Archive for the ‘Elementary’ Category

December 4th, 2012

December 13 Webinar: Improving Health to Increase School Attendance

Attendance Works, in collaboration with the Healthy Readers Team of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading will host a webinar, Present and Engaged in the Early Grades: Improving Health to Increase School Attendance to discuss strategies for reducing absenteeism due to preventable health issues.

Jessica Tovar, Project Manager for the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma, will describe how LBACA works with schools and community partners to reduce school absenteeism and hospitalizations due to asthma. In addition, Nurse practitioner Jill Kerr will describe her research demonstrating that outreach by nurses to parents of chronically absent students in the early grades can significantly improve school attendance.

Join us to hear about these valuable strategies, approaches, partnerships, and resources for improving health and learning.

The webinar will be held on December 13, 2012 from 1-2 p.m. EST.

To register for the webinar, click here.

 

Posted in Elementary, Health | No Comments »

October 19th, 2012

Webinars Feature Strategies for Districts, Afterschool

On Tuesday, Attendance Works partnered with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to deliver a peer learning webinar, All Together Now! Developing Systemic Responses to Chronic Absence.

In many districts and communities, the work on chronic absence is often initiated by one or two individuals who realize there is a serious problem.  Sometimes, the leadership comes from the very top. For example, many superintendents in response to Attendance Works’ Call to Action have decided to own the issue, mobilize their communities and drive with data. Other times, the spark is provided by internal or external change agents such as the leader of a local Grade Level Reading Campaign.

The webinar put a spotlight on three different educational leaders and how they have used actionable data, positive messaging, capacity building and shared accountability to ensure systemic approaches to reducing

On Thursday, Oct. 25. the Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project hosted a webinar called Attendance Matters: How Expanded Learning Opportunities Keep Kids in School.

We shared what we know about how good afterschool programs can actually improve school day attendance by engaging community partners, families and students themselves. The afterschool and expanded learning programs in Pennsylvania, Utah and Maryland talked about how they are joining forces with school districts to institute programs that help prevent chronic absences. This webinar is part of a series developed by the Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project designed to focus on what is working and deliver research and best practices to educators and afterschool leaders who are committed to expanded learning for all young people.

 

 

 

Posted in Afterschool, Announcements, Elementary | No Comments »

September 29th, 2012

Prek, K Attendance Improves with Baltimore Contest

Recognizing that chronic absence starts early, Baltimore’s mayor and school district began the school year with a month-long attendance contest aimed squarely at pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. Under the rules, the school that showed the most improvement over the previous year took home a $1,000 grant and won a day for its students at a children’s museum.

The winner, announced Friday, was Westside Elementary School where preK and K attendance shot up from 89 percent last year to 95 percent this fall.

‘Attendance is an ongoing focus for our school so winning the first Mayor’s Attendance Campaign competition is tremendous – because it recognizes the hard work of our students, teachers and families,” Westside Elementary principal Brian Pluim said.

And how is Westside going to spend its $1,000 grant from Comcast?

Extra school uniforms.

“We don’t want uniforms to be the reason students miss school, and we want to give parents the support they need to get their children to school, every day – no matter what,” Pluim said.

The attendance competition, the first of several planned this year in Baltimore, is just one piece of the city’s efforts to reduce absences at all grade levels. A contest starting in October will reward the school with the most improved attendance among elementary school students.

“The first competition focused on pre-k and kindergarten students because that’s when children and families start forming school attendance habits,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “We want our students to know that attendance is important and that showing up every day is essential for academic success and bright futures.”

One in four Baltimore kindergarten students misses a month of school, and research in the city shows that these absences can set a pattern leading to academic struggles in the later grades. During the summer, canvassers conducted a door-to-door campaign in targeted neighborhoods to ensure that 5-year-olds would be present on the first day of kindergarten.

Baltimore City Public Schools’ Every Day Counts campaign provides consistent messaging about the importance of attendance, including quotes from students of all ages explaining why they show up for school every day.

“Making sure every student is in school every day is absolutely essential, and it is something we all have a role in helping make happen,” said Andres Alonso, Baltimore school chief and one of the superintendents who has joined our Superintendents Call to Action, which we’re doing jointly with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.

The next Mayor’s Attendance Campaign competition will award the elementary school with the greatest increase in attendance with a holiday party including Baltimore Raven football players and presents for students and families, along with a $1,000 grant for the school.

The attendance campaign is a partnership between the mayor’s office, Baltimore City Public Schools, the Mayor’s Youth Cabinet, and the Family League of Baltimore City, along with Healthy City Days, Monte Sanders’ Fit Families, Under Amour, and Comcast.

Posted in Elementary | No Comments »

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