The California Department of Education defines truancy as having 3 unexcused absences or tardies. SFUSD concerns itself with "habitual truancy" (10-19 unexcused absences or tardies) and "chronic truancy" (>20).
How much do truancy rates tell us about a school? I'm still touring Starr King for Mandarin immersion, but Rosa Parks didn't make the cut.
Your take: useful or not useful?
SFUSD Truancy Rates by Elementary School,
3 year average for 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11
| Lowest truancy rates | |
|---|---|
| Sherman | 0% |
| Alice Fong Yu | 1% |
| Chinese Education Ctr | 2% |
| Edward R. Taylor | 4% |
| Francis Scott Key | 5% |
| Redding | 6% |
| West Portal | 6% |
| Jean Parker | 6% |
| Sunset | 6% |
| CIS at DeAvila | 7% |
| Robert Louis Stevenson | 7% |
| Jefferson | 7% |
| Gordon J. Lau | 9% |
| Commodore Sloat | 10% |
| Lawton | 10% |
| Highest truancy rates | |
|---|---|
| Charles Drew | 84% |
| Paul Revere | 76% |
| Malcolm X | 74% |
| El Dorado | 69% |
| Carver | 67% |
| Starr King | 66% |
| Leonard R. Flynn | 62% |
| John Muir | 60% |
| Cleveland | 58% |
| Bret Harte | 56% |
| Rosa Parks | 55% |
| Bryant | 54% |
| William L. Cobb | 51% |
| SF Public Montessori* | 50% |
Truancy rates, all elementary schools
| Sherman | 0% |
| Alice Fong Yu | 1% |
| Chinese Education Ctr | 2% |
| Edward R. Taylor | 4% |
| Francis Scott Key | 5% |
| Redding | 6% |
| West Portal | 6% |
| Jean Parker | 6% |
| Sunset | 6% |
| CIS at DeAvila | 7% |
| Robert Louis Stevenson | 7% |
| Jefferson | 7% |
| Gordon J. Lau | 9% |
| Commodore Sloat | 10% |
| Lawton | 10% |
| Ulloa | 11% |
| Lafayette | 11% |
| Longfellow | 12% |
| Garfield | 13% |
| Frank Mccoppin | 13% |
| Sutro | 13% |
| Argonne | 15% |
| John Yehall Chin | 16% |
| George Peabody | 16% |
| Claire Lilienthal | 17% |
| Dianne Feinstein | 17% |
| Harvey Milk Civil Rights | 18% |
| Marshall | 21% |
| Monroe | 24% |
| Clarendon Alternative | 24% |
| Lakeshore Alternative | 24% |
| Junipero Serra | 24% |
| Glen Park | 24% |
| Yick Wo | 24% |
| Alvarado | 27% |
| Miraloma | 28% |
| Alamo | 28% |
| Buena Vista | 29% |
| Visitacion Valley | 30% |
| Guadalupe | 30% |
| Mission Education Center | 31% |
| Tenderloin Community | 33% |
| Creative Arts Charter | 34% |
| Jose Ortega | 34% |
| George R. Moscone | 35% |
| Spring Valley | 36% |
| Grattan | 36% |
| SF Community | 36% |
| Rooftop | 36% |
| Daniel Webster | 37% |
| Hillcrest | 38% |
| New Traditions | 40% |
| Cesar Chavez | 42% |
| Sheridan | 42% |
| Sunnyside | 45% |
| Fairmount | 46% |
| Mckinley | 46% |
| Bessie Carmichael/Fec | 48% |
| SF Public Montessor | 50% |
| William L. Cobb | 51% |
| Sanchez | 53% |
| Bryant | 54% |
| Rosa Parks | 55% |
| Bret Harte | 56% |
| Cleveland | 58% |
| John Muir | 60% |
| Leonard R. Flynn | 62% |
| Willie Brown | 65% |
| Starr King | 66% |
| Carver | 67% |
| El Dorado | 69% |
| Malcolm X | 74% |
| Paul Revere | 76% |
| Charles Drew | 84% |
Not useful for me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can share what your logic was for spending time averaging the data and what you thought it might tell you about the schools? I'm curious.
Some of the truancy data is interesting. Yes, low income schools have the highest truancy rates, but higher that you'd think are schools that have 7:50am start times and/or more affluent populations and are generally more high performing (see Grattan, McKinley, New Traditions, Rooftop, Alvarado, Alamo, Clarendon>)
ReplyDeleteMy kids have been in school for several years. SFUSD is very aggressive with the truancy stuff. We got called for truancy because my son forgot to get late notes a few times when he came in 10 or so minutes late. Interestingly he is a twin, and while he was called on truancy, she was not. How could this be if they were both there?
