Hedy Chang of Attendance Works, Denise Forte of EdTrust, and Nat Malkus of the American Enterprise Institute declared in The Hill in August that chronic absenteeism (missing 10% or more of the school year) is “the most important issue facing schools today.” Especially notable about this declaration is that the writers represent different poles on the ideological spectrum in education. Although often in disagreement about the contentious issues in our polarized times, on this issue, they agree.
The Return to Learn Tracker (www.returntolearntracker.net) offers visual representations of the problem, showing that chronic absenteeism surged everywhere during the pandemic. The recovery in the intervening years has been much slower than that initial surge. We have a long way to go to get attendance back to its pre-pandemic levels. And the pre-pandemic levels were enough of a problem that Kappan made it the October 2016 issue theme. If it was important then, it’s urgent now. And it exists across states, across demographics, across school sizes, across approaches to pandemic school closures.
As much as we might want an answer that will work for everyone, everywhere, all at once, across-the-board problems may not respond to across-the-board solutions. As Thomas Dee explains in this issue, researchers have not yet landed on solutions that work everywhere. The reasons for the crisis may be too multifaceted and complex for a single solution. It’s up to schools to look for their own solutions, which begins with understanding the problem.
Dee suggests that engaging with families is one promising approach, and Thomas Capretta and his co-authors present specific strategies for connecting with families to understand the problem and seek solutions. As they explain, people outside schools have insight into what’s keeping students away from school. Schools must approach them to understand the problem.
Conversations with families might reveal problems with transportation, concerns about bullying, health challenges, or disinterest in what’s being taught (just to name a few options). Each of these problems warrants a completely different solution. Many schools and districts must try out multiple solutions. That was the case in Guilford County, North Carolina, as Ayesha Hashim and her co-authors describe in their article.
Some districts are rethinking what attending school looks like for some students, as is the case in Germany, where second-chance schools give students flexibility to learn on their own terms. Matthias Fischer and Kerri Tobin describe in this issue how these schools help students experiencing homelessness to complete their educations at a time when attending traditional schools is a lower priority than finding a place to sleep.
Models like Big Picture Learning, which embraces interest-based hands-on learning, may keep some students in schools. Founder Elliot Washor tells Kathleen Vail in this issue that their response to absences is to ask students why they are missing school, instead of penalizing them.
In The Hill, Cheng, Forte, and Malkus challenge education leaders to “embrace the bold but achievable goal of cutting chronic absenteeism by 50 percent over five years.” To achieve this, school leaders will have to ask a lot of why questions over the coming years to find the answers for their students, and for their communities.
References
Cheng, H., Forte, D., & Malkus, N. (2024). 50 states, one goal: Cut chronic absenteeism in schools by 50 percent in 5 years. The Hill.
This article appears in the November 2024 issue of Kappan, Vol. 106, No. 3, p. 4.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Teresa Preston
Teresa Preston is an editorial consultant and the former editor-in-chief of Phi Delta Kappan and director of publications for PDK International, Arlington, VA.
Visit their website at: https://prestoneditorial.com/
