Data Science | Using databases, big data, analysis and visualizations for understanding, engagement, Athena’s Workshop is the answer.
We will send homework text alerts to any text enabled cell phone, straight to a parent or student’s cell phone. More than 97 percent of text messages are read within five minutes. Send texts to each class, to different reading groups, parents, students or to the spring band trip. English to Spanish Translation Type your message in English and send texts in Spanish to parents. Want a demo of Athena's Workshop for your team, schedule one here: https://athenasworkshop.youcanbook.me/
Operating as usual
10/09/2022
Schools are doing some positive things to address chronic absenteeism. Keep up the good work.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/education/learning/students-school-absenteeism.html
The Key to Getting Students Back in Classrooms? Establishing Connections. School districts are using federal money and personal outreach to encourage attendance among those who drifted away during the pandemic.
07/04/2022
Fun idea to address chronic absenteeism, this public elementary school sorted the students into Hogwarts Houses to compete for best attendance, acts of kindness and more.
https://www.journalinquirer.com/connecticut_and_region/to-fight-absenteeism-this-school-sorted-its-students-into-hogwarts-houses/article_ccc830b2-ee64-11ec-a609-c394ef7e9370.html
To fight absenteeism, this school sorted its students into Hogwarts Houses All the classes at Smith Elementary School in New Britain were sorted into the four houses of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the kids competed this
05/12/2022
Really interesting story about an urban high school and the student black market for snacks. Students who were making brownies or bring in extra chip bags to sell were more engaged in school and coming more regularly. Attending school was a way to make money.
https://www.the74million.org/article/as-absenteeism-skyrockets-schools-get-creative-about-luring-back-lost-students/
As Absenteeism Skyrockets, Schools Get Creative About Luring Back Lost Students BUENA PARK, Calif. — Sliding off their backpacks as they come through the front door of the local Boys and Girls Club, a group of students grab pool cues. Outside, children laugh as they bat around a beach ball on the lawn. But the upbeat mood belies the more serious reason that brings many of [...
04/10/2022
Do four-day school weeks work better than five-day school weeks? This research seems to find lower math scores for high school students. Something to think about as the world moves to a post-COVID world.
https://www.studyfinds.org/4-day-school-week-lower-grades/
4-day school weeks lead to lower grades, study reveals High schoolers with a 4-day school week performed worse on math tests than their peers sticking to a typical 5-day schedule.
03/03/2022
Interesting article about how different levels of poverty in school districts used COVID relief money. HVAC systems are a top priority in low-income school districts which have probably put such things on the back burner. With extra cash they finally were able to fix it.
https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-school-repairs-new-instructional-materials-how-districts-with-different-poverty-levels-are-spending-covid-relief-funds/
Analysis: School Repairs? New Instructional Materials? How Districts With Different Poverty Levels Are Spending COVID Relief Funds For decades, many school districts with the largest share of students living in poverty have endured crumbling buildings, outdated textbooks and little support for students and teachers. Now, the infusion of billions in federal COVID relief aid for schools over the next few years could change that r...
Here is a super valuable toolkit to use text messages to address chronic absenteeism in school with a step by step guide, how to log info in your SIS, sample text messages and lots more.
https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2022001/pdf/2022001.pdf
12/20/2021
COVID is negatively impacting children the world over, especially children in low-income countries. Investing in children and education is important for the future of all of us.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/digital-technology-to-reverse-pandemic-learning-losses-by-henrietta-h-fore-and-david-malpass-2021-12
Reversing the Pandemic's Education Losses | by Henrietta H. Fore & David Malpass - Project Syndicate Henrietta H. Fore & David Malpass suggest how digital technologies can address school closures' disproportionate impact in developing countries.
11/18/2021
In case you had any doubts, kids, especially younger ones did not like remote school, and we are still not yet back to pre-COVID levels. We have to work harder at getting students back in classrooms full-time.
https://www.the74million.org/kids-left-schools-last-year-because-of-the-switch-to-remote-classes-early-numbers-suggest-they-may-not-be-coming-back-soon/
Kids Left Schools Last Year Because of the Switch to Remote Classes; Early Numbers Suggest They May Not Be Coming Back Soon With the release of new data in recent months, a clearer picture is emerging of how K-12 enrollment has responded to the pandemic. Studying figures from hundreds of school districts, researchers at Stanford have found that roughly one-quarter of the decrease in students is directly attributable to t...
