Twice a year I take time to visit one on one with all our new teaching faculty. As you can probably imagine, the routine is pretty predictable. What is the best thing that has happened to you this year? What has been most frustrating? What can I do to help you? Among other things, I am very interested to hear about how their transition to Hudson Schools is going. These conversations are very insightful and have led to substantive changes to our mentoring and induction program over the last several years. Other times, I learn something that is quite surprising and incredibly enlightening. As it turns out, I am right in the middle of those visits as our school district sits idle for spring break this week, which has made my commentary here so timely.
You see, I was visiting with one of our new teachers who was tidying up for the break and asked what was one of the most surprising or frustrating things encountered this year. The response was very interesting: student attendance. I learned that, while we were on the eve of spring break several students had been absent the entire week prior for other vacations. Now, I do get it. Sometimes families have to take vacation at certain times during the year and that they don't always align to school breaks and vacations. But other times they do, or at least they can. We wondered, does flexibility exist that isn't take full advantage of? The point this teacher was making is that students can't learn when they are not in school. Of course not! This is common sense, right? But nevertheless, it is something that happens more than you might think.
It makes me wonder if we are doing enough as a school district to emphasize the importance of daily attendance. This, in spite of the fact we run what equates to an 'extra bus route' almost daily all over the district where youngsters have overslept and missed the bus. Or their parents have left for work early in the morning and the student decides they don't want to come to school that day. That would never happen would it? 😏 I guess what surprised me most about this teachers' comment was that I had assumed our strategy of running out and collecting our stragglers was enough. Quite the contrary!
To see what our attendance actually looks like, I took a look at the Iowa Report Card. I'll remind you that our Iowa Report Card Rankings are very high. The high school continues to be ranked as one of the highest performing high schools in the state, whereas the elementary school is ranked 'Commendable' the second year in a row, with our overall score increasing three years running. But, digging into the rankings, I do notice attendance is an area where we can do better. While both scores are well above 90%, I recognize this is certainly something that should be celebrated. In the elementary school, attendance is 96.5% compared to 95.5% at the state. In the high school, attendance is 93.5% compared once again to 95.5%.
At first blush, this is perhaps not something to get too worked up about. I mean after all it has been a pretty rough flu season. However, the trouble occurs in instances where the 5-7% absenteeism rate represents those who are chronically absent from school. Students cannot progress academically if they are chronically absent from school.
We are very appreciative of parents who call and ask us for help and advice from time to time in dealing with chronic absenteeism in their own home. If there is anything we can do as a district to help you, please don't hesitate to reach out to us! We want all our children to thrive at Hudson! It starts with good attendance!
To see what our attendance actually looks like, I took a look at the Iowa Report Card. I'll remind you that our Iowa Report Card Rankings are very high. The high school continues to be ranked as one of the highest performing high schools in the state, whereas the elementary school is ranked 'Commendable' the second year in a row, with our overall score increasing three years running. But, digging into the rankings, I do notice attendance is an area where we can do better. While both scores are well above 90%, I recognize this is certainly something that should be celebrated. In the elementary school, attendance is 96.5% compared to 95.5% at the state. In the high school, attendance is 93.5% compared once again to 95.5%.
At first blush, this is perhaps not something to get too worked up about. I mean after all it has been a pretty rough flu season. However, the trouble occurs in instances where the 5-7% absenteeism rate represents those who are chronically absent from school. Students cannot progress academically if they are chronically absent from school.
We are very appreciative of parents who call and ask us for help and advice from time to time in dealing with chronic absenteeism in their own home. If there is anything we can do as a district to help you, please don't hesitate to reach out to us! We want all our children to thrive at Hudson! It starts with good attendance!
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