Albuquerque Public Schools
Fostering a Sense of Belonging in Our Schools
In her weekly message, Superintendent Blakey highlights innovative things schools are doing to improve attendance and celebrates schools that have made significant gains.
When students feel connected and valued, they come to school.
That principle was on full display on Tuesday during my visit to Coronado Dual Language Magnet school. From the upbeat music prompting dancing in the drop-off line to a fifth-grader who knows everyone at the school knows her name, the staff at Coronado has successfully fostered the very sense of belonging that is essential to improving our district's chronic absenteeism rate.
One little kid told me she has to be at school every day because she doesn’t want to miss out. You could feel the joy and energy at this school, and I’m so grateful to the Coronado staff for all they’re doing to make their students feel welcome and for fostering that critical sense of belonging.
As I watched kids and parents dance outside of Coronado I thought about our persistently high chronic absenteeism rate and wished we could bottle that feeling and share it with all of our schools. Last school year, 30% of our students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10% or more of the days they were enrolled. That was 3 percentage points lower than the previous year, but still way too high.
At the district level, we’ve developed an attendance support unit made up of attendance social workers in target schools and coaches coordinating with all other schools to address the problem. As part of the process, we’ve instituted an Early Warning System. School staff are alerted when students begin developing attendance and academic challenges. School staff then provide interventions to support students and families.
I’m proud of this work.
We should be asking ourselves what we could be doing at each of our schools to foster that feeling the little Coronado student shared with me–the desire to come to school every day because she didn’t want to miss out.
Many schools are rising to the challenge and doing innovative things.
Highland High School’s Drama program recently treated Emerson Elementary students to a fun filled day as a reward for strong attendance and positive behavior. Highland students read with them, gave them a sneak preview of their production of The Sound of Music, and even played soccer with them. The amazing event was supported by the Highland Student Success Group and Professionals Program.
I want to congratulate five schools, in particular, that have seen notable improvements in attendance based on the 80th day count:
- Edmund G. Ross Elementary School reduced its chronic absenteeism rate by 15.1 percentage points.
- Jimmy Carter Middle School saw a 13.2 percentage point improvement.
- Kennedy Middle School reduced its chronic absenteeism rate by 11.5 percentage points.
- Harrison Middle School had an 11.4 percentage point reduction.
- And Bellehaven Elementary School saw a 10.3 percentage point improvement.
Among the other schools that saw notable improvements in their 80-day chronic absenteeism numbers are A. Montoya Elementary, Adobe Acres Elementary and Atrisco Heritage Academy High School. Our 120-day count will be taken on Feb. 11.
We have to keep pushing and encouraging our students to be at school every single day.
Have a great weekend!