New research finds that police deployed in schools, commonly called school resource officers (SROs), do not reduce school shootings but increase suspensions, expulsions and arrests of students. While SROs do effectively reduce some forms of violence in schools, they do not prevent school shootings or gun-related incidents. Researchers also observed that SROs increase chronic absenteeism, particularly for students with disabilities. Might be time to consider deploying those resources in a different direction.
https://www.edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai21-476.pdf
10/12/2021
Interesting round up of how different states are counting attendance during these COVID times. If a student is quarantining at home because of possible exposure and logs on to the classroom is that attendance? Some states say "yes' others "absent." Super confusing!
https://www.the74million.org/article/by-the-numbers-how-100-school-systems-are-and-arent-adapting-to-covid-when-to-mark-quarantined-students-absent-and-what-constitutes-an-outbreak/
By the Numbers — How 100 School Systems Are (and Aren’t) Adapting to COVID: When to Mark Quarantined Students Absent, and What Constitutes an Outbreak This the latest in a series of weekly analyses of COVID-19 policies in 100 large and high-profile school systems, produced by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Bothell. You can see the full archive here. For better or worse, the flurry of new public health m...
09/20/2021
A very nice piece about how rural school districts are using a traditional urban solution - community schools - to successful address many of their issues.
https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/community-school-model/
How the increasingly popular community schools model is boosting rural America The often hidden reality of rural schools in America is that a higher percentage of students in rural areas live in poverty compared to metro school districts, according to a 2021 profile of rural schools done by Ohio teacher Daniel Bailey for Edutopia. These students also tend to face unique challe...
05/27/2021
Only 9 states reported 2019-2020 chronic absenteeism rates on their website education report card. Without data how will anyone know where the problems are that need to be solved.
https://dataqualitycampaign.org/show-me-the-data-2021/
Show Me the Data 2021 | Data Quality Campaign As states’ most-public education information resource, report cards have the potential to serve as a central location for families to find the information they need. This year, states did not act on the opportunity to use report cards as a way to help families and the public understand and evaluat...
05/21/2021
Interesting piece about chronic absenteeism and how stakeholders are looking at data as a way to address the issue.
https://www.governing.com/now/chronic-absenteeism-is-a-huge-school-problem-can-data-help
Chronic Absenteeism Is a Huge School Problem. Can Data Help? The pandemic has significantly increased the number of students who don’t attend class. Solutions aren’t easy, but school districts can recover the chronically absent by digging deeper into data.
05/04/2021
Warm, positive story about four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year. Despite the past year being 'the worst year ever' for many students, parents and teachers, these teachers grew and saw the opportunities for all. Hope you all win.
https://www.the74million.org/article/four-finalists-for-teacher-of-the-year-answer-the-question-whats-it-like-to-lead-classes-during-the-worst-year-ever/
Four Finalists for Teacher of the Year Answer the Question: What’s it Like to Lead Classes During the ‘Worst Year Ever’? Get essential education news and commentary delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up here for The 74’s daily newsletter. John Arthur, Utah’s Teacher of the Year, recently received a visit from a former student at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City. Addressing him as “Captain” .....
04/30/2021
Using random class assignments, these researchers calculate that increasing class size by 10 students increases absenteeism and for African American students having an African American teacher reduces absenteeism. Useful for planning next year.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0162373720984463
Experimental Estimates of the Student Attendance Production Function - Long Tran, Seth Gershenson, 2021 Student attendance is both a critical input and intermediate output of the education production function. However, the malleable classroom-level determinants of...
03/16/2021
Attendance Works is having a FREE four part webinar series with insights, strategies and real-world examples illustrating how we can encourage and support student attendance from spring and through the next school year. You can register below.
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fRYLG8tFRoqM2lKIdbuUIA
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Committed: Supporting Attendance and Engagement to the Very Last Day of School. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Time: 11am-12:30pm PT | 12-1:30pm MT | 1-2:30pm CT | 2-3:30pm ET • Motivating participation and engagement through the spring • Launching Attendance Works’ Attendance Awareness Campaign, and the first installment of the engagement and recovery planning toolkit
03/08/2021
Sad but true, schools have provided computers for students, but not internet access so, this fall, 21% of households with incomes under $25,000 reported that their students had no live contact with teachers in the past seven days, compared to 11% of households with incomes over $200,000.
https://medium.com/georgetown-cew/virtual-learning-is-not-childs-play-for-k-12-students-c8daee32db55
Virtual Learning Is Not Child’s Play for K–12 Students Technology gaps make learning harder for students in lower-income households.
