FYI from BSF, 9.6.24
It was hard not to notice kids were back in school in Boston this week.
There were perennial events and commentary one has come to expect. Pictures of very happy children (and families).
Back-to-school messages. Buses. New facilities are rolled: the new Quincy Upper School, a project 11 years and 4 mayoral administrations in the making, officially opened its doors.
And a new genre has emerged: pictures of leaders knocking on doors to get kids to come to school.
You will find a similar story, with a similar headline, with a similar picture, at a similar time in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and earlier this week, a clear acknowledgement of the attendance challenges that exploded as schools struggled to return from remote or hybrid learning.
The good news is that there has been a significant drop in chronic absenteeism since its height in 2022. The percentage of kids missing more than 10% of school days has fallen across the country, in Massachusetts, and in Boston.
There is only one problem: a RAND study indicates schools don’t know how or why it happened. Schools have tried a variety of interventions, but the research is unclear on which ones actually worked.
This is concerning because there is more progress to be made. Attendance is still lower and chronic absenteeism is higher in Boston than it was before the pandemic.
How will schools - in Boston and across the country - keep this trend moving in the right direction? Educators thrive on lessons learned, and creating and disseminating effective practices. But improving attendance, the same RAND research implies, may elude this standard approach.
When you read case studies of communities that dramatically improved attendance, you don’t find novel ideas, programs, or interventions. You find data. Clear, widely shared data and clear, widely shared goals, often to the school-level. The rapid or final percents of improvement - the hardest to get - came not from the quality of “ideas” but from the quality of prioritization, goal-setting, and support.
For all the day one excitement and big questions facing the city, from the last year of the state’s required improvement plan to a new teachers’ contract, the fundamental question of who is at school and how often should not go away.
Notes in the Margin
As reported at the most recent School Committee meeting, data indicates another year of flat or declining enrollment in Boston. Using August and October state reporting as consistent snapshots in time, it is clear that nothing - not even an influx of new migrant students - has altered the long-term trend.
A report from Tufts summarizes the potential impact of Question 2.
How much money are Massachusetts schools spending on migrant students?
States were graded on their report cards, public documents on schools and school performance for families. Massachusetts got a “C.”
Tim Daly makes the case for free - and good - school lunch.
September 30, 2024 should have been a date circled on every school committee and superintendent’s calendar. The expiration of federal pandemic funds is hitting Massachusetts communities, and could ultimately disproportionately impact teachers of color.
Like looking at your neighbor’s paper or CliffsNotes before it, using ChatGTP does not help students do better on tests.
It’s not news that confidence in public schools and student’s mental health have been in decline. However, two surveys show signs of improvement in Americans’ perceptions and teenagers’ self-reporting.
The gruesome, rare, but repeating tragedy of school shootings - this week in Georgia - sadly means I have nothing new to write since I last wrote about it.
With 25 new colleges and not the usual Massachusetts suspects near the top, the higher education rankings in the Wall Street Journal are further reflection of a sector under pressure and in transition.