Every Day is Important

       Occasionally I would have a student who needed to miss my class because of some other event taking place during the school day; a guest speaker, a pep rally, an AP test, extra help in another class, ... all sorts of reasons.  Being the good student that she is, she would come to me a day or two before the event to find out what she is missing and to be aware of lesson and/or assignment for that day.  This never bothered me.  I never considered my class to be the center of universe; and I knew that school offered my students a range of experiences and I wanted them to have these experiences.

       What DID bother me is when the student would ask, "Are we doing anything important on that day?"

       Of course I always responded, "We always do something important."  But this question (also) always made me think of my students' perceptions of my class.  Unfortunately, I think they viewed a "test day" as an important day.  Students would sometimes try to reschedule their other event if they were going to miss a test (sometimes not).  But, I think, that students also perceived the basic lesson day as a less important day; perhaps as just a typical day.  These days are viewed as the days that can be missed without any penalty--you can make up the work; you won't fall behind in any way.

       It is this perception of less-important days that leads some students to skip school for a day.  It leads parents and families to take their children out of school for a day or more for a family vacation or for baseball tryouts or for a scouting trip.

       How do we convince students that every school day is important?  As teachers, we know that the time we have with students in class is valuable time.  Often, we struggle to complete everything that needs to be completed in a school year (or in a course).  But how do we help students to understand that what goes on in class cannot be easily replicated or made-up outside of class?

       It is for this reason that I would always begin teaching on the very first day of school.  I didn't want my students to go home on the first day of school and say, "We didn't do anything in school today.  All we did in every class was introduce ourselves (six times)."  It is for this reason that every time we had an early-closing day or a late-openning day, I would always make the best use of the time I had with my students.  Why come to school if every teacher were to say, "We only have short periods today due to ________ so we are just going to do nothing in class."?

       Every day of school is an important day.  Every class, every minute in class.  Teachers should not ever give their students any reason to believe that any class is a waste of time or is unnecessary.  School is important.  Learning is important.  Every day counts.  We have to show our students that this is true by our actions in class.  We want students who want to go to school every day, because every day of school is important.

We Must Do Better - Part 2

       This post is part two of a three-part series titled We Must Do Better.

       I love public schools; and there is a lot to cheer about when it comes to the ability of public schools to prepare students for their futures.  But there are three major areas in which public schools must improve if we want to see ourselves as providing a world-class education to our nation's children.

       1) We must raise the achievement of poor children.

       2) We must increase graduation rates.

       3) We must provide continuous, high-quality professional development to our teachers.

       It isn't that there aren't other areas that can and should improve in our public schools.  But improvement in these three areas are absolutely critical if we truly want our school system to be exceptional and of the highest quality for all of our students.

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We Must Do Better

Part 2 - Increasing Graduation Rates

       Part 1 of this series was about the need to increase achievement among poor students.  I am going to begin this part by looking at the differences in high school graduation rates between poor students and non-poor students.  Take a look at this graphic from the organization America's Promise Alliance:

       This graphic shows that (in 2012) low-income students had a graduation rate below 80 percent in 41 states while non-low income students had a graduation rate below 80 percent in only 7 states.  As a nation, our graduation rate in 2012 was 81 percent.  (source: National Center for Education Statistics - The Condition of Education)  

       Our national graduation rate has been rising since the 1995 - 1996 school year when it was 71%. We are moving in the right direction as a nation, but we still have a long way to go.  Allowing 1 of every 5 students to leave school without a diploma has real and serious consequences.  These include:

• Higher unemployment rates
• Lower pay compared to people with high school diplomas
• Greater need for public assistance
• Greater chance of incarceration
• Less effective parenting skills

(sources: here and here and here)

       Public schools clearly have many responsibilities.  We must do everything we possibly can to get more students to graduate from high school--especially poor students.  In decades past, completing high school was arguably less important than it is today.  However, in today's world and in the world that our students will inherit, people without a high school diploma have a greatly enhanced risk of lifelong struggles to avoid poverty and to experience a middle-class lifestyle.

     As a graduate student, I questioned the difference between students who dropout of high school and students who graduate in the bottom 10% of their class.  I hypothesized that such students who barely graduate were no better off than students who didn't graduate.  Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, I discovered that weak high school graduates were still better off than high school dropouts.  That's right; even students who struggle to pass all of their courses in high school and eventually graduate are better off than people who never earn a high school diploma.  Why?  I think it is because there is something within these weak students that says, "This (schoolwork) is hard, and everyday I come to school I know that I am going to struggle.  But I am going to continue to come and to work and to finish high school."  I believe that students who (perhaps) hate school and always struggle academically AND still graduate have had a life experience that they carry with them in their futures struggles.

       This message of the importance of graduating from high school is logical and sensible to everyone working in education and probably to just about everyone outside of education.  But despite our best efforts, this message is not getting through to 19% of our youth.  And it is hitting particular groups of students worse than others.  Once again, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (see top of page 13):

Group                  Graduation Rate (2012)
Amer. Indian/
Alaskan Native                68%

Hispanic                           76%

Black                                68%

Poor students              well below the national average (see America's Promise)

     These focus areas will help to improve graduation rates among our most vulnerable groups of students:

1. Adress chronic absenteeism
2. Improve middle schools
3. Re-engage youth who have left school
4. Provide more and better adult and peer supports

       We must do better at raising the high school graduation rates of our students.  It is important to our nation; it is important to every young man and woman in our high schools.

We Want to See You Everyday

     Public schools have something for everyone.  Aside from the "core four" subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies, schools offer Art, Music, Physical Education, and Foriegn Language.  But even more than that, schools at every level offer all sorts of clubs and teams and groups for students to join and to learn more about.

     While school is mandatory for all students, we know that students will not come to school everyday if they don't feel a good and positive connection to their school.  We also know that students who come to school everyday tend to have better grades (see chart).

     Of course, it makes sense that you have to be in school to learn.  We know that students who are absent a lot, often struggle to keep up academically.

     Sometimes we have students who struggle in their core-four subjects, but love Art and Music and come to school everyday because they don't want to miss their Art and Music classes.  Even these students will do better in Math and Science than students with poor attendance--just because they come to school everyday.  And maybe as they grow up, they will learn to actually enjoy their Math and Science classes more!

     Every day counts in school; every day is important.  And, we want to see you everyday because we like to see your smiliing faces too!  So come to school to learn, to play, to socialize, to be on team--but be sure to come to school everyday.