monitoring absences by grade and class- room as well as by subgroup. Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, has called on school officials to concentrate efforts to im- prove attendance in the early grades, includ- ing kindergarten. And yet, California is one of just five states that do not collect student level attendance data, according to a recent survey co-authored by the Everyone Gradu- ates Center at Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, the majority of the rest of


the states – both big and small – are moving to build and enhance what are called “early warning systems,” intended to flag at-risk students during their formative years to give teachers, administrators and parents a better chance at getting them back on track toward high school graduation.


Attendance: the common denominator While there are variations in what data


states collect and how it is used, attendance information is a key common denominator. Seventeen states collect enrollment data


daily, while 12 states collect attendance data daily and 11 states collect enrollment, at- tendance and discipline data daily, accord- ing to the November report, “On Track for Success,” co-authored by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Civic Enter- prises, a public policy firm based in Wash- ington, D.C. Efforts in California to develop an early


warning system that would include many of the same categories of data – including at- tendance – received a significant boost two years ago when Senate leader Darrell Stein- berg offered legislation promoting the idea. His bill, SB 1357, signed into law by for-


mer Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, requires the California Department of Education to include student absences in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data Sys- tem. It also revised the state’s Annual Re- port on Dropouts in California to include chronic absence rates and established leg- islative intent that the report be used to de- velop more effective systems for keeping stu- dents on track for high school graduation. Funding for carrying out this vision,


however, was contingent on the award of a federal grant – something the CDE has yet to pursue.


Enhancing Education Through Technology program. Senate Pro Tem Steinberg said he still


feels strongly that the state should collect at- tendance data and employ an early warning system. “Frequently skipping school is like a


gateway drug for students who end up com- pletely dropping out,” he said. “Early inter- vention is the most effective way of acknowl- edging and addressing our state’s dropout crisis. Collecting data on absenteeism is key to identifying warning signs and providing the support schools and parents need.”


A local matter? A spokeswoman for the Brown adminis-


tration said the question over federal fund- ing has never come up, and they have yet to take a formal position on the proposal. But Michael Kirst, president of the Cali-


fornia State Board of Education and key edu- cation advisor to Gov. Brown, said he does not support creation of a new attendance monitoring system on the state level, at least not at this time. “The important thing is for local districts


cally driven effort. “That doesn’t mean that is shouldn’t eventually be a statewide issue, but there needs to be a compelling case made why it cannot be satisfied by a functioning local system,” he said. Kevin Gordon, president of SI&A and one


of California’s most experienced legislative advocates for public schools, said there’s a growing recognition that getting “real time” or “near real time” data to identify students who are off track is critical to supporting stu- dent advancement from grade to grade. “The idea of the early warning system re-


ally stems from the realization that students disengage from school gradually,” Gordon said. “It isn’t sudden. Students send signals that they are drifting away and we have the ability to track those signals, flag them for teachers and parents and give schools the chance to intervene.” According to the “On Track” report re-


leased in November, states are taking a vari- ety of approaches to building early warning systems, some of which continue to evolve. Four states – Delaware, New Jersey, Okla-


homa and Virginia – provide feedback to ed- ucators on a weekly or daily basis. Louisiana


May/June 2012 27


There are a number of challenges with


the proposal, one being the cost overruns and development delays surrounding the CALPADS program itself – something both Schwarzenegger and Gov. Jerry Brown have considered cause to kill the program. But there have also been a number of


funding opportunities on the federal level, including the $100 million offered under


to have this data, and they use it for finding chronic truants and attendance problems,” he said. “But I don’t see the purpose for bringing it up into the state level because we are not going to act on it anyway in terms of contacting specific children or following up.” Kirst said he fully supports the idea of


using attendance data as one of the early warning indicators – but it should be a lo-


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