Report Prepared by: Research, Innovation & Accountability Presented by: Doug Morrison November 13, 2018

Attendance Update

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Purpose of Report: To provide the School Board with information regarding the attendance of District students and initiatives to increase the attendance level.

The Sioux Falls School District recognizes the importance of student attendance

and the high correlation to academic achievement. Because of this correlation, after a state change in the 2017-18 school year to decrease the School Performance Index (SPI) from a 94% benchmark to a 90%, the District kept the 94% to hold itself to a higher standard. By school comparison, those students hitting the 94% attendance benchmark are higher among non-title schools than title schools.

Along with holding students accountable regarding absenteeism, the SFSD is in its second year of using Kinvolved, a company founded by teachers, that tracks data and engages families through real-time, translated, text messaging. The District piloted the program in five schools in the 2017-18 school year. Data from Whittier Middle School, one of the pilot schools, is showing a nearly 3% increased attendance rate from the previous school year.

In addition to efforts with Kinvolved, other attendance initiatives include continued dialog with the legal system regarding truancy, establishment of District Attendance Council, school attendance teams, and analyzing data to identify trends. Identified data has indicated that initiatives to drive culture change along with increased school participation are a direct correlation to improved attendance numbers. On the other end of the spectrum, data analysis shows schools with the lowest attendance achievement have the highest levels of mobility across the District.

Administrative Recommendation to School Board: Acknowledge the results and initiatives underway to increase attendance levels across the District.

MRF #17851 Action 38165

Adopted 11-13-2018

Report Prepared by: Director of Research, Innovation and Accountability November 13, 2018 Presented by: Doug Morrison 1

Attendance Report

Purpose of Report: To provide the School Board with information regarding the attendance of

District students and initiatives to increase the attendance level.

District Priority Area: Priority Area 2: School Climate and Culture

District Measurable Goal:

By 2020, the number of K-8 students who did not attend school at least 94% of the time will

decrease by 5%.

Explanation:

Student Attendance is critically important to the success of students.

1. Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the

school year. Half the students who miss 2-4 days in September go on to miss nearly a

month of school.

2. Over 7 million (1 in 7) U.S. students miss nearly a month of school each year.

3. Absenteeism and its ill effects start early. One in 10 kindergarten and first grade

students are chronically absent.

4. Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third

grade or be held back.

5. By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out

of high school.

6. Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days in most school

districts, negatively affects a student’s academic performance. That is just two days a

month and that is known as chronic absence.

7. Students who live in communities with high levels of poverty are four times more likely to

be chronically absent than others often for reasons beyond their control, such as

unstable housing, unreliable transportation and a lack of access to health care.

8. When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects

and chances for graduating.

9. Attendance improves when schools engage students and parents in positive ways and

when schools provide mentors for chronically absent students.

10. Most school districts and states don’t look at all the right data to improve school

attendance. They track how many students show up every day and how many are

skipping school without an excuse, but not how many are missing so many days in

excused and unexcused absence that they are headed off track academically.

MRF #17851 Action 38165

Adopted 11-13-2018

Report Prepared by: Director of Research, Innovation and Accountability November 13, 2018 Presented by: Doug Morrison 2

District Performance:

Up until the 2017-18 school year, the State used a benchmark of 94% in its calculation of the

School Performance Index (SPI) for K-8 schools. Attendance accounted for 20% of the total

school SPI. The 94% correlated with the Sioux Falls School District (SFSD) policy of a 10-day

attendance standard. Beginning with the 2017-18 school year, the State is moving the

benchmark to 90% and attendance will only account for 10% of the total SPI. The DOE

indicated that 90% was more reflective of the standard used by the majority of states across the

country. Because of the high correlation of attendance to academic achievement the SFSD will

continue to use the 94% benchmark and hold itself to a higher standard. The SFSD policies

correlate to 10 unexcused absences as being excessive.

District Strategic Plan Indicator:

By School Comparison:

By 2020, the number of K – 8 students who did not

attend school at least 94% of the time [their

enrolled days] will decrease by 5 percentage

points.

2015-16

(Baseline)2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20

Percent of Students 80.3% 78.9% 78.7%

MRF #17851 Action 38165

Adopted 11-13-2018

Report Prepared by: Director of Research, Innovation and Accountability November 13, 2018 Presented by: Doug Morrison 3

2017-18 Preliminary Attendance Data under the revised state calculation:

Chronic Absenteeism by subgroup

MRF #17851 Action 38165

Adopted 11-13-2018

Report Prepared by: Director of Research, Innovation and Accountability November 13, 2018 Presented by: Doug Morrison 4

Current Initiatives:

➢ Establishment of District Attendance Council. Meets quarterly. Comprised of District

administrators and staff as well as community members.

