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Absenteeism @ WES
California Distinguished School Award and Chronic Absenteeism at WES
A component of the California Department of Education (CDE) California School Recognition Program (CSRP), the California Distinguished Schools (DS) Program was established by the CDE in 1985 and recognizes schools that demonstrate exemplary achievements. The California DS Program recognizes elementary and middle and high schools in alternate years. Schools recognized as a California DS Awardee hold the DS Title for two years. The 2023 awards represent elementary schools only. Middle and High Schools are eligible for the 2024 award.
Beginning in the 2021–2022 school year, the California DS Program no longer required an application. Prior to this, schools had to apply and go through a somewhat rigorous process to be named Distinguished Schools. Now, any school that meets the eligibility criteria for the current year, based on the California School Dashboard data, will be recognized as a California DS Awardee.
The 2023 awards are based on the data from the 2021-2022 school year. In 2023, California recognized outstanding elementary schools. California uses a multiple measures accountability system to identify eligible schools based on their performance and progress on the state indicators as specified on the California School Dashboard (Dashboard). Information regarding the Dashboard is provided on the CDE California School Dashboard and System of Support web page.
Eligible schools in the 2021-2022 elementary school cycle were automatically selected within the following two categories using the respective criteria listed below:
Category 1: Closing the Achievement Gap
High absenteeism is determined by calculating the percentage of school days throughout the school year that is missed. If a student misses 10% of the 180 instructional days (18 total days), that student is considered truant. As you can see from Category 2 of the eligibility criteria listed above, chronic absenteeism is a big portion of determining eligibility for the Distinguished School Award. WES has an overall (K-8) chronic absenteeism rate of 17.4%. This means that 63 of our students miss more than 10% of the school year. When looking at the Dashboard data, especially the data of neighboring, award-winning schools, it is clear to see that chronic absenteeism is the reason why WES did not receive the Distinguished School Award. Because of COVID, the Dashboard data was paused for a period of time so there are no year-to-year comparables; however, going back to the 2018-2019 school year, the absenteeism rate at WES was 8%.
Awards are not the school’s main motivation; however, when this absentee data is used in conjunction with declining test scores, it doesn’t take much to understand that students aren’t learning up to their full potential if they are absent from the classroom. The climate and culture of WES have always been one of acceptance when it comes to missing school for vacations or a variety of other issues. Moving forward, the District will be working closely with the County Office of Education to ramp up efforts to follow up with families of children who are considered truant. There will be many more conversations surrounding this topic as we move forward, but in the meantime, please do your best to have your children in school, even if it is a Friday before a week-long break.
A component of the California Department of Education (CDE) California School Recognition Program (CSRP), the California Distinguished Schools (DS) Program was established by the CDE in 1985 and recognizes schools that demonstrate exemplary achievements. The California DS Program recognizes elementary and middle and high schools in alternate years. Schools recognized as a California DS Awardee hold the DS Title for two years. The 2023 awards represent elementary schools only. Middle and High Schools are eligible for the 2024 award.
Beginning in the 2021–2022 school year, the California DS Program no longer required an application. Prior to this, schools had to apply and go through a somewhat rigorous process to be named Distinguished Schools. Now, any school that meets the eligibility criteria for the current year, based on the California School Dashboard data, will be recognized as a California DS Awardee.
The 2023 awards are based on the data from the 2021-2022 school year. In 2023, California recognized outstanding elementary schools. California uses a multiple measures accountability system to identify eligible schools based on their performance and progress on the state indicators as specified on the California School Dashboard (Dashboard). Information regarding the Dashboard is provided on the CDE California School Dashboard and System of Support web page.
Eligible schools in the 2021-2022 elementary school cycle were automatically selected within the following two categories using the respective criteria listed below:
Category 1: Closing the Achievement Gap
- Socioeconomically Disadvantaged data from the 2022 Dashboard.
- Sub-group data for English Language Arts and Mathematics from the 2022 Dashboard.
- The ALL student group data for English Language Arts and Mathematics from the 2022 Dashboard.
- The ALL student group data for Suspension Rates from the 2022 Dashboard.
- The ALL student group data for Chronic Absenteeism from the 2022 Dashboard.
- The ALL student group data for English Language Arts and Mathematics from the 2022 Dashboard.
- The ALL student group data for Suspension Rate Indicator from the 2022 Dashboard.
- The ALL student group data Chronic Absenteeism Indicator from the 2022 Dashboard.
High absenteeism is determined by calculating the percentage of school days throughout the school year that is missed. If a student misses 10% of the 180 instructional days (18 total days), that student is considered truant. As you can see from Category 2 of the eligibility criteria listed above, chronic absenteeism is a big portion of determining eligibility for the Distinguished School Award. WES has an overall (K-8) chronic absenteeism rate of 17.4%. This means that 63 of our students miss more than 10% of the school year. When looking at the Dashboard data, especially the data of neighboring, award-winning schools, it is clear to see that chronic absenteeism is the reason why WES did not receive the Distinguished School Award. Because of COVID, the Dashboard data was paused for a period of time so there are no year-to-year comparables; however, going back to the 2018-2019 school year, the absenteeism rate at WES was 8%.
Awards are not the school’s main motivation; however, when this absentee data is used in conjunction with declining test scores, it doesn’t take much to understand that students aren’t learning up to their full potential if they are absent from the classroom. The climate and culture of WES have always been one of acceptance when it comes to missing school for vacations or a variety of other issues. Moving forward, the District will be working closely with the County Office of Education to ramp up efforts to follow up with families of children who are considered truant. There will be many more conversations surrounding this topic as we move forward, but in the meantime, please do your best to have your children in school, even if it is a Friday before a week-long break.