Renfroe Doesn’t Make AYP Due to “Attendance Rate”
Decatur Metro | July 15, 2009The AJC reports this morning that 79.1% of Georgia public schools made “Adequate Yearly Progress” this year, up from 68.8% last year. That’s a whole 11 points more learning! That bit of good news for the state was mixed with the more sobering tidbit that only 47% of high schools passed the federal government’s benchmarks.
However, Decatur is no longer part of that 47%.
After failing last year, both DHS and Glennwood passed AYP benchmarks this year. The lone problem child now is Renfroe, which passed all “test participation” and “academic performance” indicators, but failed it’s second indicator, attendance.
According to the GA Dept of Education’s website, absence rates of 15 days or more at Renfore jumped from 2.8% in 2008 to 17.7% (101 of 572 students) in 2009. The trend is the same across the two largest ethnic groups at the school, with black absence rates up from 1.6% to 21.8% and white absent rates up from 4% to 14.2%.
It’s very odd that the number of absences would spike like that in a single year. Something seems off.
Anyone know what gives?
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Those numbers make the ABSENCE rates seem a little weird; you are right. It’s almost like there are some kerflooey decimals running around – perhaps dislocated by Andisheh’s squirrels.
1.6 to 2.18 makes sense. 1.6 to 1.82 makes sense. Likewise, 4 to 4.2 seems logical. Renfroe parents really need to give a buzz to the principal and ask him/her to check into this weirdness.
Maybe it’s more cranky parents like me who resent policies that prevent conscientious parents from exercising their own discretion and taking their kid out of school for something of educational value — a trip to explore another culture being one example — and are making a point by doing it anyway.
Sorry, that’s an Unexcused Absence. Get five and maybe you’ll win a surprise visit from DFACs.
Oh, how I love zero-tolerance.
Really? I am the parent of a toddler, so don’t deal with this stuff. So if I wanted to take my child out for 4 days for foreign travel (which we do at least every other year), it’s going to be unexcused even if I arrange in advance and get all the work to do or have him do the work in advance?
Bingo. Just steer clear of that crucial fifth day, though, and you can avoid the visit from the overworked DFCS case worker… (To be fair, I believe the CSD policy is that they *may* contact social services after five UAs, but it is at their discretion. Not positive though, and the absences are still unexcused.)
Back in the olden days, absences were unexcused when you were actually skipping to do things like hide the keg you left in the bathtub for a week while your mom was out of town. I never heard of such a thing as a parent not being able to take the child somewhere without school permission.
Here’s the deal:
There is a whole summer for vacation time. 2 weeks for winter holidays. 1 week for spring break. That’s a lot of time for vacation.
If you are taking your kids out of school for a week here and there they are missing a lot. The teachers work their behinds off and then have to catch your child up, too. I’m a teacher, I know. It also makes me feel as if the parents don’t take what we do seriously.
In my opinion, school is not “optional” and at the parent’s discretion. I don’t take my vacations in the middle of October, I do it when I have the time off. School is an obligation. And when parents feel like they can decide if it’s ok or not to fulfill this obligation, (and then complaining when the school wants to know where they’ve been), they are sending a pretty powerful powerful message to their kids:
Everyone has to attend school, it’s the law. Except when I say so because we are ABOVE the law.
Kids are entitled enough these day. Geez, just get your kids to school and rearrange your vacation schedule.
Wow. I can’t muster a civil response to that.
Hey, E, I want to see your uncivil response. Wanna wanna.
well said. thank you!
Dang. I’ve ignited a firestorm. To be clear, I didn’t say or even imply “vacation.” I’m talking about experiences with educational value, and the right of parents to make that determination. I’m more than happy to share my intentions with the school in advance, and to arrange for the make-up of missed assignments (which is what I always do). But it’s my call and it’s not unreasonable for me to be rubbed the wrong way when my kid is penalized because some parents are screw ups.
I think we can agree that the state has an interest in making sure its citizens are educated. But don’t tell me that compulsory attendance is synonymous with that.
