When parents and youth understand the link between good attendance and their hopes and dreams for the future, they are motivated to do whatever they can to get to school every day. When they hear that message from friends, mentors, teachers, counselors, pastors, coaches, doctors, business owners, mayors — in short, the entire community speaking […]
While Attendance Awareness Month is focused on student absenteeism, a new study released Tuesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) reveals poor teacher attendance can also be a significant challenge. It sheds light on how often teachers are missing school and why. Although this study was not able to examine whether poor teacher […]
Who is helping send the message that going to school every day matters? Beyond educators and administrators, are pediatricians involved? Your Mayor? National Service members? Local community schools initiatives? Our We Need You! webinar on Wednesday featured a lively discussion about how allies from all sectors of the community can come together to make sure […]
In 2007, Chicago schools started an aggressive push to put ninth graders “on track” for graduation. That meant tackling the early warning indicators linked to dropout rate, such as course failure and poor attendance. New research released today show that concentrated efforts with ninth graders at 20 public high schools led to higher graduation rates […]
Have you considered enlisting additional allies in your community’s efforts to improve attendance? While most efforts begin naturally and logically with parents and school leaders, there are a number of other powerful allies who can play key roles starting with giving a big boost to Attendance Awareness Month this Fall. Join our panelists on May 28 at […]
Attendance Awareness Month doesn’t arrive until September, but we’re launching preparations today with the release of a revised Count Us In! toolkit and a new website exclusively for materials and information. Last year, we had more than 1,500 people sign up for our regular updates and more than 250 schools and communities post activities on our […]
Students form habits – including good school attendance – at an early age. So it was particularly disconcerting for the central Connecticut town of Vernon to discover that 16 percent of its kindergartners were chronically absent. “The real killer was kindergarten attendance,” says Dr. Mary Conway, superintendent of the Vernon Public Schools, which began monitoring […]
Launching the 2014 Attendance Awareness Campaign Can we mark you “present”? America’s Promise Alliance, Attendance Works, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Points of Light and United Way Worldwide invite you to join us as we launch the second year of the Attendance Awareness Campaign, which designates September as Attendance Awareness Month. Join us on April […]
More elementary-school students are consistently showing up for classes in New Britain, Connecticut, thanks to the public school district’s concerted effort to identify students who are chronically absent – or soon to be. “You’ve got to nip it in the bud,” says Joseph Vaverchak, the longtime public schools attendance director in New Britain, one of […]