Nearly one-fifth of all Montgomery County Public Schools students are chronically absent, leading to a decrease in elementary reading proficiency and higher high school dropout rates, according to district officials.
In the past 2 1/2 years, 2,010 students dropped out of MCPS high schools, “the number of students in a medium-sized high school,” according to a school board staff report.
“What we’ve heard tonight is very troubling,” board member Karla Silvestre said. “I would hope that we take action and it doesn’t end with this discussion. What we are hearing and seeing today is not something we can ignore.”
From 2017 to present, 544 freshmen, 696 sophomores, 390 juniors, and 380 seniors dropped out of MCPS schools, according to school system data.
About 18.5% of all MCPS students — or 28,000 students — in the 2015-16 school year were chronically absent, meaning they missed 15 or more days of school in the academic year.
MCPS staff members said students reported missing class because they were not proficient in reading and math; have family responsibilities, such as caring for siblings; and have difficult transitions from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school.
Those students suggested teachers “slow down and re-teach” concepts as needed and ensure each student has a positive relationship with at least one staff member.
School board member Brenda Wolff said students struggling to keep up in class might benefit from repeating a grade, so they don’t fall further behind their peers without proper intervention.
“Not just MCPS, but all school systems have gotten so concerned about how students feel, they don’t hold them at a level until they learn what they need to learn,” Wolff said. “Maybe if we did that, then they wouldn’t be left behind.”
Board member Jeanette Dixon said MCPS needs to focus on ensuring that all students can read at grade level by the end of third grade and that fifth-graders know how to do multiplication.
“We have to really get back to basics and ensure students know how to read and know how to multiply. That leads to everything else,” Dixon said.
The school system’s attendance policy says students with five “unlawful” or unexcused absences will get an intervention plan. If they do not complete the plan, they are “considered to be in danger of receiving a failing grade in that course.”
Middle school students with five or more unexcused absences may receive an “attendance letter” from the school. Elementary students with excessive absences may be referred to “intensive interventions designed to increase regular attendance.”
Teachers can deny students the opportunity to earn credit for missed assignments if their absence was unexcused.
Superintendent Jack Smith said the school system’s attendance policy “has not helped” offset increasing absence rates.
In his third year at the helm of Maryland’s largest school system, Smith said MCPS has been “good” for a long time, but problems like the dropout and absenteeism rate are “critically important” to address.
“Good is the enemy of great,” Smith said. “We’ve been good for a long time, really good, but that caused inattention to results.”
School board Vice President Pat O’Neill pointed to a recent Washington Post article that highlighted student absence problems at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington. The article said students — particularly seniors — missed classes dozens of times, but still graduated.
O’Neill said that school community felt “singled out” by the article.
“It’s not just an Einstein problem,” O’Neill said. “Clearly, we’re not totally addressing everybody’s needs who come to us … and we need to own that.”
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