I’m kinda seeing your point here, applesauce. Honestly, I don’t have kids myself, and ergo no real dog in this fight/discussion, but having been a teacher in a past life (& friends who are still teachers), I can identify with the frustration you must feel. It’s a thankless task most of the time, isn’t it?
To the parents who’re of the “it’s my kid & I’ll do with it as I see fit” mindset, I agree that public education can seem boxed-in at times, and there certainly should be a little more flexibility on what constitutes an “excused” absence, but consider this: if the public school curriculum & rules aren’t your thing, then why not consider homeschooling or a private school that more closely shares your philosophy? Not hatin’, just sayin’.
“Geez, just get your kids to school and rearrange your vacation schedule.”
A bit harsh considering most folks can’t take ~60 contigous days off as dictated by the school board.
Applesauce, you are right on target!!!!!
If we could just get microchips implanted in all the kids, or barcodes on their arms, we’d know where the little buggers were when not in shcool.
Don’t laugh; it’s coming.
I’ll take me kids where I want, when I want.
Thanks.
As a parent of a rising 9th grader, I realize that I am part of that “unexcused absences” problem. My son was sick, perhaps more than usual this past year. Both his Mom and I work at jobs, where we are very busy, and when we keep my child home because he is sick, and then we forget or are not able to call school from our job, he is marked down as “unexcused”. Sorry.
But to somehow judge the school as not excellent, based on this, is BS (!). Renfroe is great!
I can agree with that. It’s unreasonable to assume that kids aren’t going to be sick, or that other things might happen to create the need for them to be absent– but when I was in school, we students were also responsible for making up all work that had been missed, and on our own time, too. If we didn’t, then we got left behind. If it’s not like that now, I can see why teachers would have a tough time of it trying to get the absentee kids caught up on a repeated basis, whilst still keeping the rest of the class on schedule.
While applesauce’s post was a bit strident, I think (s)he has a point. Is it really a good idea to pull your kids out of school for an entire week of vacation? They do have quite a bit of vacation time to work with, and more importantly, these are middle school kids, and they can miss an awful lot of material in one week. I would imagine frequent and/or prolonged absences would make it incredibly difficult for a teacher to cover challenging material and keep all of the kids up to speed. That’s not good for the absentee kids, their teachers, or their classmates. While I do not discount the educational value of foreign travel, and I realize that can be an expensive undertaking during the high travel seasons, I do think it’s important for kids to be in the classroom as much as possible while classes are in session.
You beat me to it– I should’ve just read down before I posted, then I could’ve simply agreed with you!
I’ve never done it and don’t have a child in these circumstances. I was merely trying to understand what Scott was saying in context of my life as it is now. By the way, my child has very close relatives in 5 countries and when he travels it is usually to see family, not to take a vacation, and since their cultures don’t always follow the US school calendar, arranging this kind of travel is not always as easy as it might seem.
Perhaps my post was a bit strident, forgive me if you took offense.
The school can’t keep up with the parent who doesn’t know the whereabouts of their school-skipping kid, the kids who is hiding the bathtub keg (that would’ve been me in middle school), or the kid who takes a legitimate trip to Europe. That is why they have to have these policies. They can seem stupid and inflexible, yes, but the school should have the right to investigate these absences as they see fit. Anyone can claim they’ve been away on vacation, but I can see the school’s need to verify it.
Also–I know it is appreciated by your child’s teacher (s) that you make sure that all assignments are made up, but kids need to be at school. You can’t make up a great class discussion or a fantastic discovery with your lab partner in science. I think this especially applies to City of Decatur Schools, where learning is a community effort.
Applesauce, let me just say that I object to the idea that there is no such thing as an excused absence. I’ll be pulling my kids out of school for a couple days this fall to attend a family wedding in another state, and I will of course lie to all of their teachers and administrators, telling them that the kids were sick.
Because that’s the zero tolerance world of education that we live in.
20,000 Georgia students drop out of high school every year, and I’ve got DFCS on my tail for a family wedding? Is this Russia?
