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buckterp

5 Key Findings for Middle Grades from "Looking Forward to High School and College" - 3 views

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    Students' middle grade attendance is a strong indicator of future high school performance. As such, middle teachers can use such attendance info to identify students who may tend to struggle in high school, and give those students needed support in advance of ninth grade. I have not been able to implement the strategies mentioned (its Summertime!) but I intend to try some this Fall with the 10 or 15 students that I know will be attendance issues in my 8th grade classes.
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    Like you mentioned, I already know a handful of students going into 8th grade (I teach 6th-8th grade computer technology as a creative arts course) that will be attendance, behavior, and/or low GPA's. I feel like while our schools try to support student learning, we too often push kids through from one grade to the next. I have students this past year who in the semester every other day that I instruct them (45 classes in all), they have missed more than half and yet they promote to the next grade. Each of the five areas highlighted raise good points and I actually find some of the statistics very alarming considering the small differences in percentages. For example, Figure 3 on page 8 depicts two identical students with exact achievement marks in 5th grade. By the time they reach 8th grade, one students attendance improves 2% and the other students attendance drops 4% to a 93% avg. attendance rate. While this doesn't sound like a terrible drop (at least to me), the possibility of these students being on track for 9th grade went from 93% for the student who improved attendance compared to 66% of this student being on track for 9th grade whose attendance dropped just a few percentage points. I think more needs to be done at the school level to improve performance and setup interventions that help our students succeed rather than worrying about the multiple standardized tests that students are required to complete throughout the year. Thank you for sharing! I'm definitely reading over this again as I prepare for the upcoming school year with my middle school students and may even share it with my staff.
trplm06

A Focus on Attendance Is Key to Success - 6 views

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    This article describes how attendance effects students, their grades, and schools. Students who miss 10% of classes throughout the school year are considered chronically absent. The article looks at reasons why students do not attend school and offers suggestions on how to address that problem. It also outlines how a middle school cut its absenteeism in half in a short period of time.
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    One of the most interesting aspects of this article is that attendance issues faced by elementary schools directly correlate with reading levels and the subsequent chronic absenteeism in secondary schools. Three categoriesare identified to describe absences -barriers, discretion and aversion- or rather lack of access to public supports, parents and students do not understand importance of attendance, and a child struggling with academics, anxiety or bullying. Principals are utilizing attendance data to identify chronic absentee students and subsequently implementing strategies in their schools to incorporate interventions that will break down the barriers affecting school attendance rates. The article further discusses the positive effects that principals can have by reaching out to the community as well as the elementary feeder schools to collaboratively effect change that will increase attendance.
kakmeehan

Back to school: How parent involvement affects student achievement (full report) - 7 views

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    Good article on how involving parents in the school community can lead to better student achievement and attendence.
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    This is more pertinent to Group 6's EQ but relevant for all teachers.
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    I agree with you, Katherine. I think that this article typifies the heart of our EQ in that enumerates important statistical macrodata concerning parental involvement in overall student achievement. A nice find, indeed.
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    The report provides plenty of research results to support the more parental involvement in schools, and specifies which types of parental involvement yield the greatest academic improvements: programs and interventions to increase family engagement in homework, targeted programs on parenting practices regarding attendance, and regular school communication with parents such as orientations and newsletters. This quote from the Conclusion summarizes the research well: "While all forms of parent involvement play significant roles in the health of the school and the community, home learning activities are perhaps the wisest investment of school dollars and effort to produce long-lasting academic gains. While such involvement is fairly straightforward in elementary school, it's also possible later on. At the middle and high school level, school activities that promote the parent's role in maintaining high expectations for their children benefit students."
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    "Parent involvement can make a difference in a child's education." I know this is true in my school. I know for a fact that my students who have parents that are involved do better academically. This does not mean that the parent necessarily has to have a high level of education. I have had students really succeed because their parents check their agenda and homework each night when they come home. Sometimes, just knowing or having a parent that cares and that is there to push you is enough.
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    I agree wholeheartedly with the quote that states "Parent involvement can make a difference in a child's education." Once I read this line, I was intrigued with the rest of the article. I am a very driven individual when it comes to education, and I want that for my son as well. My wife and I are constantly coaching our son on the importance of education, and making sure that he completes his work on time and correctly. I have seen first hand in my two years of teaching what parent involvement can do for a students school work. I have seen students whose parents are actively involved in their school careers, and the students performed on a much higher level than those of students whose parents did not seem to be involved.
buckterp

