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.
“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.”
“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.”
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Comments:
james phelan
8:33am on Thursday, February 02, 2012
If a teachers assigns a failing grade to all chronically absent students his or her administrators will certainly confront them and ask why. Pressure will be placed on the teacher, not the student. The unwritten rule is to pass as many students as possible and only fail the extremely truant students.(60 days a year absent). Until everyone is aboard on this issue, teachers will be afraid to fail too many students.
tom brady
8:38am on Thursday, February 02, 2012
I blame this solely on the parents. I have four kids and I make sure all go to school. I make sure homework is complete. Sometimes my kids lie and say it is finished, then when reports come out and work is not complete I ask them how can that be when you told me all was finished?? That's when I take away their most prized possessions such as xbox, phone... It's called parenting folks. I would never blame this on the schools or teachers. Hinge all the social services these people get on school attendance, i'll bet you'll see improvement in attendance or in the cities budget.
donatello gori
8:41am on Thursday, February 02, 2012
It's time to tie welfare benefits to student attendance, student achievement, and parental involvement. Then, you will see more students in school and engaged.
Joe Maguire
9:06am on Thursday, February 02, 2012
Please check with the Home Visitors, employed by Providence Schools. Formerly known as "truant officers", they visit many homes each day to address the chronically absent and facilitate their return to school. Their information and documentation of their interviews/outreach will shed some light on this ridiculous situation.
Wuggly Ump
10:21am on Thursday, February 02, 2012
At least we're not blaming the teachers on this one. How can teachers teach students that don't show up?
Superintendent Lusi, you know exactly what the problem is, it's the parents, you just have to be PC. Given the option during my school years I would have gone fishing, or biking anything but go to class. My parents made sure it would not be worth it to cut class.
Aaron Regunberg
10:43am on Thursday, February 02, 2012
Alright, let's get one thing straight. The problem is we're not making school seem like a relevant, worthwhile, engaging place for students. I guarantee you, if we had a relevant curriculum that students had helped put together; if we had electives, arts and music and tech classes that students could take every semester; if we had classrooms that students felt at home in, then they would come to school.
Gary Arnold
11:27am on Thursday, February 02, 2012
I agree with Aaron, a positive school system is an attraction for kids that have no positive home.
We have a parent portal in our district that allows parents to monitor the daily activity of their kids, home work, attendance, performance and any teacher comments, no better way to close the information gap. Use by parents is low at this point but we expect it to pick up. However, it does show parent activity with kids may be a lot lower. Big part of the problem.
Cristiana Quinn
12:05pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
You can blame the teachers and the unions for a lot of things, but this isn't one of them. The problem has very little to do with the curriculum as stated above, and that would probably not change the stats. The issue for younger kids is transportation and parents caring that younger kids are there--period. Some will take kids out of school for a month at Christmas to return to their native countries without considering the damage it does to learning. Others just don't put a priority on getting kids to school and have issues themselves.
With older kids, it gets to be a sense that school won't do anything for them---and that the neighborhood gangs or hanging out with friends who are not in school is a better way to spend their time. A few even stay home to help out with younger siblings so mom can work. Sad, but true.
Ed Jucation
12:57pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
Why is this a "huge wake up call" Ms. Romans? All you have to do is visit a school and ask to see a current absence list. You would clearly see many students with 30, 40 even 50 days absent. The problem is you didn't WANT to know. Now that the media has highlighted this problem you are "startled". When was the last time you visited a school? You are the senior advisor on education to the mayor who has been in office for over a year and the figures "startle" you? What have you been doing Ms. Romans?
Ed Jucation
1:02pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
One final comment. Superintendent Lusi said she doesn't know why students are absent so much. I'll tell her why. Because they can! Due to the social promotion policy of the Providence School Department, students know that no matter what they do, they will be promoted to the next grade. There are no penalties for truancy. Truancy Court is a joke and doesn't work. The students know this. That's why many don't come to school.
kathleen crain
1:26pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
Thanks to GoLocalProv for a great article! Mr. Arnold, the parent portal is not set up across the District. I'm a parent at Vartan Gregorian and we have no access to it, so I blame the District for not following up on making it accessible. I don't blame the parents for not using it. It would be great, though, if I could check what my children were doing in the classroom, and check in on their homework assignments, but I can't. It's not available to us. As a former School Board member, I know that the District is involved in the business of self-preservation. I think Ms. Lusi will change that, but the culture of "we've always done in this way and we're the boss" runs deep in PPSD, and I think that culture prevents the District from taking a proactive stand in making quality efforts at family engagement or anything else that differs from the status quo. And I agree with Ed Jucation, I am sorely disappointed with the role that Ms. Romans has played. Instead of mobilizing parents and teachers, she has alienated them. The City doesn't hear what it doesn't want to hear. How sad for our kids!
