Attendance Works

January 4th, 2012

Oakland Takes on Chronic Absence Using Community Schools Model

Oakland’s poverty statistics alone tell the story: Nearly three in 10 children now live in poverty, a rate that has climbed 50 percent in the past three years. For the school district that means more children uprooted from their homes, coming to school hungry or missing school altogether because of strained economic conditions.

Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Tony Smith is dealing with the city’s poverty by taking a district-wide Community Schools approach, ensuring that each school not only provides a good education, but also provides wrap-around community supports to address health and family issues. Central to his effort is tracking chronic absence–both as a measure of school and community conditions and as metric for how much improvement is occurring.

Oakland’s focus on chronic absence is informed by a deep dive into the data over the past year. With support from Attendance Works, the Urban Strategies Council, and the San Francisco Foundation, Oakland examined chronic absence rates by racial and ethnic groups, gender, grade level, and school campus. And because the school district has an open enrollment policy, with many students attending school outside their neighborhoods, the analysis looked at absenteeism by census tract and mapped the results.

Overall, the data showed that nearly one in seven Oakland students missed 10 percent in the most recent year studied (2009-10). The analysis also revealed that elementary school absenteeism is especially high in kindergarten and in particular neighborhoods already challenged by environmental health hazards, violence, and poverty.

Higher chronic absence rates among African American students, starting in elementary school, suggested that improving school attendance as early as kindergarten could help reduce racial inequities in academic achievement. Bringing in other data, the analysis found poor attendance often correlated with home foreclosures, poverty and single parenthood.

The district responded with a more intensive effort to monitor attendance and address chronic absence. With support from Attendance Works, the district has also identified several schools that are effectively tapping community resources and supporting students to beat the odds

• Brookfield Elementary School has cut is chronic absence rate significantly in recent years with an early start in building good habits, effective incentives and constant attention to the barriers that keep students from coming to school.

• Franklin Elementary School has consistently maintained a high attendance rates with a school culture that nurtures children, quickly addresses problems that lead to absenteeism, and a veteran staff that understands the needs of the diverse community.

• Oakland High School has cuts its chronic absence rate in half by using data smartly, creating systems to support students, coordinating interventions with staff and community partners, and focusing on relationships.

 

Posted in Research | No Comments »