Evaluating the Relationship between Student Attendance and Achievement in Urban Element... - 4 views

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    I found this article to be very intriguing, because although it makes the common claim that increased school attendance will result in higher GPA, it also describes how another variable, a student's distance living away from school, affects their attendance rate. According to this study, there is a statistically significant effect of the farther away one lives from school, the greater their absences will be. This is something I want to investigate further once I return to school and can see where some of my historically truant students are traveling from each day.
donero37

Closing the Achievement Gap - Educational Leadership - 38 views

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    In order to increase the achievement levels of minorities and low income students, there are three components that are the focus: high standards, a rigorous curriculum, and effective educators.
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    Caryn, I like that this article not only realistically talks about the historic and growing achievement gap, but that it also provides potential solutions. Not surprisingly, most of the solutions whether they be standards, curriculum, or teacher-based are all easily manageable. The only trick is to actually get some forward momentum on this decade's old issue. Victoria
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    Caryn, I'm reminded of the old educational psychology experiment where teachers were given false information about student abilities. Teachers who were told that a class was full of 'high performing' pupils ended up doing more high end assignments and pushing the students to do better while teachers were told their pupils were 'low achieving' did remedial assignments and barely pushed them to improve. I teach in a very diverse and low SES school, but I always do my best to assume that all of my students are able to do the high level work I assign in Physics. I also agree whole heartedly when then article claimed that teachers have to give extra help to students who are already at a disadvantage. My students do quite well when they apply themselves, but often that means they have to see me during lunch, after school, or even on Saturdays (when I work at a Saturday school program). Many students have jobs to help out their families or need to be home right after school to babysit siblings or to cook supper, etc. I find that the more time I can devote to being available to students, the better my classes perform. I must say however I would like to see an update to this. When it was talking about the lack of progress of students in the 1990s and then discussed 'data in the last 5 years..' I had to scroll up to the date of the article. Being that it is almost 15 years old, I was sad to see how many of the gaps still exist in our schools...
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    Combining standards, high standards for all learners and highly qualified teachers helps to close the learning gap.
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    I was very interested in this article because I teach at a title 1 school in MCPS. Majority of my students are minorities or low income students. Our FARMS percentage is extremely high. I do not mean to repeat what Caryn had posted earlier but I mean to piggyback on her comment "To increase the achievement levels of minority and low-income students, we need to focus on what really matters: high standards, a challenging curriculum, and good teachers." I know this to be true in my classroom. For my students I have to high expectations and structure. I have to present them with a challenging curriculum. I need to devote myself and give them all I can. But, progress has come to a halt, which happened around 1988, and since that time, the gaps have widened. To me that is frightening and it makes me want to act immediately. "Because if we don't get the numbers out on the table and talk about them, we're never going to close the gap once and for all." People need to not be afraid of talking about the data, addressing the data, conquering the data. But in order for none to take offense everyone needs to know the correct data. Before speaking, people need to be educated. There simply cannot be "downright wrong-notions about the whys beneath the achievement gap." This article is great and goes on to give us proper data. It informs us of what needs to happen in order to close the gap: standards are key, all students must have challenging curriculum, students need extra help, and teachers MATTER A LOT.
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    Looks into why the instructional gap has widened after 1988 after having been narrowed the previous 18 years.  Offers patterns and key concepts to look at when trying to understand how to close these gaps.
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    I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article as it relates to the student achievement gap. I currently teach at a Title 1 school in Prince George's County where majority of my students are working at a level below their perspective grade. This article does a great job breaking down the statistics and providing steps to move forward in solving this major issue. Lesson 1 spoke to me directly because the teaching and comprehension of standards are the building blocks of students growth. I reinforce the focus standard(s) of the week by way of intervention, homework, informal, and formal assessment. This article is very VALUABLE!!!
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    I love the lessons outlined in this resource. I especially like how Lesson 4 places a focus on the teachers and how they matter. In impoverished schools, many times the most qualified and effective teachers do not want to be there, therefore limiting the quality of teachers present. It is unfortunate that this happens but it is very common.
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    Helpful article on closing the gap with low income and minority students.
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    While this article came out too long ago to have up to date technological solutions, it still offers a brief, helpful framework for looking to improve classroom outcomes.
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    Excellent resource laying out the achievement gap problem (with data) and valuable solutions to close the gap.
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    This resource does an excellent job of breaking down and making sense of the achievement gap. When the numbers are presented in this way, it makes it clear just how wide that gap is and how worrying it is that the gap is once again increasing. The most interesting piece of the article was the stark contrast in the reasons for the gap between adult stakeholders and student stakeholders. The adults appear to place blame on factors beyond the classroom that are difficult to control, while the students highlight the growing concerns within the walls of the schools that are much more actionable.
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    The points in this article are personal to me as I teach adults at a Community College. In every cohort that I have 50% of my students have difficulty writing a cogent paragraph and 90% of them have never heard of an academic journal. While this is not part of my curriculum, I also teach these things. My students need to be sent into the workforce being able to participate in conversations in the workplace.
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    The article really breaks down what happens to students during high school where they fall behind to move forward in attending college. One thing they mention is test scores. To attend college students have to take and pass a standardized test that determines of they will get into college and what college they can get into. I believe community college is a great way to bridge the gap between high school and a university. There they can determine a major and may attend school part time while still working. This gives them the time to determine what they want to do in life while still being able to survive.
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    We should understand how race, poverty and the environment influences a child's potential in education before they even start Kindergarten. But like a disabilites or inequities there is diversity in the factors that cause these disparities and our solutions to remedies these gaps must offer a multifaceted approach. An approach that offers rigors instruction in the classrooms, access and guidance for continued learning at home and within our communities.
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    This post hits home, as I see it at my Title I school. Students struggle but even the students passing AP classes and Honors courses, yet when they see the SAT's or the ACT's. Last year, my school's valedictorian only got a 1000 on the SAT and did not get to attend her first choice. We, as a school, and larger, we as educators need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to get these students to get past whatever challenges exist outside of the school and have strict standards that need to be met.
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    This a great resource for every teacher.
tricia1022

