Aidan O’Sullivan is a senior at South Kingstown High School and a member of Governor McKee’s Young Adults Committee.
It’s common to see arguments about education across Rhode Island. Many debate whether money is being appropriately used and how to get the most bang for the buck. A common measurement of success are test scores.
Many say, “our test scores are low, so our schools need to do ….” Solutions vary from spending more, cutting funds, improving teaching and curriculum changes. But rarely do you hear about improving attendance.
We are undergoing an attendance crisis that is also playing out nationwide. The Rhode Island Department of Education defines chronic absenteeism as a student missing 10% of school days, which is two or more days a month. To see this, let’s examine the school I attend, South Kingstown High School. There are 728 students enrolled; of those 141 are on track to be chronically absent this year – that’s 19.4% of the students. That is down from the 25.5% of students who were on track towards chronically absent last year. The data may seem shocking, but South Kingstown isn’t struggling nearly as much as other districts in Rhode Island.
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Even elementary schools are fighting chronic absenteeism. Peace Dale School in South Kingstown has 460 students enrolled; 82 are on track to be chronically absent this year, which equates to 17.8% of the K-5 students.
However shocking this data is, we need to remember it has drastic effects on Rhode Island’s students.
The state Department of Education’s SAT data and its relation to attendance makes it clear that we need to combat absenteeism. Of students who are absent fewer than 5% of school days, 61.2% are meeting or exceeding expectations on the English section of the SAT. Of students who were absent between 10% to 20% of school days, that number drops to 36.9%, and it only gets worse for those who miss more school.
The same issue is reflected in the math section of the SAT. Of students absent fewer than 5% of days, 37.3% are meeting or exceeding expectations and 37.7% are partially meeting expectations. But of students who are absent 10% to 20% of days, only 14% are meeting or exceeding expectations and 32.8% are partially meeting expectations.
To put this simply, when kids miss school they are more likely to do poorly in school. In addition to poor test scores, the U.S. Department of Education also states that chronically absent students are more likely to drop out of high school, which often leads to poverty, bad health and incarceration. Chronic absenteeism is not an issue limited to a single school or community; it’s a problem for Rhode Island and America as a whole.
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However, work is being done on the issue. I am a part of Governor McKee’s Young Adults Committee, which seeks to boost young Rhode Islanders’ educational and economic outcomes, and that starts with tackling chronic absenteeism. Governor McKee has outlined funds for communities through his initiative, Learn365RI, to combat absenteeism and other issues in pursuit of surpassing Massachusetts’ education outcomes by 2030. But the governor can only do so much.
Rhode Island needs a culture change when it comes to school attendance. More work is needed to solve this. People need to know it is important for kids to go to school; if not, the future of Rhode Island and its kids will be harmed.
School districts and elected officials across the state need to work together to get kids back to school and we, as Rhode Islanders, need to bring about a culture where attendance matters.
This article was originally published by a www.providencejournal.com . Read the Original article here. .