02/22/2021
Interesting point of view of a parent that found something positive in virtual learning this past year. Her children did not come down with a single cold this past year.
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/02/when-schools-punish-sick-kids-poor-attendance/618045/
Why Did We Ever Send Sick Kids to School? An overemphasis on attendance puts students’ health at risk and instills the value of working through illness. The pandemic has made it clear how dangerous that is.
02/16/2021
It really is important to get our students back in school buildings. The CDC said it can be done with lots of planning and flexibility. Otherwise, attendance dropping 1.5% A MONTH from Sept to November is going to end public education as we know it.
https://www.axios.com/daily-school-attendance-drop-coronavirus-9b9c9fd1-3356-4f3b-baae-86cab4f8e8c7.html
Daily school attendance falls amid the coronavirus pandemic Attendance in some districts around the U.S. has dropped by an average of 2.3% this academic year.
01/20/2021
This new study looked at elementary school attendance of students whose parents participated in a truancy court-diversion program that educated parents about the importance of school attendance and created an attendance contract. Unfortunately, at the end of the study they could not prove that it had any effect. Sad.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19345747.2020.1760976?journalCode=uree20&
Can Court Diversion Improve School Attendance among Elementary Students? Evidence from Five School Districts (2020). Can Court Diversion Improve School Attendance among Elementary Students? Evidence from Five School Districts. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness: Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 625-651.
01/05/2021
Round-up of how nine different states are going through the pandemic and how it is affecting their K-12 education systems.
https://www.the74million.org/article/education-through-the-pandemic-from-floridas-remote-learners-falling-behind-in-person-peers-to-houston-schools-scoring-record-failure-rates-9-ways-states-educators-are-coping-with-covid-1/
the74million.org This update on the COVID Slide collects and shares news updates from the district, state, and national levels as all stakeholders continue to work on developing safe, innovative plans to resume schooling and address learning loss. It’s an offshoot of the Collaborative for Student Success’ COVID ...
11/25/2020
The US Department of Education is willing to consider some changes in how states evaluate individual schools at this time. Could be helpful to many schools.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2020/11/devos-education-essa-blueprint-biden.html
blogs.edweek.org A guidance document from the Trump administration about accountability requirements has gotten support from groups frequently critical of Betsy DeVos.
11/22/2020
With so many students studying virtually, the value of connecting zoom classrooms with learning management systems with testing platforms and even attendance records has become even more important for understanding what students are learning. Interesting piece on the interoperability in educational computer systems.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-11-19-why-the-pandemic-forces-administrators-to-rethink-attendance-and-interoperability
edsurge.com When COVID-19 forced the mass closure of schools across the U.S. during the early months of 2020, we all wondered how—or if—students would continue to ...
11/16/2020
What does attendance mean in a virtual world? At least one school is making it mean something.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/relationships-matter-remote-learning-hurdles-chronic-absenteeism-covid/588430/
educationdive.com Schools are employing a variety of tactics — including coaches, phone calls and dance parties at lunch — to boost attendance in virtual environments, but defining students' "presence" remains a challenge.
In these super stressful times, here are some symptoms of mental health issues to look for in children. We all need to look out for each other.
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2020/11/schools-and-state-k-12-mental-health-conditions
10/30/2020
In a world of virtual learning and everything else, what counts as "just showing up?" For educators it really is all over the place.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/24/909638343/school-attendance-in-the-covid-era-what-counts-as-present
npr.org With millions of students logging in from home, the pandemic has disrupted the traditional school function of making sure students are "in school."
10/29/2020
Attendance is tough anytime. During the pandemic with remote learning, it is even tougher.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/us/schools-covid-attendance.html
nytimes.com Early data for the new school year suggests that attendance in virtual classrooms is down, possibly because students are working or caring for siblings.
10/26/2020
Text messaging of all types can improve attendance, at least in pre-COVID times when the study was done. But just attendance did not improve academic achievement.
https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2020006/
https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2020006/
ies.ed.gov Can Texting Parents Improve Attendance in Elementary School? A Test of an Adaptive Messaging Strategy
10/08/2020
Advice for how pediatricians can help address chronic absenteeism. Thanks for being part of the solution.
https://www.contemporarypediatrics.com/view/how-to-help-prevent-chronic-school-absenteeism
https://www.contemporarypediatrics.com/view/how-to-help-prevent-chronic-school-absenteeism
contemporarypediatrics.com Regular school attendance is important, not only to academic success, but future health outcomes. A presentation at the virtual 2020 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition offered insight into how pediatricians can help keep students in school.
