School attendance can be


an early indicator of when something is going wrong with a student. Gathering, analyzing and acting on


attendance information is a first step toward school improvement.


D 26 Leadership


espite millions of dollars spent each year monitoring and measuring public schools in California, a most fundamen-


tal performance question remains unan- swered – how often do students show up to class? Attendance is taken every day, in virtu-


ally every school and classroom. District business managers and superintendents statewide pay close attention to those re- ports. And indeed, the state pays out billions of dollars in education funding based on an average daily rate with which students at- tend school. But California maintains no centralized


depository of attendance information and cannot report with any accuracy its state- wide attendance rate – something some experts believe inhibits many other, more expensive intervention and improvement strategies. “I think it’s a tremendous omission,” said Jack O’Connell, former state schools chief


and now chief education officer at School Innovations & Advocacy. “In some ways, collecting attendance


data is the first step toward better schools,” he explained. “Getting kids in the class- room, increasing learning time and expos- ing them to high quality teachers – these are basic themes we need to address if we want to close the achievement gap and reduce dropouts.” A growing body of research linking lower


student performance in middle and high school with poor attendance in the lower grades has prompted new focus on truancy and chronic absenteeism nationwide. A 2011 study from Attendance Works, a nation- ally recognized anti-dropout group, found many schools that boast an average daily attendance rate in the mid-90s actually also had chronic absentee issues. Today, there is increased emphasis on


By Tom Chorneau


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