Use Attendance to Nurture a Strong School Community Inspiring Examples
Acelero Learning provides early childhood education and family engagement through Head Start programs. The agency currently serves more than 5,000 children and families in Head Start centers in four states. At one site, Acelero Learning tested out leveraging the power of social capital to improve attendance. Children were assigned to three different types of classrooms including abiding by business as usual practices; grouped by neighborhood of residence; or grouped by neighborhood of residence and encouraged to form parent partnerships. In this case, families were encouraged to pair with each other to support their children’s attendance, using, for example, wake up calls. An evaluation, Promoting Parents’ Social Capital to Increase Children’s Attendance in Head Start, found that parents with partners had better attendance during the winter when attendance tended to be the lowest. Parents with partners also reported increased numbers of people in their social network.
Chauncey McGhee, the Family Service Coordinator at Morgan State University Head Start (now part of the Baltimore City Y of Central Maryland Head Start), invited committed volunteers to play Punctual Pete. Volunteers put on the costume and greeted parents and children as they arrived at the program. As the weeks moved forward, volunteers of the program begat volunteers and soon more parents were taking turns “playing Pete” by greeting children and families as they arrived, talking about attendance at parent workshops, reading to the children in classrooms at circle time, and stopping in to salute classrooms as they improved their on-time attendance. During the winter months when attendance was flagging, adults played Pete at the end of the day, reminding everyone how much Pete looked forward to seeing each child the following day. According to Mr. McGhee, parents also enjoyed encouraging the children and the process encouraged other parents to participate at school, to get their children to Head Start on time and to recognize and enjoy their ability to influence results. Morgan's Head Start Program is located in Baltimore, Maryland.
A Walking Preschool Bus in Chicago has improved attendance among preschoolers in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) and its parent leader member organization, Parents Organized to Win, Educate and Renew – Policy Action Council Illinois (POWER-PAC IL) believe in a parent-led approach to solving community issues. Several parent-led approaches have improved attendance rates at neighborhood schools, including peer outreach and the successful Walking Preschool Bus model. Through collaboration and support from CPS, the Walking Preschool Bus model hired parent leaders as "conductors" to walk preschool children to and from school daily. The project was based in 10 neighborhood schools and engaged two dozen parent leaders who walked over 100 students to school, come rain, snow or shine. A survey showed that 75 percent of adults said that the Walking Preschool Bus improved their preschooler’s attendance and CPS reported that among the children walked, the attendance rate had gone up to 89.1 percent, over 4 percent higher than the program goal. Adult leaders reported that the project improved communication between the school and the family and developed a community and support system for the families that lasted beyond the daily walks to and from school.
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