Ohio Resource Center > AdLIT > In Perspective Magazine > Content-Area Vocabulary: A Cri... - 0 views

  • We all want our students to demonstrate newly learned concepts with the words they know as they discuss, write, and visually represent specific topics.
  • In fact, teaching vocabulary in the content areas of mathematics, science, history, and English is not a separate entity from teaching the core understandings of each domain. As Vacca and Vacca (2008) have always stated, words are labels for concepts, and so teaching vocabulary is actually teaching about the ideas they represent.
  • Therefore, in regard to teaching words in any content area, we need to keep in mind that different students will have different levels of understanding about a term and will internalize new information through each successive engagement with the term.
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  • Words representing concepts are not taught in a vacuum, but rather in contexts that illustrate how they are associated with other words and ideas. This feature of word knowledge is at the heart of effective content-area teaching and critical to vocabulary building.
  • These examples show how words and their meanings are intricately related to each other and how these relationships are tied to conceptual understanding. It is important then to help students understand these relationships and connections.
  • We must be very cognizant of how students might interpret a word definition that makes sense to us but may be misleading and confusing to those with less background knowledge.
  • Broadly defined learning opportunities include the incorporation of wide reading in content classes as well as word consciousness. Reading widely about a topic across a variety of texts provides students with multiple exposures to newly learned words along with opportunities for incidental word learning to occur.
  • In addition, broad learning opportunities include the development of word consciousness or awareness, where students learn habits of attending to new and interesting vocabulary that will enable them to acquire appropriate language for communicating in particular content areas (Scott, Skobel, & Wells, 2008; Stahl & Nagy, 2006).
  • by promoting an awareness and enthusiasm for learning new words.
  • The steps include preparation, explanation, application, and reinforcement (P.E.A.R.).
  • Too many targeted words can be overwhelming to students, especially those who struggle with reading.
  • student-friendly definitions
  • Such responses are more indicative of learning. Other activities for relating, connecting, clarifying, and applying word meanings are described in Instructional Strategies for Teaching Content Vocabulary, Grades 4–12 (Harmon, Wood, & Hedrick, 2006).
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    This article is a resource for teaching content area vocabulary.
buckterp

