Today teacher layoffs for 2010-2011 hit the front page of the New York Times, “Revenue Cut, Schools Warn of Huge Teacher Layoffs Across U.S.” by Tamar Lewin and Sam Dillon.  The news (with photo of 21, 000 plus in California) finally comes to the attention of the nation.

mixed neighborhood school in Silicon Valley

Most media minutes this past week were devoted to the teacher evaluation-tenure-compensation conundrum.  Last week’s post reported on Colorado’s SB 10-191 legislative bill.  End of the week Florida’s governor finally vetoed the state’s bill after the entire school community flushed out the legislation’s inadequacies.

Still, how are teachers going to address the evaluation-tenure-compensation issue next year when they’re all laid off?  In fact, a long list of school-wide problems must be addressed to establish a fair playing field on which teachers and schools will be evaluated, a playing field with a timer ticking off minutes of instruction.

Truancy is at the top of the list of insidious problems for persistently low-performing schools.

How can students learn when they don’t arrive on time and every day?  When a child arrives tardy by 20 minutes once a week, it doesn’t seem like much.  When he misses 3 days in the month, it doesn’t seem like much.  Right now there are on average 36 weeks of actual learning time.  Take away about 720 minutes or 2 days a school year for tardiness, 27 more whole days of unexcused absence, and the student misses four weeks-a month-of learning time in a school year.  Now that’s many minutes!

Let’s hope more stimulus money is legislated by Congress soon, as in the next month, so teachers remain.  On Monday this week the TV news mentioned the coming distribution of millions of dollars to districts with identified persistently low-performing schools. You can bet those teachers and principals will assert ‘you want to see improvement from the beginning to the end of the year, it stands to reason that the school board better have plans to improve truancy data.’

It certainly must be in place before any new teacher accountability plan for tenure and compensation takes effect.

Severe truancy problems can be reversed.  For example, at Success for All elementary schools student attendance (arrival on time every day) is one of the first problems addressed–so students can take advantage of the learning strategies being put in place.

How do minutes of truancy decrease?  Before school a rousing Sousa march is played on the PA system,  students line up in a circle, and the principal announces birthdays, events, classes with the best attendance, and so on which are applauded.  The children go to class where a game is played to spell words, one letter each day everyone is present.  The word completed, a small reward is provided and the class is congratulated by the principal.  The attendance clerk contacts absent students’ families daily and information is sent to the district that keeps computer records of attendance with the goal of 96% each month.  The school counselor is on the phone immediately with the parents of tardy students.  A plan is set up to call, pick up, attend the morning Sunshine Club (where students sit in a group for breakfast).

If that isn’t enough, the counselor contacts the county truancy court and proceedings are initiated.  In an elementary school, one court appearance per family is usually enough, other younger children are kept track of before the problem stands out again.  See San Francisco Chronicle article “Oakland truancy court for parents” by Matthai Kuruvila (April 17, 2010) for more information about California education laws on truancy.

Be ready.  It takes relentless, unending time and effort in neighborhoods with single mothers, families working several jobs, older siblings who baby sit and don’t set good examples.  Such oversight must be funded substantially and not pulled away when the chips are down.  Like laying off teachers, cuts saves money but at what cost to the long run across the playing field?

It takes no more than a minute to agree, truancy reduction is one major procedure that will ensure many more minutes  of effective learning time on task, the entire goal of U. S. public schools.