My opinion (and it’s merely that) is that parents should make every effort to schedule trips, educational or otherwise, around school breaks. Yeah it can be more expensive or less convenient for the parents, and maybe it’s not always possible. However, I tend to agree that the parents who think nothing of taking their kid our for some enriching activity abroad can unintentionally make underpaid teachers’ jobs much more difficult, while sending a message that class time isn’t important.
My less restrained opinion is that these are kids who grow up to eat paste, grade grub, and feel entitled to extensions on assignments in college and professional life.
Well, I don’t know about the eating paste part, but I have personally seen enough kids who ” feel entitled to extensions on assignments in college and professional life” that I think you may have a point about that!
Whoa there – paste is dee-lish.
When children are absent from school the school loses money. Funds they receive are based on daily attendence. Plus the teacher has to catch them up for what they missed.
I’m gonna give this one last shot. Most responses so far seem to infer that this is about who’s in control. That’s not it. It’s about where to draw the line.
Right now, the policy makes no distinction between cutting school to get high and having some once-in-a-lifetime educational experience. Both fall under unexcused absences.
If the school system can reasonably agree that going to a doctor or a funeral is excused, they’re already acknowledging that, under some circumstances, being out of school is acceptable. My argument is simply that certain cultural or educational experiences that exceed what the school can offer seem as reasonable as having your teeth cleaned. There should be room for a parent and the school to work together in these special circumstances.
It is my understanding that the State of Georgia, under the No Child Left Behind regulations, decides the guidelines for attendance. One of the many problems found in Clayton County when it lost it accreditation, was inaccurate attendance records
All of the above posts are missing the point of the real story. It’s apparent that some good learning went on at Renfroe this year. But it was all for naught, as the abscence rate increased and now the school is saddled with the “failure” tag for the next 12 months. The ridiculousness of No Child Left Behind never ceases to amaze. Trying to use such a black/white, pass/fail scorecard to define the success of a school is absurd. I’m all for accountability, but this system makes absolutely no sense and doesn’t take into account the fine-grained details of what makes a successful school as success. I’m mean really, look at the numbers at Renfroe over the course of the past three or four years, things have really improved over there. But based on this report we are worse off than ever before because we failed in the 08-09 school year? Sorry to take it down this path – but this system totally smacks of the GW Bush’s myopic “either you are with us or you are against us” black and white world view. The sooner that we can replace this system with something that truly helps us understand how are schools are doing the better off we will be.
That said – the absentee numbers do look funny, and the community should be informed as to why the increase was so large. CSD administrators, what say you?
I’m surprised that only one of these posts has acknowledged a big reason that public school systems have to enforce attendance rules, whether the absences are unsupervised, without parent knowledge, due to a legitimate illness but the parent forgot to call or write a note, or due to a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience that is more important than all of fourth grade–$ !!!! The system gets certain kinds of funding based on convoluted formulas about the number of student-hours in that type of program. Unexcused absences hurt the school financially. I’ll bet school administrators would be more open to valuable, though “unexcused” family trips otherwise. It’s true, folks with little kids, you better do all your off-season, value vacations now! Your travel life changes drastically once your kids are enrolled in school. Private schools aren’t necessarily more lenient, depending on the school. My mother was a private, Catholic girls’ school English teacher and she’d downgrade kids who missed too many of her assignments and tests. Right or wrong, she didn’t give make-ups for unexcused absences.
I am also interested in whether the absentee rate at Renfroe has truly jumped. That doesn’t jive with what I’ve seen at Renfroe. I’m guessing that it’s either an error, miscalculation, typo, or an artifact of better reporting.
Bottom line is this….parents have abused the system, so the zero tolerance policy goes into effect. Also, since school districts must report absenses and either get or lose monies based on these figures, it is in the best interest that the kids “GO TO SCHOOL”. An occasional missed day for a wedding or funeral, or missed period for a doctor’s appointment are fine and good, but I have scheduled ALL of my child’s enriching trips around the school schedule. While not always convenient, I absolutely understand the importance of having him get the most out of his schooling by being in class, not making up work if at all possible. We certainly are raising an ‘Entitled” group of kids that are watching how we as adults teach them about the value of following rules and how we treat the education system we choose to be a part of.
