PCSB Testifies at DC Council Hearing on Truancy and Attendance

PCSB's Senior Equity and Fidelity Manager, Rashida Young, was invited to speak at the DC Council Hearing on Truancy and Attendance led by Phil Mendelson, Chairman. Young's remarks (as prepared for delivery):

"Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the important issue of truancy.  My name is Rashida Young, and I am the Senior Manager of the Equity and Fidelity team at the DC Public Charter School Board, or PCSB.

"As the District’s only authorizer of public charter schools, PCSB’s goal is to provide Washington DC students and their families with quality public school education options.  PCSB achieves this through a comprehensive application review process, effective oversight, meaningful support and active involvement of parents, school leaders, the community and policy makers.

"As part of our oversight of DC public charter schools, PCSB places particular importance on the issue of attendance and truancy.  Our review of the data indicates that there is no doubt that students with fewer absences perform better academically. Students with fewer than 10 absences, excused or unexcused, scored an average of 11 points higher on the DC CAS assessment than those with 10 or more absences in school year 2013-14.

"Due in part to our emphasis on this issue, and especially the hard work of public charter schools across DC, truancy and attendance numbers are trending in the right direction.  In school year 2013-14, our truancy rate, the number of students with 10 or more unexcused absences, fell to 14.9%, down from 18.8% the previous year. 

"However, our analysis of the data indicates that it matters very little whether a student’s absence is excused or unexcused; the impact on learning is the same.  Therefore, PCSB places particular emphasis not just on the truancy rate, but also on the in-seat attendance rate, or the number of days a student is actually present in school. 

"Fortunately, this rate is also climbing in public charter schools, moving from 90.7% in school year 2012-13 to 91.5% in SY 2013-14.  That rate continues to outpace the city average of 89.8%.  In real terms, that means an average of 300 additional students in school each day at DC public charter schools.

"A number of schools have also proven to be exemplary at maintaining high in-seat attendance rates, with rates at 95.5% or higher in SY 2013-14. These schools include Washington Latin PCS-Middle School, Washington Yu Ying PCS, BASIS DC PCS, DC Prep PCS-Edgewood Middle, LAMB PCS, and KIPP DC ‘s – LEAD, WILL, and Spring Academies. 

"Now that you know where we stand, I’d next like to talk about what we’ve done to help schools achieve these numbers, and what we plan to do moving forward to continue the improvement.

"PCSB’s truancy policy seeks to reduce absenteeism by helping schools focus resources on families who need the most help while allowing schools to show improvements within the school year.  We focus on helping schools improve their data processes and transparencies, so that trends in the data can be spotted and troubleshooting can occur more easily.

"We enforce this policy using a dashboard that schools report their data into that allows PCSB staff and schools to track improvement or declines in attendance at the school and student-level in real-time. Schools with unusually high truancy rates are issued Notices of Concern by the Board, and schools with unusual data trends are audited by PCSB staff to ensure the accuracy of the data. 

"For 2014 we have implemented a revised truancy policy that will notify schools in real-time when they reach various attendance thresholds.  Previously this was done in quarterly reports.  The new policy will allow schools to have a better picture of their data and implement intervention strategies more expeditiously.  Furthermore,  PCSB staff regularly review schools’ attendance data and informally reach out to schools with outlier data so they can tweak their strategies to ensure improved attendance.

"We also look forward to continuing our relationship with various District agencies, such as CFSA, that also work on this issue.  By working with these agencies, and helping our schools to do so as well, we are hopeful that we can better implement early interventions to ensure students are receiving the supports they need to get to school to learn each day.

"Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.  We share your commitment to increasing attendance and reducing truancy in the District to ensure that all children have a chance to achieve academically.  I am happy to take any questions you may have."

As part of our oversight of DC public charter schools, PCSB places particular importance on the issue of attendance and truancy.