School Districts Working Together to Change Lives

Reversing absenteeism and advancing career readiness.

Chronic Absenteeism among high-school and middle-school students increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among students in low-income neighborhoods. So educators at Woodland Hills School District invited parents in to talk about why their kids were missing school and falling further and further behind.

Through a parent advisory committee, administrators discovered that many parents had to go to work early, leaving teenagers responsible for getting their younger siblings ready for school, missing their buses and the entire day of class.

So administrators have been developing a system to provide van?or other services to stranded students. But they haven’t stopped there. They’re sharing their strategies with five other school districts—Cornell and Deer Lakes in Allegheny County and Jeannette, Burrell and Greensburg Salem in Westmoreland County—participating?in The Consortium for Public Education’s Collaborative for Student Success, an 18-month initiative organized with a $250,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. The six districts include city, suburban, and rural schools serving a total of 11,000 students, and all have above-average numbers of low-income students.?

Woodland Hills’ absenteeism initiative grew out of the Collaborative’s work on family engagement, one of three focus areas. Districts each will launch pilot programs to address at least one of the three areas, which also include improved school design and enhanced career-readiness. As their plans take shape, the Consortium for Public Education will connect the districts with community organizations, employers, post-secondary partners or other resources needed to help students achieve success.

Under the focus on family engagement, “Schools are starting to connect with small groups of families so they can listen to what?their lives are like, what their concerns are,” said Mary Kay Babyak, who recently retired as executive director of the Consortium for Public Education.?

Through conversations with parents, school staff learn more about the problems affecting families and therefore come up with more effective solutions. They learned to increase participation by offering both virtual and in-person chats. Lessons they learned during the pandemic also have been incorporated. For instance, giving parents the option of virtual Open Houses increased participation, especially in the middle- and high-school levels, where parents’ attendance at these events typically drops off.

Districts that have chosen to tackle the goal of career-readiness are connecting kids to job opportunities in the community. At Jeannette High School, for example, the district invited representatives from General Carbide to talk to students about careers after graduation. Nate Moore, 18, and Justin Thornhill, 19, both talked to the representatives and landed jobs as machinists in March, starting at $16 an hour.?

Just as student-athletes get a signing day, so did Moore and Thornhill when they got their jobs at General Carbide, one of many post-secondary career options that does not require a college degree.

“Signing day was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced,” Thornhill said. “There were cameras, there was merch, like hoodies. They even had a sign behind us that said General Carbide, and there was a General Carbide table. And it was just like people signing for a sports team or college. It was awesome.”

Moore plans to work at General Carbide and eventually go to college.

Moore and Thornhill talked about the jobs they lined up before graduation in an interview with SLB Radio, which amplifies the voices of youth, especially those in marginalized communities. The Consortium for Public Education engaged SLB Radio as part of the Foundation’s grant to support the six districts, to ensure that youth voices are loud and clear in the dialogue between districts, families and communities. The broadcasts will be played at an Open House for parents to highlight the program.

Babyak said SLB Radio will record additional interviews with students and parents to document other aspects of the pilot programs.?“We will get more details from the students on what is working and what isn’t working.”