09/30/2020
So many attendance options with distance/virtual learning, but engaging is still relevant
https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-taking-attendance-amid-the-pandemic-is-about-more-than-student-participation-it-will-be-invaluable-data-about-whether-distance-learning-is-actually-working/
the74million.org In suburban Detroit, a teenage girl was sent to juvenile detention after failing to complete her online homework. The story, as is often the case, is more complicated than that. But it underscores a key dilemma many school leaders face as they contemplate another semester of remote learning: How do....
09/24/2020
Positive news! New Mexico funded pre-K, 15 years ago and the for the first group of students, the results are great - 80% of the pre-K cohort graduated from high school versus 74% for those that did not participate.
https://www.abqjournal.com/1477917/nm-finds-lasting-gains-in-first-prek-cohort.html
abqjournal.com Graduation rate increased, while chronic absenteeism declined
09/04/2020
Democratic Vice President nominee, Kamala Harris, has a long record on school attendance issues from California. Check out how it has changed over time.
https://www.future-ed.org/kamala-harriss-surprising-evolution-on-truancy/
future-ed.org Much has been written about Kamala Harris’s decision as San Francisco district attorney to threaten parents with court action when their children miss too much school and then to champion a state law criminalizing truancy. But less is said about her evolution on the issue of student absenteeism, h...
LGBTQ+ students face many hurdles including chronic absenteeism. Oregon just release a report on ways to include them so that they have a successful K-12 education.
https://www.oregon.gov/ode/students-and-family/equity/Documents/LGBTQ2SIA+%20Student%20Success%20Plan.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
07/14/2020
Attendance is a virtual world is very messy and complicated.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/07/14/tracking-student-attendance-under-remote-learning-is.html
edweek.org Tracking student attendance under remote learning this spring was complicated and oftentimes ad hoc, a messy process that could continue to be a big problem during the 2020-21 school year.
07/03/2020
New study of NYC students looks at the relationship between school climate and attendance. Results indicate small associations between school climate and student attendance. Could more than just school climate affect attendance?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831220924037
journals.sagepub.com Nearly 15% of American students are chronically absent from school. To address absenteeism, many states have recently made chronic absence a core component of t...
06/29/2020
Time on task and attendance matter even in COVID-19 time. Everyone needs to focus on basics.
https://edsource.org/2020/a-look-at-distance-learning-strategies-for-success-edsource-webinar/631433
edsource.org Researchers and California educators discussed the state of education and distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic.
06/25/2020
Success Academies in NYC is showing how to be successful during the recent shut down. Congratulations on a job well done.
https://nypost.com/2020/05/17/success-academy-making-remote-learning-work-as-regular-schools-flail/
nypost.com In the summer of 2013, after New York adopted more rigorous standards, test scores plummeted around the state. Fewer than one in three students in New York City district schools scored proficient i…
06/24/2020
Five great ideas on how to deal with learning loss due to COVID-19.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/06/12/5-tips-for-measuring-and-responding-to.html
edweek.org How much students regressed during the extended remote learning period is a matter of some debate, but every district must devise ways to diagnose and respond to it.
| Monday | 9am - 6pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 6pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 6pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 6pm |
| Friday | 9am - 6pm |
National Student Council National Student Council, or NatStuCo, is a program of the National Association of Secondary School
Just Academics Just Academics, a division of George Mason Academy, is a fully-accredited online academy.
tealnest TealNest is a well appointed pottery studio that offers classes to small groups of 6 and is at walki
United Christian Parish - UCP Open & affirming church. United in ministry: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Presbyterian Ch
Northern Virginia Community College- Reston Center Located at 1821 Michael Faraday Drive, NOVA's Reston Center provides a convenient schedule of credit
National Honor Society Official page of The National Honor Society, NJHS, & NEHS. Founded & managed by NASSP.
Sun Prairie High School FBLA Sun Prairie High School FBLA chapter is a club organization that students may join to learn and prac
Autoharp Education Fund Autoharp Education Fund is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation in support of Autoharp Education.