Let me make sure I’ve got all these important lessons clear, lest I set a poor example for my child:
You should be punished for the actions of others.
The state understands your needs better than your parents do.
If something comes down to dollars, it supersedes the application of judgement.
Follow all rules and don’t question those that seem ill conceived.
Funeral, good. Wedding, bad.
Dentist, good. Europe, bad.
Okay, got it. That does sound like a solid roadmap for a well-rounded kid. My apologies for questioning the system.
Rebecca
My kids watch my wife and I work our butts on to put food on the table. They endure countless lectures about doing their homework, about getting to bed early so they can get to school on time, about how if they get in trouble at school they will get in worse trouble at home, etc.
I took my kids out of school to travel to DC via Amtrak to stay in a roach motel and stand in the cold to witness Obama’s inauguration. They experienced something they will never forget and have an appreciation for our country and our government far beyond their years. Were they excited about missing school too, sure. Has it undermined all that we teach them about the importance of schooling ? No. Are my kids entitled. I hope not.
Please get off your high horse and understand that some situations are just different. A few days out of school to enjoy a once in a lifetime experience might be ok.
Do people commenting on this really think a gigantic jump in Renfroe unexcused absences has anything to do at all with a few parents pulling their kids out for enriching educational experiences? Come on. Either an error in the data has occurred or there’s been a lot of upheaval among families not so well off as those with the leisure to read and comment on this blog, because of the recession hitting them.
Agreed. Once in a lifetime opportunities don’t happen 15 times per school year.
You both got it right. Obviously we differ in opinion. These are the rules of our school system. Like it or not. Choose to follow it or not…..Your choice. I knew when I took my child out of school for a family event for one day it would be an unexcused absense, and they would have to make up the work. I knew that this rule is in effect b/c of parents that abuse the system. I also know that schools get funding based on results and that my child being in the class as much as possible forces the best results. I also know that there isn’t a way for the schools to provide proper funding for a person to figure out why good vs bad parents are allowing their children to not be in school. Thus the no tolerance. Yes, we as parents set examples by following the rules, and showing our children that we are immune to certains ones that we don’t like, only teaches them to do the same thing down the road. Of course there are times when it is unavoidable, but the rules are set and if they aren’t followed, consequences exist.
Thanks Scott. You have made it clear for me too!
I think the real point of this whole thing is that Renfroe’s numbers are jacked and something is strange in those jumps. And No Child Left Behind sucks.
No…it’s the teachers unions that suck.
Those damn teachers! Keep our kids all day and try to teach them something–you’re right it’s the teachers that are soooo entitled.
TROLL
There aren’t any teacher unions in Georgia. There are teacher associations who may be affiliated with a national union; however, these associations have no true bargaining power in this state and many others in the south.
Thank you for your enlightening response to Right Wing, Frances. Some people repeat rhetoric they listen to on the radio without knowing the facts!!!
My last response was Know the Facts, not Frances.
Here, Here Right Wing!
Wow, this is all fascinating conjecture. Too bad that no one has posted anything factual regarding the statistics after a plethora of comments.
Side note – my kids will attend school and get their enriching experiences on the side. You will find them listed as valedictorians in the next 20 years. They will be available to tutor your entitled kids as they make up for missed days!
If you have a good extended trip that you want to take during the school year (maybe 2 weeks or more), all you have to do is formally withdraw them and fill out the intent to homeschool paperwork. Then you and the school are both home free… except they miss some funding based on your kid… but then again, they aren’t having to teach them for a few weeks either. By the time all the testing and homeschool lesson plan/attendance record stuff catches up with you… you have re-enrolled them in school.
I had some friends who did this so that their children could go with their father while he did business in Europe fr six weeks.
I’ve sent an email to Dr. Edwards to see if we can get some clarification on this weird jump the in absence rate.
Stay tuned.
DM, this is really the only important point in this whole back and forth – thank you for doing that.