Education Week - March 18, 2020 - 6

Absenteeism Driven by Virus
Could Trip States Up on ESSA

WHAT THE

RESEARCH
SAYS

Sleep Helps Teenagers Cope With
Discrimination-Based Stress
"Sleep Facilitates Coping: Moderated Mediation of Daily
Sleep, Ethnic/Racial Discrimination, Stress Responses, and
Adolescent Well‐Being"

Teenagers who have a decent night's sleep cope better
with stress the next day, including seeking support from
friends and trying to solve problems rather than brooding.
The study in the journal Child Development, based on
the activity and sleep patterns of around 250 high school
freshmen in New York City, also offers insight into the
impact of racial and ethnic discrimination on youths: All
the students involved were Asian, black, or Latino, and
they were asked to track instances when they felt they
were subject to discrimination and their well-being in the
aftermath of those events.
On days when the teenagers had longer and higherquality sleep, they reported being more likely to report
after an incident of racial or ethnic discrimination that they
"tried to find something good in the situation or something
I had learned," "reminded myself that this feeling would go
away," or "thought of a way to make my problem better."

-CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS

Biases Can Hurt Boys' Reading
"Beware of Stereotypes: Are Classmates' Stereotypes
Associated With Students' Reading Outcomes?"

Children adapt their attitudes toward reading to conform
to their classmates' perceived gender stereotypes, in ways
that put boys at a disadvantage, according to a new study in
the journal Child Development.
Researchers tracked achievement and beliefs about
reading competency for more than 1,500 5th graders. They
found the strength of individual students' beliefs in gender
stereotypes about reading was associated with their own
self-efficacy and motivation in reading, with girls generally
feeling positive and boys negative toward the subject.
After controlling for individual gender stereotypes, they
found boys whose classmates held reading-related gender
stereotypes had lower reading enjoyment, motivation, and
achievement.
-SARAH D. SPARKS

Finding Federal Support
School districts collectively received $56.8 billion
in federal money for K-12 education in fiscal 2017,
a bump of just 0.4 percent from fiscal 2016 after
adjusting for inflation, according to the most recent
federal data. Overall, districts received 36.8 percent of
their total revenue from local property taxes and state
support, but that ranged from lower than 20 percent
in 10 states to more than 40 percent in 17 states.

Federal Funding for K-12 Education, FY 2017 in billions
Title I Education
for Disadvantaged

$14.6
$11.5

Special Education
Career-Technical Education

$0.6

$16.6

Child Nutrition
Impact Aid

$1.4

All Other Federal Sources

$12.3

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics

6 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 18, 2020 | www.edweek.org

Attendance plays
into accountability
By Evie Blad
The scramble to contain the spread
of the new coronavirus has thrown a
big, unforeseen roadblock into many
school districts' efforts to drive down
rates of student absences.
The uncertainty created by the virus
eventually may be reflected in yearend data on chronic absenteeism rates
that will be publicly reported and, for
many schools, used in their states' accountability systems that determine
how well they performed.
Thirty-six states and the District of
Columbia include measures of chronic
absenteeism in their state accountability systems under the Every Student
Succeeds Act, the federal education
law that pushed states to look beyond
traditional indicators like test scores
and graduation rates in evaluating
schools.
The U.S. Department of Education
said in guidance it released March 12
that it would consider a "a targeted
one-year waiver" for schools that can't
meet attendance benchmarks because
of issues related to the virus.
States define chronic absenteeism
differently, but it generally includes
students who miss a certain number
of school days for whatever reason,
including excused absences due to illness. Even in states that didn't include
chronic absenteeism in their plans,
districts must publicly report rates.
After ESSA was enacted, attendance
advocates said tracking absenteeism
would motivate schools to explore
a range of factors that can keep students from showing up-from poor
classroom engagement to a lack of
transportation-and to find resources
and strategies to meet those needs.
Around the country, schools have
worked with parents, coordinated services like food pantries and free laundry, and launched broad attendance
campaigns.
"Schools are our hub of community," said Hedy Chang, the executive
director and president of Attendance
Works, an organization that works
with states and schools to promote
school attendance. "We don't have
many community institutions left.
Schools are one of them."
But it's harder to meet those needs
when things like the availability of
supplies and the ability to gather in
groups are limited by contagion concerns. And, even before the spread of
the coronavirus, some critics of the absenteeism measure argued that many
factors that affect student attendance
are too far outside of schools' control.

