A Modest Proposal

I don't believe in silver bullets. But in light of yesterday's post ("Absence of Alice") and the relation between attendance (i.e., presence) and learning success, a pair of ideas brought to light through discussions with colleagues may be worthwhile. Of course, there are implementation issues, among others, but, it's worth a (non-siver bullet) shot.

First, to encourage and reward attendance, provide a progressive tax refund to families whose children meet school attendance requirements. Pulling an example out of the ether: What if we provided a $500 (or any appropriate) deduction or tax refund when a child attends at or above 90%? This would not only give a positive meaning to being present at school, but would also help (minimally, but still . . .) the poverty equation as well.

Second, provide attendance reporting for classes and a general attendance rate each year and for all four years of high school on student transcripts. Rate of attendance also provides a strong predictor of dropout. Students are unsually concerned with what appears on a permanent transcript record. Perhaps we should report attendance not only for transcripts, but also at each grade report. I know some schools do this. We don't. But even those schools that I have seen that report absences don't report them as a percentage of attendance for every class. It just may make the relationship between attendance and success a bit clearer for all.

Just an end of the week thought or two . . .