Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley introduced Tuesday he won’t title the everyday “chronically underperforming schools” this yr, shifting focus as an alternative to “attendance priority schools” to handle a persistent, persistent absenteeism disaster.
“While (underperforming) designations have served us well in the past, in reviewing the data this year, it’s clear that we need a different approach, one based on collaboration and working together as opposed to merely labeling schools,” Riley mentioned at a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education assembly Tuesday morning. “One that is focused laser focus on school attendance.”
Though the attendance has begun to get well from the pandemic peak — from 28% absenteeism statewide to 22% this yr — the faculties throughout the state are nonetheless at “unprecedented” ranges of absenteeism. From 2019 to 2023, in line with DESE knowledge, persistent absenteeism has grown 72%.
Chronic absenteeism is outlined as lacking a minimum of 10% of days in a college yr for any motive. It is related to dangers of decrease literacy, tutorial achievement and commencement — a number of pediatricians additionally testified Tuesday to the urgent well being dangers of the difficulty.
Roughly over 1,300 colleges, or three-quarters of Massachusetts colleges, will fall into the brand new “attendance priority schools” designation, Riley mentioned.
The former “underperforming” or “chronically underperforming schools” designations directed tens of millions in state funds to colleges in want of extra assets. The lack of that help and implementation of a brand new funding mechanism was some extent of concern for board members.
Riley famous the $4 million in funding will go to assist the districts higher observe persistent absenteeism, working with mother and father to handle the difficulty, “acceleration” or “recovery academies” which have usually helped college students catch up over trip occasions, and different assets.
“When you go to say, I’m going to use this money for these different things — what voices from the community will you incorporate?” requested Board Chair Katherine Craven, questioning the specifics of the plan. … “How does this information become actionable? And actionable on the department’s part, because implementation is the key for everything in life, right?”
The commissioner known as the prioritization “the most important thing we can do as an educational community if we want to improve outcomes for children” and famous the necessity to innovate options. Members mentioned the difficulty can be mentioned additional at upcoming conferences.
Riley mentioned regardless of the persistent challenge, Massachusetts has had the quickest fee of attendance restoration amongst 11 states with 2022-23 persistent absenteeism knowledge.
Absenteeism charges assorted amongst districts within the 2022-23 yr, from just a few constitution college districts with outlier attendance charges as little as 42.5% to charges as excessive 98.4%. In the most recent college yr, Boston had an 88.7% attendance fee, the 18th lowest within the state and fourth lowest amongst non-charter, in-person public college districts.
“Remember, this level of absenteeism is something we’ve never seen before,” Riley mentioned. “We’ve always had chronic absenteeism, but the numbers are staggering across the country.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”