BALTIMORE'S "NEW" MIDDLE SCHOOLS: Do KIPP and Crossroads schools offer solutions to the... - 2 views

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    This article details the difference in achievement that has been attained by the KIPP charter schools in Baltimore, especially in middle schools. Although I was interested in how KIPP succeeded where so many others have failed, I realized that there are many differences between these schools and the school I teach in. (Parent & teacher buy-in, selectivity of the students they serve, etc). As such, I don't think the successes described here would be replicated at my school, with my 8th graders.
kakmeehan

Education World: Homework Study Hall: Making Up Missed Work - 4 views

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    How one principal managed to turn around failing grades by instituting a mandatory study hall for missed homework. He also communicated with parents when 5 assignments were missed. The teachers had indicated that grades would improve if students did their homework and were better prepared for class as a result.
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    A mandatory homework policy has been successful at our middle school. Students must complete all homework and quizzes before they are permitted to take summative assessments, and parents are notified when assignments are missing or when students do not pass a summative. Resource time, aka study hall, is time set aside for students to make up missing work and get extra assistance as needed. It's good to read about a similar successful program for high school, and I wonder if this kind of program could be helpful for addressing our team's identified learning gaps.
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    Our school does this as well, especially our math department. Of course it is up to the teacher as to whether or not they want to implement this strategy but administration seems to fully support the cause. I have a science teacher friend and a math teacher friend who both to do this. They give the students detention slips and they come after school to make up or re-take work or assignments. I cannot see myself doing this (an art teacher) but I can see why math and science would want to. I feel that most teachers should make themselves available at lunch for students. I would not suggest every day availability, but students could come meet and get help by appointment only. Too often I hear from students that the teacher tells them to come in the next day for lunch and there is no one to be found in the classroom.
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    I like the idea of a before and after homework study hall. I can contest to being so busy that you do not want to chase your child around to get their homework done. My son is only five and it is a hassle to get him to do his homework, therefore, I can only imagine how it will be when he gets older. I believe that this might benefit more students if this were implemented nationwide. Students can get the extra assistance they may not be able to get at home with their assignments. I wonder how well this would benefit my school?
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    I think this is a great idea, especially in high school and middle school! I have been speaking to middle schools in Pennsylvania, and the principals discussed how they have decided to implement homework/tutoring study halls. I think it encourages students to stay on top of their own homework. Also, it allows teachers to have one on one interaction with students, who are struggling. I thought it was smart of the principal to have another administrator oversee the process of tracking missed homework. Data has become such an important part of being a teacher, and using it to help students strive to be better in school is great.
mscook92

Differentiated Instruction, Professional Development, and Teacher Efficacy - 2 views

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    (Week 8: Mary, Jessica, and Sarah) This journal article is accessible through the link given above by accessing the UMUC library. This journal article explains the willingness of teachers to differentiate assignments for their mixed-ability students. To show teacher's efficacy to differentiate assignments, a study is conducted between two school districts. The first school district is located in an urban area containing 4,000 students. The second school district is located in a suburban area with many students receiving free and reduced lunches. A Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale is used with the participants to see how often accommodations are made for students. This is a great journal article for all teachers to read! It is important to differentiate assignments for all students. A differentiated classroom is a place where children have resources to learn new information in different ways. As it is stated in the text, "Teachers who differentiate their instruction respond to learner needs in the way content is presented (the content dimension of differentiation), the way content is learned (the process dimension), and the ways students respond to the content (the product dimension). All these adaptations are designed to meet the individual characteristics of learners and to maximize their time in school" (Dixon, F. A., Yssel, N., McConnell, J. M., & Hardin, T., 2014). Through the study conducted in the article, teachers are able to see how important it is to attend professional developments to learn more about differentiation. References Dixon, F. A., Yssel, N., McConnell, J. M., & Hardin, T. (2014). Differentiated Instruction, Professional Development, and Teacher Efficacy. Journal For The Education Of The Gifted, 37(2), 111-127.
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    @Jessicacarr @sarahdonahey
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