Jeanie Stark is the Student Success Systems Coordinator for Manzano High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Manzano High School began working with Talent Development Secondary in 2021-22 to implement a student success system, with a strong focus on addressing chronic absenteeism.
The GRAD Partnership recently checked in with Jeanie to learn about what led to her school’s decision to work with TDS and to launch a student success system. We also discussed their accomplishments over the past two years.
How did you and your colleagues determine that chronic absenteeism was a primary issue of concern?
We started working with TDS during the 2021-2022 school year to establish a student success system to address attendance, behavior and course performance. Initially, the focus was on attendance, but we soon realized that to address attendance we needed to get to the root cause and help the whole child. It has been quite rewarding work!
We intuitively understood that if the students aren’t here, we can’t help them. Our chronic absenteeism rate in 2021 was 63%, which just wasn’t acceptable. In addition, the State of New Mexico’s “Attendance for Success Act” (implemented in 2020) also stressed the importance of attendance and encouraged schools to address the whole problem, not just put a band-aid on it.
How did your school’s student success system specifically tackle the problem of chronic absenteeism?
Our initial step was merging our attendance support work with the existing efforts of the Community Schools Coordinator. This more synergistic approach focused on student attendance and engagement from the outset. Together, we began to look at the specific needs of students and how they relate to school attendance. We tried to assess if students need food, shelter, a gas card, Uber rides, or clothing, etc., and then we worked to meet those needs. For example, one student who was abandoned and homeless received lodging in a hotel and got Uber rides to school. Happily, he went on to graduate and is now in boot camp.
Another wonderful example is “Tony,” a student who shared his full story with us this year after graduating. Tony had planned to simply finish the first semester of his senior year and then drop out of school. He told us at the time that he wasn’t very smart and that he was destined to pick up trash at apartment complexes for minimum wage. We did some schedule changing and made sure he had a check in with an adult advisor every day. If he was absent, his advisor would call or text him. In Tony’s words, “You guys wouldn’t let me dropout. You forced me to graduate.” We then talked to a local construction company who eventually hired Tony, and he is gaining a skill, buying his own tools, and has even been asked to do side jobs by clients. When checking in with Tony over the summer, he said that his boss told him to stop telling himself that he is stupid. Instead, he should remind himself that he is a thinker. His boss told me that Tony was one of the best hires he has had in a long time and that he would become a “great carpenter and framer.”
Tony has earned his first raise and is making more than minimum wage. This student needed someone to believe in him because he didn’t believe in himself. These kinds of support services are just so necessary.
I would be remiss in not pointing out that a truly pivotal event for our student success system work was launching a Family Resource Night. This not only supported students and their families, but it has become a way to engage the overall community. In just two years the event grew from 15 participating organizations to 30! Furthermore, this event has been a way to reach the families of some kids who weren’t attending school at all.
This past year we even had three parents secure employment from the Family Resource Night. All in all, this has been so successful that we are planning to expand next year’s program and add eighth graders.
What impact has this intentional word had on your school’s chronic absenteeism and overall attendance?
In two years, our chronic absenteeism rate dropped from 63% (21/22) to 33% (23/24). Our overall absence rate fell from 19% to 13% during the same period. In addition, our average daily attendance rate for all students improved from 82% to 87%, which includes a wonderful jump for the all-important freshmen class, from 56% to 85%! Furthermore, we have been able to use historical reviews of daily attendance to develop tactical approaches for targeting time periods that have typically had lower attendance. For instance, we hosted a student-led fashion show on the day before spring break, a date which has historically had an average attendance rate of 25%. This past year, because of the event, our attendance went up to 62%!
Have the efforts to address chronic absenteeism strengthened your overall school community? Has it brought people together?
Well, we are working to change our overall mindset on how we interact with our students. Also, the marriage of the student success system work with the Community Schools effort has paid real dividends. For example, the Community Schools Council, which consists of business leaders and others in the community, now asks: “How can we help with attendance?”
A tangible example of this community engagement has been the student-centered development of the ROARS Store (ROARS: Resilience, Optimism, Achievement, Respect, and Service), where students are awarded points by teachers for displaying positive and community-building characteristics. Students can then use these points to “purchase” items like student supplies, clothing articles, gas cards, and other items donated by local businesses and individuals. Students actually manage these “sales” at a student-run store over lunchtime. This has been quite successful, and students have a plethora of ideas for expanding this concept into next year.