Mammoth Test
Some of the strategies schools have
used to cut back on absenteeism are
facing a mammoth test.

The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, for example, has
urged students and employees to stay
home if they are sick or have a fever
out of concern they may have undiagnosed cases of COVID-19, the illness
caused by the virus. The agency also
encouraged schools to suspend use of
incentives like monthly perfect attendance awards that may motivate students to come to class with symptoms.
Also in question: the "How Sick Is
Too Sick for School?" handouts some
schools have sent to parents in past
years to let them know they shouldn't
keep their children home if they are
fever-free and showing only minor
symptoms, like a runny nose. Attendance Works, which makes a version
of the handout, suspended its use.
And educators are also facing much
more undefined and uncontrollable
barriers to attendance: fear and confusion.
The CDC emphasizes that most
cases of COVID-19 have been in
adults, and that children appear less
likely to become ill. But families face
conflicting messages from employers,
government officials, and a variety of
media sources about the severity of
the virus and how to control its spread.
In areas heavily affected by the new
coronavirus, many businesses have
asked employees to work from home
to try to reduce transmission of the illness. But so far, most school districts
have opted to remain open, taking advice from authorities like the CDC to
consider the impact of disrupting students' education and access to school
meals many rely on.

Empty Seats
Open doors don't always mean
students show up, educators report.
Some families have opted to keep
their children home alongside parents, some have voluntarily quarantined because of possible exposure,
and some are afraid their children
may be particularly vulnerable. While
most districts are excusing such absences, they still count toward chronic
absenteeism rates.
After a student at a Hillsboro, Ore.,
middle school tested positive for the
COVID-19 virus over the March 8
weekend, the school district deep
cleaned the school, asked the student
to remain home for two weeks, and
wrote a letter to parents that classes
would continue.
"The unfortunate reality is that
COVID-19 is in our community,"
Superintendent Mike Scott wrote.
"Updated guidance from [state and
county health officials] is that closing schools may not be an effective
method for stopping the spread of
the virus."
Still attendance plummeted as the
school reopened March 9. That day,
318 of the school's nearly 700 students stayed home, district spokesperson Elizabeth Graser told Education
Week. The next day, 300 were absent,

dwarfing absence rates of 30-40 in the
previous week.
And concerns have affected other
schools that didn't have cases. Across
the 20,000 student district, there were
2,558 absences March 9, compared to
around 1,200 the week before.
"We are excusing absences related
to illness or if a parent excuses the absence out of concern," Graser said.

State Approaches
Absenteeism "is perhaps the most
likely [accountability indicator] to be
impacted by COVID-19 due to school
closures or student absences," the new
federal guidance says.
Few state education departments
address the chronic absenteeism directly in guidance to school administrators. More frequently, they outline
the process for seeking a waiver from
requirements for a 180-day school
year.
AASA, the School Superintendents
Association, has heard concern about
chronic absenteeism related to the
virus, said Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate executive director of advocacy
and governance for the organization.
Those concerns could be addressed
through waivers at the state and federal levels, she said.
"I think part of the disconnect is
that right now, district response to
COVID-19 is evolving, emergent, and
immediate," Ng said. "The scope of
any chronic absenteeism ... might almost be a lagging indicator, something
districts don't feel the full scope of until
later, and need to address at that time."
Chang, with Attendance Works, said
the issue is among those she plans to
discuss with a group of state administrators that lead attendance initiatives
as they work through unique challenges presented by the coronavirus
response. And chronic absenteeism
alone isn't likely to sink a school's
state rating, she said. Among states
that include it in their accountability
systems, most have made it worth less
than 10 percent of a school's overall
evaluation.
As schools have tracked absenteeism more thoroughly in recent years,
unique local concerns are frequently
reflected in their data, Chang said.
Districts have seen distinct attendance dips related to wildfires, measles
outbreaks, and teacher walkouts, for
example.
And even when those factors seem
out of a school's control, monitoring
the data can help administrators identify students who need extra support
or intervention, Chang said. And, in
the time of concern about a contagious
virus, the data may also be useful to
health officials attempting to coordinate a response.
"What I don't want is for folks to
think they should quit monitoring
chronic absenteeism," Chang said. "In
this case, chronic absenteeism is reflecting the challenges that are affecting families."

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Education Week - March 18, 2020

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