FYI from BSF, 04.01.22
Calling the Roll
As the state review of Boston Public Schools begins this week, the public conversation will turn to measures. Observations? Interviews? High school graduation rates? Assessment data?
Defining school and district quality is tricky business, with too often debate on polarized ends. You can see the lines drawn for Boston’s state review, with advocates already positioning themselves (here and here).
There is, however, one data point that has the backing of both research and common sense. Attendance. The research is pretty clear and intuitive: kids who go to school more have better outcomes, as do schools with better attendance. Low attendance is connected to worse outcomes.
Several years ago, after changes in federal and state policy, attendance reporting was disaggregated, giving a clearer picture of who is going to school and who isn’t.
Here are four takeaways from Boston’s data (with the asterisk that all state attendance data was interrupted in 2020).
Attendance in Boston was steady, even increasing, before dramatically dropping last year.
This was a trend across the Commonwealth, too, with attendance dropping by a full percentage point in 2021. That said, the drop in Boston was more significant - nearly 3 times as steep.
The decline in attendance in Boston was racially concentrated.
Asian and white attendance has increased in Boston over time, but every other racial group reported a significant decline in attendance. Why? This is a question worth interrogating.
The decline in attendance was driven by high levels of absenteeism across most subgroups.
To be considered “chronically absent,” a student must be out 18 or more times per year - in other words, miss a day of school every two weeks. Last year saw a dramatic increase, with one third of all students in most subgroups chronically absent. Therefore, it is more likely that very low attendance/engagement with a large subsection of students drove overall attendance down.
Absences have a direct, observable impact on student learning: lost time.
With the average student missing ~100 hours of instruction in a year, what does that actually translate to? A month of physics lessons. And reading A Raisin in the Sun. And geometric proofs for triangles. And completing a research project on Reconstruction. And mastering your part for a musical performance. With plenty of time left with your peers in homeroom, lunch, and after school.
This has not gone unnoticed. There was a BPS attendance dashboard in place last year (no longer operational). There have been publicized attempts to reengage students. Attendance was reported at times during Boston School Committee meetings earlier this year.
With the list of potential superintendent search firms narrowing and a job description soon to follow, the list of priorities will grow. There are plenty of political issues like receivership or exam school admission confusion that will draw attention. But it is clear the district is in need of a strategy and focus on attendance, otherwise yet another accelerant for achievement and opportunity gaps will persist.
In the months to come, there will be talk of big plans, big initiatives.
But they have to start with full classrooms.
Reopening Boston, MA, and Beyond
School-reported COVID cases in Massachusetts increased by more than 25% for the third straight week; cases in Boston doubled from last week. Lots of headlines this week for older Americans receiving their fourth vaccination shots, while about half of Boston’s youngest eligible children have received zero shots.
Will universal school lunch continue next year?
The federal government is proposing another round of increased education spending.
Other Matters
News on the bookends of PK-12 this week. The city’s new early childhood office has its leader. Two colleges in Cambridge show no sign of shifting in selectivity, bringing back the SAT/ACT and admitting the same number of students despite massive demand. UMass is expanding its early college program.
Oprah to Randolph teacher Taylor Thai: you get a Milken Educator Award!
