Yvette Morgan, Ph.D. Director SJU GEAR UP/NYGEARUP April 18, 2016

1. Combating Chronic Absenteeism Yvette Morgan, Ph.D. Director SJU GEAR UP/NYGEARUP April 18, 2016

2. Purpose of the Day • Understand chronic absenteeism and its impact on student achievement • Learn how SJU NYGEAR UP implemented an effective Success Mentoring Program • Share how to use data to help students and determine the effective of project services

3. Introductory Exercise Turn to the person the person sitting next to you: • Share one thing that made it difficult for you to get to school • Share one thing that kept you going to school even when it was difficult

4. True or False? Regular attendance in Kindergarten doesn’t really matter.

5. FALSE! • Students chronically absent in K and 1st grade are less likely to read proficiently in 3rd grade. Source: Applied Survey Research & Attendance Works (April 2011)

6. True or False? A school should aim for an overall average school attendance rate of 90%.

7. FALSE! With 90% attendance for a school at the end of the year: • The “average” student has missed one full month of school • Has missed 110 hours of instructional time

8. True or False? Tracking Average Daily Attendance will show you if you have a chronic absences issue at your school.

9. FALSE! Average daily attendance masks chronic absence levels. 2 days missed/month, for 10 months= Chronic Absenteeism

10. Three Categories of Chronic Absences Students who cannot attend school >illness, family responsibilities, housing instability, work or involvement with juvenile justice Students who will not attend school >Avoiding bullying, unsafe conditions, harassment, or embarrassment Students who do not attend school >They or their parents don’t see the value in school or student has something they’d rather be doing

11. Why Are Students Chronically Absent?

12. Strategies for Building a Culture of Attendance & Identifying Barriers

13. What can NYGEAR UP do? Build a Success Mentor Corp to mentor chronically absent students and invite school staff to participate

14. What is a Success Mentor? Success mentors are caring adults (or peers) who work with chronically absent students to address the barriers keeping them from coming to school each day.

15. What do Success Mentors do? • Matched with students who have history of CA or are showing signs of becoming CA (early warning) • Morning Meet and Greet • Phone call home every time student is absent and share a positive message • Meet one-on-one and/or in small groups • Track students’ attendance and improvements • Recognize and celebrate event small successes • Work as a team to identify appropriate supports and interventions • Reach out to and engage students’ families

16. The SJU NYGEAR UP CA Project In an effort to meet Annual Yearly Performance for attendance, SJU in partnership with the Albert Shanker School of Visual and Performing Arts designed and implemented services for chronically absent 8th grade scholars. In November 2015, the Shanker STARS (Students Taking Action and Responsibility for Success) project began proving targeted services to 50 chronically absent scholars.

17. Targeted Services for CA scholars • Push-In (Math, Sci, SS, Eng) • Chat and Chew Daily Check Ins • Lunch and Learn Tutoring (4th and 6th period) • Brother Box/Sister Circle Mentoring • Maximizing Adolescent Academic eXcellence (The MAAX)

18. Customized Scope and Sequence

19. NY GEAR UP Shanker STARS student questionnaire taken revealed (n=42): Descriptive Statistics *Percentages reveal students who strongly agreed or agreed with the statements.

20. Student Comments When asked which services students’ felt had the greatest positive influence on them, student responses included: “ I appreciate getting tutoring during the lunch and learn periods because I have to babysit my little brother and can’t stay after school”- Gregory W. “The college tours and test preparation was most helpful to me.”- Ivan U. “ I’m very happy GEAR UP offers tutoring. I wouldn’t know what I would do if it weren’t for Lunch and Learn, after school tutoring, and test preparation.”- Abigail M. “ I like how they care about our future.”- Alysha O.

21. Key Findings from John’s Hopkins Study Success Mentors & Weekly Meetings Substantially Improve Student Attendance • Students with prior histories of chronic absenteeism with a Success Mentor gained nearly two additional weeks of school (9 days) which is educationally significant. • In the top 25% of schools. Students with Success Mentors gained one additional month of school • High school students with Success Mentors (including those overage for their grade) were 52% more likely to remain in school the following year. • Mentees reported they liked having a mentor and the mentor helped improve their attendance, schoolwork, motivation, and confidence.

22. Takeaways • 90% is not good enough. Chronic Absence is equal to TWO days missed per month. • Build a staff success mentor corps for chronically absent or at eh very least mentor students in transition grades (K, 6, 9) • During weekly meetings, use the school’s chronic absenteeism rate as a data point to better understand student’s academic outcomes, and track progress. • Principal leadership is key to the work’s success

23. Resources • NYC Mayor’s Task Force Site http://www.nyc.gov/html/truancy/html/home/home.shtml • Attendance Works http://www.attendanceworks.org • Strengthening Schools by Strengthening Families http://www.newschool.edu/milano/nycaffairs/publications_schools_strenthening_schools.aspx • National Mentoring Partnership http://www.mentoring.org