I wouldn't get too worried about this data. You will drive yourself cuckoo!
I am enjoying your posts because you and I are going at this process with completely different approaches.
ReplyDeleteJust so I can understand better, what are you inferring from this data?
as a side note, we have a family friend who is at one of the lowest truancy rated schools. they took six weeks off to travel last year and never once were they contacted from the school district. they notified the teacher they would be gone but either the teacher did not report it or???
I wouldn't rule out Rosa Parks just yet, especially if you're interested in the Japanese program. If I'm not mistaken, there are two tracks there (GE and the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program) and I think the rates could be very different for the two tracks (though averaged in the data).
ReplyDeleteHey 11:34am. Was your friend who traveled for 6 weeks at Sherman? The truancy rate there does not strike me as realistic, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some manipulation (as in, not reporting.)
ReplyDeleteI think truancy rate may tell you something about actual truancy and something about school record-keeping and reporting, and how strict they are about counting absences as excused (eg for family travel). My child's school is listed as having a very high truancy rate. He was listed as truant last year even though I know we provided notes for his absences. So I wouldn't put too much stock into it without more investigation.
ReplyDeleteThe truancy rates by school were the easiest data to crunch, especially compared to CST test scores that are broken down by grade and categories like "White, Non-economically disadvantaged" and "Parent Education Level-Graduate School,"
ReplyDeleteI hoped that truancy rates would give broad information on school culture and what issues the school administration is able to take on. It looks like it doesn't provide much additional information.
Using this measure will cause increased class and race segregation in our school system, not less.
ReplyDeleteTo 1:20. I think that if ALL families had access to this level of information, it would affect the schools they chose to look at and potentially decrease segregation.
ReplyDeletePart of the issue with school choice is that when the system is complex or nontransparent, it gives an edge to families with greater time and resources to figure out these numbers.
I think that school data on truancy, poverty, parent education level, ethnicity, and test scores should be readily available to ALL parents, not just highly educated. internet-savvy ones with spreadsheet skills.
I've already shared school data with an African American colleague who lives in the Bayview, and it helped her with her kindergarten search.
Our kids attend Rosa Parks. I want to comment that truancy notices don't necessarily equate with something ominous. We have kids who go on family visits to Japan for 2 weeks at a time, or whose parents' work takes them overseas and the kids go along for an enriching cultural experience. All such absences are considered "unexcused" and generate truancy notices.
ReplyDeleteOur own family had a compelling reason to travel East last month (for an event I wouldn't have had my kids miss for the world) and so my own kids just contributed to that overall truancy percentage (despite ample pre-notification, taking homework along with us, etc. - none of that matters re: "truancy")
Other that the above types of examples, I'm sure there is some delinquency in attendance among some of the disadvantaged kids at the school, but nothing that in any way would lessen YOUR child's experience. The administration itself is very clear that school attendance promotes the best learning.
Remember that schools get PAID only when students attend. So high truancy rates means underfunding at the school.
ReplyDeleteMy son's school has a higher than average attendance rate - the principal just did a presentation on our rates and the SFUSD average - we are ahead of the game.
I think attendance is an important factor, especially if a school doesn't ahve an active fundraising PTA to make up for the lost money.
How much money does an elementary school loose for a single "truent"?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that a single "truent" is defined as >= 3 days of unexcused absence. Our school, McKinley Elem, has a rate of about 46%. Almost 1/2 of our kids are "truents" which is like stamping 170 kids with a scarlet letter - but this is another matter.
The per-child cost could amount to quite a bit of cash for our school.
When the 2012 Giants World Series parade was held in SF, I believe that the amount of funding lost per SFUSD child who missed school that day was reported by the Chronicle to be around $38. Seems like a little different metric than the poster above who reports the "truent" definition as >= 3 unexcused days. I don't know which is correct, but perhaps someone has the desire to research the parade story of 2012.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds about right. SFUSD got $5,347 per student for average daily attendance for 2012-13. Divided by 179.5 instructional days, that's $30 per student per day.
DeleteSources: SFUSD Recommended Budget for 2012-2013, page 9, and SFUSD Instructional Calendar 2012-2013. Links below.
http://www.sfusd.edu/en/assets/sfusd-staff/about-SFUSD/files/budget/FY12-13-recommended-budget.pdf
http://www.sfusd.edu/en/assets/sfusd-staff/news-and-calendars/files/2012-2013%20Instructional%20Calendar%20Final%20with%20furlough%20days%20(final).pdf