Using Data to Inform Action in "Real-Time"

Leveraging Attendance Data to Improve Student Outcomes

Overview

As with most schools across California, Salinas City Elementary School District (SCESD) saw a steep increase in chronic absenteeism rates when the 2021-2022 California School Dashboard was released. Because of their previous work around data literacy, particularly in attendance data, SCESD had the tools they needed to begin exploring potential root causes and action steps. As SCESD started to unpack the data, both bright spots and concern areas emerged, demonstrating that analyzing one indicator can result in multiple implications for practice. The district’s efforts to conduct deep data dives resulted in their ability to highlight best practices among school sites as well as target their interventions to students most in need.

Building Data Literacy: the Foundation for Data-Driven Action

To effectively examine data to inform action, it requires capacity-building around data literacy and strong alignment within the team in terms of identifying goals and defining/measuring success metrics. The district recognized they needed two levels of data: an aggregate level tracking system that was disaggregated by student group and a system to keep track of the students that were at risk of becoming chronically absent in a pre and post-format. So, dashboards were built for all schools that is updated monthly and a process was developed for pulling data on at-risk students into a spreadsheet for teams to use. SCESD was able to quickly come together to analyze their attendance data and jump into action because of their foundational work around data literacy.

By building a data culture that embraces the unpredictable and encourages innovation, SCESD has been able to uncover new strategies and examine their impact. Recently, this work resulted in three highly impactful strategies for improving attendance: a shift from a punitive focus to a supportive and inviting approach, engaging students who are at-risk of being chronically absent by using the 2x10 Relationship Building Strategy Guide, and a Check-in Check-out (CICO) system for students who need more intensive support.

2 x 10 Relationship Building Strategy

Uncovering "Bright Spots" and Strengthening Collaboration with Data

A quick comparison of Salinas City Elementary School District’s absence by reason rates with Statewide rates showed a clear “bright spot” for SCESD, with their ratio as 67.1% excused and 28.6% unexcused absences while Statewide was 52.9% and 38.6%. Aldo Ramirez, Associate Superintendent of Educational Services, attributes this at least in part to their work around absenteeism with their long-time county partners in the Monterey County Office of Education. Additionally, since Latinx students are over 90% of the district’s population (2022-2023 Enrollment by Ethnicity, CDE DataQuest), they leaned on bilingual staff and community members for support with improving communication and relationships between families and school. Families were becoming more aware of how excused and unexcused absences were defined as well as the attendance policies in place, which has allowed them to meaningfully participate in discussions on absenteeism.

It was no surprise to SCESD that entering the 2022-2023 school year, chronic absenteeism would be a pressing issue. So, SCESD pulled attendance data for all of their school sites to review their rates from the start of the school year to January. They found that the Dual Immersion Academy of Salinas (DIAS) was reducing their absence rates significantly quicker than the other school sites and decided to reconvene school attendance teams to conduct empathy interviews with the DIAS team. The DIAS team shared their approaches in the empathy interviews, which included closely monitoring student attendance data and employing a check-in/check-out system with students that were on the verge of being chronically absent, along with an “all-hands on deck” approach so every staff has 2-3 students they connect with. There was a strong focus on building a culture of belonging. This cross-team collaboration helped staff explore what was happening at DIAS that could be contributing to their progress and apply similar strategies at their own sites.

Data as a Critical Reflection Tool

Not only did SCESD’s data review help uncover strong practices within their district, it also shed light on areas that needed more attention and intervention. Even though the absence by reason rates could be viewed as a “bright spot” for SCESD, disaggregating the data by race/ethnicity revealed a clear disparity for their African American students compared to other student groups. African American students still have more unexcused absences than excused absences. This immediately told SCESD that they needed to conduct a deeper examination to find out what is causing the disparity and how they might address it. This is an area the district is currently actively investigating.

Ultimately, the reason for an absence does not change the fact that a student is missing school. Looking beyond absence by reason rates, SCESD’s overall 2021-2022 chronic absenteeism rate (37.9%) is still higher than the Statewide rate (30%) and significantly higher than the district’s 2018-2019 rate (9.5%). Being able to critically reflect on data at the state, district, and school level has been a key practice for SCESD to be intentional about their attendance practices and continuously improve. The data culture established by SCESD has set them up to have meaningful conversations around data to identify areas of need and measure the impact on student outcomes.

Expanding Efforts Beyond the District

In addition to the collaboration happening within the district, SCESD’s work with attendance data has expanded to outside partners. SCESD was involved in a chronic absenteeism study group facilitated by the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), which resulted in a brief that includes specific recommendations for other LEAs looking to improve attendance.

Their partnership with Monterey County Office of Education has continued through their Research Practice Partnership (RPP) where they have pulled in North Monterey County Unified School District, Soledad Unified School District, and Alisal Union School District to explore how sites are using continuous improvement to improve their chronic absenteeism rates. Beyond the RPP, the district has also shared their impressive work with attendance through one of CCEE’s Open Door sessions. These sessions are open to all and provide LEAs with an opportunity to share innovative ideas that highlight best practices, tools/resources, and strategies formed by the Whole Child Design Framework that support student learning. SCESD presented with Attendance Works in the second session of the Shifting Mindsets on Chronic Absenteeism series.

Next Steps

Salinas City Elementary School District plans to implement improvement approaches in 2023-2024, then collect and analyze the implementation and impact data to understand the effects of the improvement efforts. Additionally, the district is continuing their work through the Research Practice Partnership with MCOE and partner districts to develop a targeted approach to improve attendance for students with IEPs.

Learn More About SCESD's Partners

Attendance Works is a non-profit initiative that collaborates with states, districts, schools, communities, and organizations to address chronic absence through positive, problem-solving approaches rooted in educational equity.
Monterey County Office of Education was a key county partner of SCESD and leads the Research Practice Partnership.

Meet the Team

Aldo Ramirez

Associate Superintendent, Educational Services

Ron Dillender

Executive Director of Pupil Services

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