➢ Year two of Kinvolved pilot. Pilot schools include Hawthorne, Hayward, LBA Elementary

Schools, and Whittier Middle School. Terry Redlin Elementary School is also using a

communication tool only offered by Kinvolved.

Kinvolved Outbound Messages in 1Q 18-19:

Kinvo Schools

1st Quarter

17 18

2nd

Quarter 17

18

3rd Quarter

17 18

4th Quarter

17 18

1st Quarter

18 19

Laura B. Anderson Elementary 96.9% 95.1% 93.3% 95.7% 96.0%

Hayward Elementary 95.6% 93.3% 93.0% 93.6% 94.5%

Hawthorne Elementary 94.0% 92.5% 91.6% 93.9% 94.3%

Whittier Middle School 96.2% 95.4% 94.4% 94.8% 95.6%

All K-8 96.9% 95.4% 94.7% 95.5% 96.6%

88.0%

90.0%

92.0%

94.0%

96.0%

98.0%

1st Quarter 1718

2nd Quarter 1718

3rd Quarter 1718

4th Quarter 1718

1st Quarter 1819

Attendance Percentage-Kinvo Schools

Laura B. Anderson Elementary Hayward Elementary

Hawthorne Elementary Whittier Middle School

All K-8

School Name

Outbound

Messages

Inbound Messages

(Parent Replies)

Attendance

Messages

Positive

Messages

Needs

Improvement

Messages

Uncategorized

Message

Hawthorne Elementary 10262 1242 2519 1164 48 6531

Hayward Elementary 9293 2063 1006 1971 69 6247

Laura B. Anderson Elementary 3687 839 96 420 24 3147

Terry Redlin Elementary 3666 677 0 106 7 3553

Whittier Middle School 2155 407 1 280 13 1861

MRF #17851 Action 38165

Adopted 11-13-2018

Report Prepared by: Director of Research, Innovation and Accountability November 13, 2018 Presented by: Doug Morrison 5

➢ Continued dialog with the legal system regarding truancy.

➢ School attendance teams.

➢ Continued use of data to identify trends and potential areas of best practices.

➢ Offering breakfast in the classroom at four sites: Terry Redlin, Cleveland, Lowell and

Hawthorne Elementary Schools.

Trends:

• Data analysis is showing that the schools with the lowest attendance achievement have

the highest levels of mobility across the District.

• Correlating school participation to attendance. Below is an analysis done by Washington

High School.

Number

of

activities

Avg # of

Absences

not SSP

(Days)

0 22.43

1 10.96

2 9.34

3-5 8.65

> 5 8.76

17-18

Mobility Rate

16-17

Mobility Rate

15-16

Mobility Rate

Elem School Total 13.1 12.3 12.0

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

Bri

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Haw

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Gar

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Hay

war

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Terr

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Lau

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Lau

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An

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Su

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Ch

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Attendance vs Mobility

Attendance Rate Mobility Rate

MRF #17851 Action 38165

Adopted 11-13-2018

Report Prepared by: Director of Research, Innovation and Accountability November 13, 2018 Presented by: Doug Morrison 6

• Kindergartners have the lowest level of attendance at the elementary school level.

Schools Showing Improvement:

• Terry Redlin Elementary School is using a combination of initiatives to drive a culture

change. They include a Strive for Five campaign, bikes awarded to students achieving

full year perfect attendance, gift cards to students showing improved attendance, and

breakfast in the classroom.

• Whittier Middle School is a pilot school for the Kinvolved application.

Summary: The SFSD recognizes the importance of student attendance and the high

correlation to academic achievement. The SFSD will continue to use technology, data analysis,

collaboration, and communication to improve the attendance level of students.

Cost: The cost for the Kinvolved application use and support for the 2018-19 school year is

$20,734.

Administrative Recommendation to the School Board: Acknowledge the results and

initiatives underway to increase attendance levels across the District.

School Name

Nbr with

Enroll Pct

>= 94

Total

Enrolled at

least 15

consecutiv

e days Rate

Nbr with

Enroll Pct

>= 94

Total

Enrolled at

least 15

consecutiv

e days Rate

Terry Redlin Elementary 345 477 72.33% 349 510 68.43%

Whittier Middle School 773 1,032 74.90% 702 976 71.93%

17-18 Full Year 16-17 Full Year

23.0%

19.2% 19.4%17.7%

15.8%18.0%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

KG 1 2 3 4 5

Absenteeism By Grade

MRF #17851 Action 38165

Adopted 11-13-2018