Allyson ppt

Attendance: Using Attendance

Records to Drive Interventions

Allyson Christine WilkinsM.A. Candidate in School Counseling

The University of San Diego

Tell me about Midland Elementary

🔸 Poway Unified School District 🔸 Serves K-5🔸 35% of the population qualify for

free/reduced lunches and Title I support

🔸 Population: 850 students🔸 50% Caucasian, 32% Hispanic,

7% Asian, 4% Filipino, 3% African-American, 3% Other

🔸 35% of student population are English Language Learners

What were my concerns?

🔸Midland Interview

🔸Grand Central Station

🔸Attendance History

🔸Setting the Expectations

Will attendance percentages of the class with the lowest attendance

rates on campus be improved with interventions implemented by the

school counseling intern?

Research Question

Review of Literature

“The costs and impact of chronic truancy are significant, with both short- and long-term implications for the truant youth as well as for the family, school, and community” (Maynard, B. R., McCrea, K. T., Pigott, T. D., Kelly, M. S., & Campbell, C., 2012, p. 5)

“Student absenteeism has a direct association with poor

academic performance” (Weismuller, Grasska, Alexander, White, & Kramer, 2007, p. 111-

118).

An estimated 5 to 7.5 million students miss 18 or more days of school each year, or nearly an entire month or more of

school, which puts them at significant risk of falling behind academically and failing to graduate from

high school.(U.S. Department of

Education, 2016)

A past Action Research project conducted at USD studied interventions to

combat absenteeism through discussing “the

importance of school and the students” and it was found at the end of the

program that students were motivated to come to school by incentives, they enjoyed check-ins

because they made them feel special and proud

and lastly they enjoyed the program because of it’s positive effects on their

academics simply by their increased presence

(Cole, J. F., 2011, p. 62-70).

Why Action Research?

Reflect: What can I do

for a bigger increas

e?

Plan: Modify

for cycle two

Observe:

Watch records over 4 weeks

Plan: Assess

Attendance

Records→ narrow down

Action: One

Classroom Guidance Lesson

Observe: Attendance Records

over 4 weeks

Reflect: What

worked? What

would I do

different?

Action: 4

Lunchtime Lessons

Overview of this Process

Action/Intervention: Cycle One

Cycle One: One classroom guidance lesson

on the importance of attendance 🔸 4th grade: Mrs. Esparza’s class 🔸 32 students involved (20 boys, 12

girls)🔸 Challenged them to increase their

attendance for the next 30 days (1/25/2016-2/26/2016) to receive a class appointed incentive

Quantitative Attendance Records for January 25-

February 26, 2016

Cycle One Results

Overall Attendance increased

from 94.8% to 95%

4% decreases

in days unexcused

Initial 8/19-

12/18/15

Cycle One 1/25-2/26/16

32% decrease in days

excused

Balloon Party!

Interpretations & Modifications

🔸Bigger improvement🔸More hands-on with students 🔸Reflect on past research

Action/Intervention: Cycle Two

Cycle Two: Four optional lunchtime lessons on various

attendance related topics 🔸 Attendance Review (Pizza) 🔸 How to Stay Healthy (Popsicles) 🔸 What You Miss When You Miss a Day of School

(Popcorn) 🔸 Valid & Invalid Reasons for Missing School (Nachos)

Quantitative Assessed attendance records March 21-April 22, 2016Sign-in sheets to track numbers of students in

attendance for each lunchtime lessonQualitative

Exit Cards following each lesson

“Going on a vacation

and not coming to school

is an absence“-Robby

“That touching your

eyes, mouth and nose

will get you sick” -Louise

“That staying home for no reason is not

okay” -Maryam

“Wash my hands for 30 sec”- Cylus

“I learned that if I was

absent it would count

on my permanent record

and how many days I

missed”-Cassie

“You miss a lot when you are absent”-Amanda “Go to school

and wait for summeror break”

Thomas-

🔸 Class overall attendance increased from 95% to 98.5%

🔸 Greater awareness of attendance related topics

🔸 Over 50% class attended for each optional lesson

🔸 Majority of students underestimated the total number of days they had missed throughout the year

Cycle Two Results Today I learned….

