteeism rate is so high.
“We honestly don't know,” Lusi said. “People surmise it's a combination [of factors], but we don't really know."
But Lusi said the issue must be addressed.
“37 percent is way too high, that's the bottom line. No matter how much work [our teachers do], if kids aren't there in their seats, they will not benefit.”
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