Update

The first semester our attendance rate was up 2% from the year before. Our average was over 94.5%. Although we were pleased with the progress, we are not satisfied. Our goal is over 96%. The second semester started fairly slow. As always we have had several students out with the flu. We are however starting to recover.

What we have used:
Frequent warning letters
Home visits
Filing truancy
Weekly conferences

All have had some success. Unfortunately, we often don't get the students' attention until it is too late. Hopefully we will have more success as the year goes on and into next year as well.

Procedures

We will have only one secretary that will deal with attendance. Our plan is for her to run a daily report to see if any students skipped a class. She will check her findings with the sign-out log and give me a report. She is also going to give me a weekly report every Monday morning. I will then evaluate the report and discuss any issues with the SRO. When we have students with too many absences we will contact them and possibly make a home visit or just go get them from their home.
This is really just a basic overview but I think that through constant monitoring and quick reaction time we will be able to make a significant improvement.

SRO Back On!

A School Resource Officer was approved for this school year. I am hoping it actually happens because I think it will be a great addition. The principal and I will meet with the resource officer sometime next week to develop procedures.

Starting Outline

First, thank you for the encouraging thoughts.

Here is what I have as my outline for my action research so far.

What do we want to accomplish:
· We want to figure out which students miss most frequently.· We must determine why they are missing.
· We need to monitor all students’ attendance while focusing on the determined at-risk students.
· We must develop a procedure that allows us to take action on issues in an appropriate time frame.
· We must develop a system to change the behavior of the students that frequently miss.
· We must analyze the data we receive through attendance reports to determine which interventions are most effective.
Activities to be conducted to help us reach our goal:
· The attendance committee will meet to analyze attendance data in order to identify at-risk students.
· Secretaries, counselors and campus administrators will meet to develop attendance management protocol.
· Attendance committee will help set the action plan for deficiencies.
· The assistant principal will monitor attendance and take necessary action when needed.
· The attendance committee will meet to evaluate student attendance each six weeks tying performance to attendance.
· Attendance committee will make necessary modifications to the action plan and the assistant principal will make adjustments to the consequences.
Resources and tools:
· Attendance protocol of other districts with high attendance rates should be studied.
· Professional journals· The most important tool will be the attendance reports generated weekly.
· Home visits will be an important tool in this process.
Timeline:
· Before the start of school we must – create an attendance committee, analyze last years data and develop a system to monitor attendance.
· Weekly during the year we must – run an attendance report and look for issues while keeping a cumulative total.
· At the end of each six weeks we must – meet as a committee to discuss progress or problems as well as make any adjustments to the protocol.
· At the end of the semester – a report will be generated breaking down groups, grades and overall attendance with the goal being a 96% attendance rate and improved passing rates.
· During the second semester – the same process will be followed ending in a year end report with the same goals.
Person responsible for the implementation:
· The assistant principal will lead the attendance committee and will monitor the weekly attendance reports.
· The principal and assistant principal will determine the new daily attendance process while consulting the counselors and secretaries.
· The attendance committee (not yet selected), led by the assistant principal, will generate six weeks, semester and yearly attendance reports.
Process for monitoring goals:
· Data will be broken down each six weeks.
· The percentage of each group’s attendance will be reviewed.
· The attendance of each individual student targeted before the year will be reviewed.
· Reports will be cumulative and reported to the principal and superintendent.
Assessment instrument:
· Our assessment instrument will be data generated from attendance reports. We will use the attendance rate to determine success and possible adjustments.
· We will also look at the time table from when an issue occurs to when it reaches the assistant principal’s desk as well as when it is acted on.

Big Changes

There have been a couple of big changes at RHS. We already have a new principal but when I heard our assistant principal was leaving, I applied for the position. I will be hired as the new assistant principal at the next board meeting. What an exciting opportunity. The second big change was that I found out that we may not be able to work out the details with the city and may not get to hire a resource officer. Either way I will be in charge of attendance and it will be real interesting to see how it goes. We will start creating our plan of attack on Monday.

Preparing to start

I met with my supervisor and found out we are hiring a resource officer for our campus. We agreed that attendance is a huge issue for our campus and time had been a problem in the past. Hopefully the personnel addition will help make monitoring attendance easier. He also agrees that there was still a problem with out procedures. We must be able to see potential problems early enough to fix them before they become an issue. Taking all of this into account, we decided on an inquiry. How can we improve our attendance procedures to keep us ahead of any potential attendance problems? Our system must be completely reworked and I believe we can improve our attendance rate significantly.

how educational leaders might use blogs

Networking is an important part in sharing ideas within the education community. It is good to see what others are doing to solve certain issues at their school. By using blogs, you can share your successes with your colleagues.