Today in the hair salon, some moms were talking about the state’s new attendance policy. Me after listening…”Retired teacher here. If you want to really know why the change, talk to teachers. I had high schoolers missing 20, 30, 40 days of school for no legitimate reason except they didn’t want to be at school.” One mom – “I guess you can just see me and all the other moms in truancy court.” Guess the moms’ minds were made up.
Y’all…STOP THE HYSTERIA! Be a parent and make your child go to school. If you don’t like the policy, homeschool where you can have more flexibility with your schedule. It is that simple.
Let’s back track to why this policy is needed (but also why it needs to have accountability measures attached which is the weak aspect right now).
I am retired. I represent no school or no district any more, so I will say what needs to be said. And I will also say this…most teachers do not speak out because they fear retaliation by their admin/district. Even if you speak at a zoning committee and say “I do not represent my school district” on public record then district sends personnel to your school the next day to question you only for you to say I made it clear I did not represent the district AND I have 1st Amendment rights…I digress…(that’s for another post).
The state’s accountability model has ruined education! Yes, you gotta start there. If I see one more celebration over a school being an “A” school, I am going to scream. Congratulations! You met the accountability marks but what is the teacher morale at your school? What is teacher retention? How is the discipline at your school? Do kids love going to school everyday? Do they feel safe to walk to the bathroom? Let’s get to what really matters! It isn’t about the score, and I REALLY WISH parents would support the B-school and possibly the C-school because you know what? That letter grade doesn’t mean education isn’t happening.
So, here are my thoughts (my soap box) of how the accountability model is a problem and has led to this attendance issue.
- AP (Advanced Placement) classes have become a dumping ground at many schools because more AP kids, more exams, more accountability points. How fair is it to the student who truly wants to be in that AP class when now you have major behavior issues and needing to backtrack all the time because of the kids who doesn’t want to be in that class? And now without an attendance policy, forget about having students who actually come to school. Before I retired, I couldn’t do half my activities anymore because I never had enough students in class to do the activity. So who gets punished? The kid who wants to learn and who is at school!
- Graduation rate is part of the accountability model. In most of my teaching years, students did not get class credits if they missed too much school. This could also mean they wouldn’t graduate on time. Now, attendance has been dismissed in MOST (not ALL) schools because you need kids to graduate. If you fail the kids for not being at school, your graduation rate decreases and could hurt your accountability score. (side note: high graduation rates is a national concern because of possible lowering of standards to see kids graduate) I want you to process this…how fair is it that a kid can miss 90 (out of 180) school days and walk across the stage to get a diploma just like the kid who showed up and did their work (true story). These kids are smart. They know how to play the system. Get zeros on all minor assignments or make up work whenever you want to then show up on test day and barely pass the test to “barely pass the class.” Or…you are disciplined for tardies so instead of getting a tardy, you are going to knock on my classroom door 30 minutes after class started, disrupt my lecture and what students are doing, then think I am going to catch you up on what you missed. Um. No. Guess who is stressed out unlocking assignments, gathering make up assignments, remediating kids for state tests, etc? Not the student, I can promise!
I remember when education was valuable and parents supported schools. We never missed a day of school. I literally had perfect attendance from 7th-12th grades. Unless you were in the hospital or a funeral, kids didn’t miss school. Most of my career was like that as well. Post-covid, parents now just think education is supplemental. Most schools in my state now get 1 week off in October, 1 week in November, 2 in December, 1 in March, then 8 weeks in the summer. Parents, are you literally telling me you could not schedule your dream vacation during one of those times????
Now, I get last minute opportunities happen. But guess what? Those kids can miss and probably will not miss much the rest of the school year. My own daughter will miss four straight school days to see her sister graduate from boot camp in August. But guess what, she knows she can’t miss much the rest of the semester. Mississippi’s new attendance policy isn’t talking to those kids. It is talking to the parents with the flippant attitude of “I’ll just see you in truancy court.” It is talking to the parents who don’t make their child go to school “just because.”
School districts, you pay attention as well! Start enforcing truancy laws! Start implementing attendance accountability measures even if it means you may have a lower graduation rate. Fix this and you will fix a lot of your teacher shortage problems!
Rant….DONE.