Charles Drago
1:45pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
During the 2010 campaign, David Cicilline repeatedly told us that he was "proud" of what had become of Providence public schools on his watch.
Absenteeism is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ruination of Providence public schools at the hands of David Cicilline.
Lest we forget.
tom brady
2:24pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
What exactly does Angela Romans do?
Michael Byrnes
2:55pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
Aaron Regunberg
"Alright, let's get one thing straight. The problem is we're not making school seem like a relevant, worthwhile, engaging place for students. I guarantee you, if we had a relevant curriculum that students had helped put together; if we had electives, arts and music and tech classes that students could take every semester; if we had classrooms that students felt at home in, then they would come to school."
Gee - why didn't someone think of this before. So simple and so neat and clean. Have the students feel more at home in school - is this a realistic solution? Maybe a charter school could be the fix for these changes.
kathleen crain
3:33pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
The point of charters is to develop best practices that can be emulated and brought to scale at the District level. Are there charters in RI that have proven success? Yes. Go visit The Learning Community in Central Falls. Has the District developed a relationship with those charters? No. We need the District to develop those relationships but we also must provide the capacity to continue the relationship and implement those best practices to meet the needs of 23,000 kids. Charter Schools alone are not the answer!
pearl fanch
3:38pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
Every morning I drop my daughter off at a high school. Every morning we see about 20 kids or so, walking AWAY from the school. They get dropped off by a bus or their parents, and don't even go in the school. They are off to a friend's house or breakfast.
There's a police officer in the school, principals, teachers and video cameras.
Are you going to tell me that not one of them knows what is going on??
Nobody cares. Simple as that. Just another thing to shake your head at, in good ole RI.
pearl fanch
3:44pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
I understand it's the law, but why are we making it a law for children to be in school? If the kids don't want to be there and the parents don't care, why should the tax payer be obligated to pay for the kids to go to school? Why pay for truant officers?
Very simple, teach the kids that WANT to be there. If they fail, they can try again next year. No student left behind, my ass!!
The kids that don't want to be there are disruptive to the teachers, students and entire classroom.
We, as a society, need to start making serious changes in this world.
Russ Hryzan
5:47pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
There are some pretty obvious factors that are being overlooked. When school districts are spending a tremendous amound of their budgets on retiree benefits and educating students in multiple languages at all grade levels (and I'm not talking about foreign language classes), a large portion of the budget gets directed away from the programs that make children want to go to school. Physical education, music, band, art, drama, sports/athletic programs, technology-driven programs, student activities/organizations (especially at the high school level), those all take a back seat or get eliminated altogether when money gets tight.
We'll probably never achieve the under-5% rates that many rural/suburban schools achieve, but the children of Providence deserve a hell of a lot better than what's being provided.
Aldo Palazzo
6:22pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
"Education Commissioner Deborah Gist said parents, students, teachers, and school leaders all share the responsibility for improving attendance."
Really now! I can buy into the Parents. Possibly the Administrators! But Teachers? Give me a break.
Gist is totally CLUELESS. When will the taxpayers of RI realize that she is perpetuating wholesale fraud regrading her "reforms"...
Where is the tie in to parents....
The Mayor is crying about financial collapse.
Providence probably spends at least $12,000 per student per year... How many are illegal aliens? Time to ask the hard questions...
Oh, that's right, he can't do that as it would upset his political base...At least the legal base!!! Better to have the rest of the state bail him out!
David Beagle
6:55pm on Thursday, February 02, 2012
While they're at it do a study of absenteeism in the police and fire departments, might shed some light on overtime costs.
pearl fanch
10:00am on Sunday, February 05, 2012
I'm waiting for the article to be written about students who are living in Providence and going to public schools in neighboring towns. I'm sure this is happening all over, but it's gotten ridiculous. My kids have gone through the NP school system and graduated, we lived there. Many of their classmates were from providence or other cities. Now my step children are in the NP high school, and it's gotten much worse.
Who is supposed to be monitoring this? When did this become acceptable????