1. Every Child, Every Day
A Conversation about Attendance in Washtenaw County
August 19, 2014
Scott Menzel, Superintendent
Naomi Norman, Executive Director Achievement Initiatives
Washtenaw ISD
Presentation on attendance and discipline data in Washtenaw County for the School Justice Partnership meeting.

2. The Importance of Being in School
Research and data analysis shows that there is a strong correlation between attendance and achievement. The two charts here show data for different groups of students (kindergarten and high school) and the significant correlations between attendance and math and reading achievement. More can be found in the highlighted report and at the attendanceworks.org website.

3. How are absence rates determined?
Any absence from school or from a class period
excused or unexcused
examples: illness, skipping class, participating in school-sponsored activity, family vacation
Calculated as a percent present of total time possible
Example 1
Student misses 2-3 days per month = days (80-85% attendance)
Example 2
Student is late once a week and misses half a day = 18 days (85% attendance)
Varies by district based on local policy. There is no consistent measure of attendance (Does every district count the same kinds of absences in the same way? How many minutes late do you have to be to be considered absent? How many class periods does a high school student need to miss before it is recorded as a half day absent or a full day absent? How many days does a student need to miss to be un-enrolled?)

4. What is chronic absence?
Michigan Department of Education
Missing 10 days a year or more (5% or more)
Attendanceworks.org defined as
missing 10% of a school year for any reason
Missing 18 days a year (or more)
Severe chronic absence
Missing 20% of the school year or more
Missing 36 days or more
On our state data website, Mischooldata.org, chronic absence is tracked at 10 days or more absence per year. Other organizations, such at the attendaceworks.org site, use 10% of the school year as the measure for chronic absence. There is also the idea that you can be “severely chronically absent” if you miss more than 20% of the school year. In Washtenaw County we need to carefully consider these definitions because a flat 10 days or more absence rate doesn’t begin to convey the story of the complexity of our problem.

5. Washtenaw County has 30% of its students who miss more than 10 days of school. This is higher than the state average of 29%. In many schools and districts the percent of students missing 10 days or more is MUCH higher.
Source: MiSchoolData.org

6. 13,981 Students in Washtenaw County missed 10 or more days in 2012-13
Percents do not convey the actual number of students. Some districts and communities are impacted to greater degrees than others due to sheer volume of students who are missing school. But all districts are impacted on some level.
Source: MiSchoolData.org

7. This slide uses a different definition of chronic absence
This slide uses a different definition of chronic absence. It uses 10% of the school year rather than 10 days. And we also considered the idea of “severe chronic absence” since that appears to be an issue for over 2000 students in our county.
Source: MSDS Attendance Data Washtenaw County

8. Who is missing school? Which subgroups of students are impacted most?
Average White student in Washtenaw County attends 171 days of school
Average Black student attends 160 days of school
data
Source: MSDS Attendance Data Washtenaw County

9. Normalized across districts to 180 days
Only includes local districts and ISD students. Does not include charter schools.
SNE=Supplemental Nutrition Enrollment (free and reduce lunch eligible)
LEP=Limited English Proficiency
The difference between white/Asian and black is 11 days of school a year. Multiply that by 13 years of school and you have 141 day difference. That is two months shy of one year of schooling. At 160 days, black students lose 20 days a year of schooling. Multiply that by 13 years and it is at least one year of education. A few days difference is a HUGE difference in learning opportunity.
Source: MSDS Attendance Data Washtenaw County

10. Suspension Patterns for Students with IEPs (Special Education)
Type of Disciplinary Consequence
Students with IEPs in Washtenaw County
Approximately 6,100 students with disabilities with 1400 discipline consequences
Shifting to discipline data, the only data reported formally is the discipline data for students with IEPs (those receiving special education services). If we look only at this group of students, the impact of out of school suspension is startling. There are approximately 6,100 students with IEPs in this data set. There were 1400 disciplinary consequences related to suspension or expulsion. Most of the suspensions were out of school.
1037 out-of-school suspensions
352 in school suspensions
11 expulsions
Source: MSDS Discipline Data Washtenaw County

11. Looking at the out of school suspensions, districts range from suspension averages that range from one day to eight days. Each of the 9 districts plus WISD is represented here. The bottom line represents the county average.
County Average
Source: MSDS Discipline Data Washtenaw County

12. 1037 out of school suspensions for an average of 3.6 days each
In Washtenaw County :
1037 out of school suspensions for an average of 3.6 days each
3743 days of school missed
This is for students with disabilities. We do not have data for all other student groups.
Source: MSDS Discipline Data Washtenaw County

13. Where do we go from here? What did you learn?
What did you want to know that you didn’t learn today?
What are we going to do about it?
We have a challenge with our group of students
Subgroups miss significantly more school
Appears to match our gap patterns
Look at suspension patterns
Compare attendance to student achievement

14. For More Information Attendance Works: http://www.attendanceworks.org/
Chronic Absenteeism Report:
Attendance data for all districts and schools in Michigan:
For more information about this presentation and its data, please contact: Naomi Norman, Washtenaw ISD, ext. 1263