What do the numbers show?

Initial Records, Cycle One & Cycle Two

Initial 8/19-12/18/15

Cycle One1/25-2/26/16

Cycle Two 3/21-4/22/16

32% decrease in days excused4% decrease in days unexcused

50% decrease in days excused83.3% decrease in days

unexcused

Initial Records → Cycle One

Cycle One → Cycle Two

Overall Increase 82% decrease in days excused

87.7% decrease in days unexcused

0.2% increaseIn the first cycle

3.5% increase In the second cycle

3.7% increase overall in just 3 months!

Lunchtime Lessons were more powerful!

Legitimacy of Knowledge Claims

🔸 Collected Quantitative data (Attendance Records)🔸 Descriptive Statistics (Exit Cards) 🔸 Prolonged Engagement 🔸 Data gathered through: 🔸 Poway Unified School District’s Synergy program 🔸 Student report (Exit Cards)

🔸 National Center for Education Statistics 🔸 Ensures data integrity and accuracy 🔸 Data collection survey and training for staff

Lincoln & Guba, 1985

Significance & Implications

Role of Evidence-Based Research

🔸 No research for Attendance Interventions that are Evidence-Based

🔸 Research about causes → minimal research on how to combat them🔸 Specific to school community

What does the future hold? ● Per Pupil

Loss=$211.20/Student/Day (SD County)

● School of 800 students who are currently at 95% attendance (760/800 attending each day)

● Missing out on $8,448 per day ○ What could these results

mean for a school’s budget? Test scores? Overall achievement?

Limitations & Recommendations

🔸 New researcher🔸 Language barriers

with parents🔸 Administrative

approval 🔸Multi-language

Flyers🔸 Communicating with

teachers🔸 Scheduling

🔸More hands-on Cycle One

🔸 Replication Cycle Two + additional topics

🔸 Parent Involvement🔸 Parent Night 🔸 Sending home

information 🔸 Resources

🔸 Conduct research to assess and enhance your counseling program in an appropriate way

🔸 Stay up-to-date with local resources 🔸 Knowledgeable regarding community

data and statistics 🔸 Embracing the unknown! 🔸 Flexible with scheduling, challenges,

needs of the population etc. 🔸 Much bigger than just working with

students on a daily basis!

What have I learned and how can I apply this?

“In conclusion, attendance percentages of the class with the lowest attendance rates on campus were improved with

interventions implemented by the school counseling intern!

REFERENCES

Adelman, H. & Taylor, L.(2006a). The school leader’s guide to student learning supports: New Directions for addressing barriers to learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Chapter 1: The Economic Impact. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2016, from https://oag.ca.gov/truancy/2013/ch1

Cole, J. F. (2011). Interventions to Combat the Many Facets of Absenteeism: Action Research.Georgia School Counselors Association Journal, 18(1), 62-70.

Hoffman, L. M. (n.d.). Section Three: Protecting the Privacy of Individuals during the Data Collection Process. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs97/p97527/Sec3_txt.asp

Lincoln and Guba's Evaluative Criteria. (n.d.). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.qualres.org/HomeLinc-3684.html Maynard, B. R., McCrea, K. T., Pigott, T. D., Kelly, M. S., & Campbell, C. (2012). Indicated

Truancy Interventions: Effects on School Attendance among Chronic Truant Students. Campbell Systematic Reviews. 2012:10.Campbell Collaboration,

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. (2014, September). WWC review of the report: Meeting the challenge of combating chronic absenteeism: Impact of the NYC Mayor’s Interagency Task Force on chronic absenteeism and school attendance and its implications for other cities. Retrieved from http://whatworks.ed.gov

Weismuller, P., Grasska, M., Alexander, M., White, C., & Kramer, P. (2007). Elementary school nurse interventions: attendance and health outcomes. Journal Of School Nursing (Allen Press Publishing Services Inc.), 23(2), 111-118 8p. doi:10.1177/10598405070230020901

Thank you for your time today!Any questions?