Paly truancy rates exceed state average

posted January 26, 2009

by Chiara Leifer of Campanile

Sixty-nine percent of students at Palo Alto High School are truants, according to research conducted on the 2007-08 school year by the California Department of Education in the Safe & Healthy Kids Program Office.

Truancy rates increased by 41 percent from 48.9 percent for the 2006-2007 school year and 56 percent in the 2005-2006 school year.

"Two years ago when I was hired, [truancy] was my main job," Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson said. "[I called] people in all day [to talk about truancy]. So I think that has something to do with it. [Now we don't have] the man power to keep up with it."

Truancy is defined by the California Department of Education as three or more unexcused absences or tardies in any classes.

A student who is truant in a single class will have a letter sent home to his or her parents saying that the student will be dropped from the class after his or her fifth cut. According to Berkson, there are a few reasons for why the truancy rate at Paly is so high.

"One [reason] is [that] our funding isn't based on attendance," Berkson said. "Other types of school district funding are based on attendance, so one of those schools might actually spend the extra money to make sure attendance is enforced. The second reason is historically some people probably look at it as 'it ain't broken so it doesn't need to be fixed' because we are a quality school, but legally [students] are supposed to be in school."

Additionally, the high truancy rate could be in part due to Paly having a more relaxed cutting policy than other schools in California.

"I think a big reason is that kids rotate their cuts so, in theory, if you have seven classes you can cut 28 times," Berkson said.

Some teachers are of the opinion that the school would have to do more detailed research on truancy at Paly.

"It is hard to [analyze this data] because it is aggregated data and we really want to look at what is called disaggregated data," Eric Bloom, the instructional supervisor for the history department, said. "Is it different between first semester and second semester, is it different for freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors? That is when you start really getting some useful information."

Not only did the truancy rate increase, but in the past three school years it has been higher than the rate within the entire Palo Alto Unified School District, which was 21.7 percent last year. In contrast, the truancy rate in Santa Clara County for the 2007-2008 school year was 17.8 percent; last year, the truancy rate for the entire state of California was 25.9 percent according to theCalifornia Department of Education in the Safe & Healthy Kids Program Office .

"Of course cutting is a problem," Bloom said. "But the real problem is this problem of absences, kids who don't come to class. If [students] have a parent who will clear [their] cuts then [they] get to make up that work and [they] get to have A's. If [they] have a parent who says 'No you need to learn your lesson,' then [they] get zeroes and then [then] fail or get bad grades. So the problem is really about absenteeism, not so much as about particular cutting."

The English, History and Social Studies, World Language and Math departments have all noted the issue of excused absences, which some students use excessively. Both the World Language and Math department instructional supervisors feel that cutting is not a serious problem in their departments.

"Our bigger concern [than truancy] is the kids who are absent and have the absences called in, but they are not spending the seat time in the classroom," English department instructional supervisor Trinity Klein said. "How do you fairly assess that student when they have not spent the same amount of time as say, the person next to them who is there every day. How is it fair that both students get the same grade, when one kid is there and one kid is not."

Another problem with excused absences is that in sequential classes such as math, the absences make it more difficult for students to keep up with the class.

"I think that mostly the problem is that students and their parents often times do not understand the reprecussions of missing class," Math department instructional supervisor Radu Toma said.

Throughout elementary and middle school students can afford to miss school for family vacations, sport competitions, etc. without significantly hurting their grades. However, by the time they enter high school this is no longer possible in many classes.

"[Suddenly in] 11th grade or 12th grade these absences have much more meaning than they used to have in the past, when the courses were not as dense and [these students] basically dig themselves into a hole that they are unaware of ahead of time, so that is where the major problem is. I am not sure that the major problem [with the rise in truancy] is policy per se," Toma said.

Each department is taking individual steps to minimize cutting.

"My expectation is that all teachers in the [English] department take attendance everyday and that they are fastidious about it and I have been very clear with the department about that and I think we have a pretty good track record for taking attendance," Klein said. "The other expectation is that [the teachers] will be looking at attendance online especially for days that essays are due or [that have] quizzes or tests. That we check to see if kids who have cuts are not earning points for their work that day so that we are true to the school policy, that [students] cannot earn credit for work that was due on the day of a cut, and that is really all we can do to prevent [cuts]."

The World Language department tried another tactic to prevent cuts about eight years ago. The department, however, did not feel it was getting the support of the whole school.

"We established an after school detention program in our department and we did it for a year," World Language instructional supervisor Norman Masuda said. "We felt that it had an affect and that it did make a difference, that students were less likely to miss school or be tardy if they knew they would have to come after school."

Many students said that they have legitimate excuses for cutting class, excused and otherwise.

"Sometimes [students] have to prioritize your workload," junior Sophie Cornfield said. "If you absolutely can't finish important work for one class but you know that it is not necessary that you go to another class, the logical choice is to cut the less crucial class. Sometimes my parents excuse me and sometimes they do not. It depends if they are in a generous mood or not."

Additionally, some students think that there is a reason behind the high truancy rate at Paly.

"I think [the truancy rate is so high] because Paly is such an academically challenging school. We have so many overachieving students who are so motivated to do well in high school and there is so much pressure to do well, that sometimes students may feel it is necessary to miss one class to study for another more challenging class," a Paly junior who wishes to remain anonymous said. "Sometimes, I feel that studying would be more worthwhile for me [than going to class] and I think that many students who cut feel this way too."

Some Paly students are of the opinion that the current truancy policy should be changed.

"A lot of times parents forget to call in right away," senior Alexa Hammer said. "And having a cut in a class can give the teacher the impression that you don't care [enough] which can lead to [the teacher] having less sympathy [and can affect] your grade."

A possible reason for why the truancy rate is so high is that in middle school it is extremely difficult to cut without getting in trouble, so then when students start high school, the freedom could put them into a false sense of "security."

"I was [truant] last year but not this year," a Paly sophomore who wishes to remain anonymous said. "I got off to a bad start and got over excited about being in high school so I cut a lot. I cut because I would much rather hang out with my friend than go to class and there is no way I can get caught so why not?"

According to Klein, there are conflicts in school policies which make truancy a bigger problem. Such as students being dropped after their fifth cut with only a phone call and truancy letter as warning.

"There has been some dialogue with the Paly leadership that there should probably be more steps of intervention before the drop; that one phone call home that says 'Hey, your kid is cutting' is probably not enough of a deterrant," Klein said.

Another concern for teachers at Paly is the policy that a student cannot be enrolled in less than five classes. Therefore, if a student has five cuts or more in the class, they student cannot get dropped from the class because it would lower them to four classes. Due to this, the student still shows up on the teacher's role sheet every day. With time, the teacher might forget to mark the student as absent when they cut which is a problem because role sheets are legal documents, plus, then the student can earn the grade despite cutting.

However, some teachers hope that by having all staff members on board to improve attendance together, the truancy problem at Paly can be dealt with.

"[Teachers] are talking about this with the Education Council right now because [Paly is] doing [the] WASC self study now and one of the issues that [the school has] there is truancy and what to do about it," Masuda said. "Right now [the effort to improve attendance] is too much of an individual thing and I really think it should be a school-wide effort."

If truancy proves to be a problem for the WASC self study, it could mean the difference between waiting six years for Paly's next WASC visit and waiting three years.

"We need to figure out a better way of doing things because it's not working and there is no way the administration can keep up with it. Something has to be done," Berkson said. "Next school year we might have some sort of short term fix."