Attendance Matters A Report for the San Mateo-Foster City School Board November 5, 2015

The Attendance Matters Project San Mateo County Study 2015-16 A collaboration of San Mateo County School Districts, San Mateo County Office of Education, The Big Lift, and Researchers @ the Harvard Kennedy School

A Growing Awareness … Attendance Matters

The Big Lift Plan 2020 Better attendance Inspiring summers Overall Goal Increase the number of third graders who are reading at grade level from 58% to 80% Overall Strategy Pursue a “big lift” on educational outcomes via collaboration Make Big System Policy Provide quality preschool for underserved 3- and 4-year-olds Sustain progress through Aligned PreK-3 system Strategies to improve attendance, since children from underserved families are four times more likely to be chronically absent. Instructional time matters Inspiring summer programs that encourage reading and help children get excited about learning, since children who don’t have summer enrichment lose as much as two months of reading achievement A key part of all of this work is engaging families to support their children’s learning, Better attendance Inspiring summers Family engagement

Todd Rogers, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Student Social Support R&D Lab http://studentsocialsupport.org/ Todd Rogers’ research aims to shed light on the cognitive, motivational, and social barriers to student achievement, and to develop low-cost scalable interventions that are informed by behavioral science.  Many of his research projects explore the impact on student achievement of mobilizing the support of students’ family and friends. 

Rogers: “Attendance strongly correlates w/success.” Attendance predicts: Graduation Crime Pregnancy Test scores Current best practices are: School-centered Social worker/truancy officer Mentors Intervention costs: $60-$100 per day

The Attendance Matters Projects Develops a low-cost scalable intervention addressing parental beliefs and expectations Takes inspiration from related recent work that showed sending parents encouragements asking them to reduce students’ absences resulted in 5%-10% reductions Subsequent surveys suggest that the encouragements may have changed parents’ beliefs about what parents thought their “job” was

Data and FERPA Compliance Data Use Agreement Signed by all participating districts Accompanied by legal brief supporting high legal standard from County Counsel John Beiers Attendance Matters qualifies as exempt under FERPA as a research study that aims to improve academic progress. All data must be destroyed at the conclusion of the study Attendance Matters went above standard and provided clear and equal opt-out process for all families Families can opt out at any point during the study Opt out removes families from the study, but NOT the data collection

Two Treatment Phases: K-5 and 6-12 Grades K- 5 Treatment: October – June Absences in the early grades can negatively impact student achievement in later grades Grades 6-12 Treatment: January – June Sibling Attendance Awards Pre and Post Awards Comparative Awards

K-5 Communication Treatments Sample Timeline The overall timeline of mailings to families of K-5 students is as follows: Mailing 1: Late October "Attendance is important for the essential skills your child is learning." Mailing 2: Mid November "Allowing absences now may build habits for chronic absence later." Mailing 3: Late February “Students miss learning goals when absent."

Typical Communication K-5

6-12 Communication Treatments Sample Timeline The overall timeline of mailings to families of 6-12 students is as follows: Mailing 1: January Independent Recognition and Sibling Study Mailing 2: March Social Comparison Mailing 3: Late February Attendance Recognition (Awards)

Typical Communication 6-12

Project Details Year-long (August 2015  June 2016) Automated communications (mailings) Native language Parent belief-focused messaging Behavioral science-informed messaging

14 Participating Districts

SMCOE Webpage http://www.smcoe.org/parents-and-students/attendance-awareness-month/attendance- matters-project.html

Any Questions?