Dive Brief:
- The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service describes it as a “sidewalk parade,” one in which neighbors smile and say hello to the young elementary students walking to school on Monday and Friday mornings in an effort to boost attendance.
- They’re called walking school buses, and this one consists of adult volunteers and a group of select students from Lincoln Avenue Elementary School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who walk to school two mornings a week – rain or shine.
- All those involved – parents, school leaders, community partners and the students themselves – say it’s succeeded in motivating a reluctant portion of the student population to show up for school. As a result, says Principal Yaribel Rodriquez, attendance rates and student performance indicators are up, and plans are in the works to expand the program to include more students and more days of the week, according to the article.
Dive Insight:
As a Brookings Institution report says, absenteeism is nothing new. From Tom Sawyer to Ferris Bueller, it’s a staple of American popular culture, but that doesn’t make it any less of a concern. And chronic absenteeism has a ripple effect on everything from academic performance to graduation rates to socioeconomic outcomes for students.
To address this problem, the Every Student Succeeds Act now requires each state to report on chronic absenteeism, and 36 states now use it as an accountability measure as well. In turn, the increased scrutiny is prompting schools to examine their approach to dealing with student absences, and research shows that efforts to address root causes have had better success than those based on punitive practices.
The underlying causes of absenteeism are vast, and walking school buses offer an alternative to some of the obstacles, including transportation, that can prevent a young person from getting to school. According to a tip sheet provided by Attendance Works, a cornerstone of the process is “selecting, training, and supervising highly committed parent leaders.”