MPR: The Basic Basic

The Basic Basic
By Tim Pugmire
September 3, 1999
Part of MPR Online's "Back to School '99"series.

At the start of another school year, officials in the Minneapolis school district are telling students to show up everyday. Superintendent Carol Johnson says her goals for the school year include a 95 percent attendance rate for all students. One Minneapolis school that's already surpassing the goal.

Truancy Facts

> In New York City's public school system, the Nation's largest, about 150,000 of 1 million public school students are absent on a typical day. School officials do not know how many of them are absent without a legitimate excuse.

> The Los Angeles Unified School District, the Nation's second largest public school system, reports that an average of 62,000 students, or 10 percent of its enrollment, are out of school each day. Of these, only half come back with written excuses.

> In Detroit, 40 public school attendance officers investigated 66,440 chronic absenteeism complaints during the 1994-95 school year.

Source: Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

DURING THE NOON HOUR AT Field Elementary in south Minneapolis, the playground was noisy, the hallways were buzzing and the first day of the school year was well under way. Most students sounded happy to be back.

Jessica: Well I was this morning. But then once you get back into the flow it can get boring.
Sam: It feels great, because the summer got really long the last couple of weeks, so I was really glad to get back.
Elaine: Well, I feel pretty good, because over the summer I got kind of bored because there wasn't a lot to do.

Minneapolis school district officials are trying to get students to show up for classes as much as possible this year. Superintendent Carol Johnson says better attendance is the key to improving test scores and graduation rates. Ninety five percent attendance means a student misses about eight days during the school year. Last year, about half of the district's 49,000 students attended school 95 percent of the time or better.

Dooley: If we can get the kids here, we think we can help improve their achievement in school. So we want them here as often as we can have them here.

David Dooley is principal at Field Elementary, where students had a 96 percent attendance rate last year, one of the best in the district. He says the school raised attendance with the help of teachers, students and parents. Dooley says Field set up an attendance hotline for parents to call when their children aren't coming to school.

Dooley: When parents didn't call in to tell us about an absence, then we called them so we do follow up. So everyday we want to know where kids are. If they're not at school here, if a parent hasn't called in, then we call them.

Few students miss the first day of school. But as the year rolls on, absences, both excused and non-excused, can quickly pile up. Sixth-grader Kris Olson says she usually misses a few days every year, but has good reasons.

Olson: Strep throat, chicken pox, flu, sometimes if like my stomach hurts, tons of stuff like that. Or, if I miss the bus and parents have already gone to work and I can't get to school.

But the message of showing as as much as possible is getting through to most students Field Elementary. Sixth grader Elaine Streng says students can quickly fall behind with their school if they miss too many days of class.

Streng: If you miss at least one day or two, sometimes we start changing whole units. So, like in math one day we'll be doing multiplication, the next day we'll learn algebra. And so, when you miss that kind of stuff it takes a while to learn it.

And educators say the students who do fall behind and struggle with their work often continue to miss more days of school. David Dooley says teachers have to make all students feel comfortable, and provide whatever academic support they need, so they'll want to come to school.

Dooley: Sometimes when school is difficult for kids, their having a tough time, or maybe having some social problems, I think it's not as easy. It's pretty much like us. When work is going well and it's fun and we enjoy it, we can pop out of bed and be ready to go. When things aren't going as well it's a little harder.

Dooley says there's always room to improve student attendance. He says about four students, out of 400 enrolled, missed the first day of classes at Field Elementary.

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