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Why we have to sell SEL?

Why We Need to Support Social-Emotional Learning for All Our Students!

At a recent parent teacher conference a passionate teacher found herself explaining why she dedicates daily instructional time for activities to address topics of social and emotional learning (SEL), with the goal of strengthening her students’ overall emotional health and ability to interact socially in positive ways. Surprisingly, her presentation was met by a stark remark from one of the parents who said, “I never had SEL lessons in school and I came out alright!”

Somewhere over the past 50+ years we have finally figured out that education is not all ABCs and 123s. We have learned that separating the learning from the learner just creates angst, it doesn’t create lifelong learners. The new wave of interest in SEL is promising, and provides options for educators. How do we as educators who believe in teaching the whole child (including social and emotional skills) help others to understand why this is important – that is, how do we “sell” SEL instruction to all stakeholders including administrators, teachers, students and parents?

 What is SEL? Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (CASEL). In order for students to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills described in SEL, students need to be competent, or have abilities, in five areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making.

 

The Importance of Social Learning

Our world is a social place, and we spend most of our time as members of social groups. We all use our social skills everywhere we go. Social skills are about sharing space with others and being able to get along with people in a variety of settings. An individual’s social success is based upon the quality of his or her social interactions. In order to have positive social interactions, an individual needs to be socially competent and have strong social learning skills.

Education in the United States has matured since the passing of Title I in 1965, we now look for research-based instructional practices and data based decision making. Accountability is not a foreign concept, in fact it is right up front and center stage. When we look at building a case for justifying SEL instruction, we can include some amazing data. In fact, research shows that SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011).

The role of technology in reaching students who are socially ‘challenged’

In today’s world technology is a natural medium for just about any student to help them learn and engage in new concepts. Technology offers an opportunity to experiment in real life scenarios without any dangerous consequences. Simulated personal interactions afford students a safe haven to learn more about those non-intuitive things – like learning body language, picking up on sarcasm or other verbal nuances which are not very clear.

Introducing The Social Express

In a safe and familiar learning environment, The Social Express animated interactive program provides students an opportunity to learn and practice skills needed to help them develop meaningful relationships and successfully navigate our social world. The Social Express was designed for students to use at school or home, and provides educators and parents with insightful data about students’ growth in key areas of social emotional learning.

In over 80 animated interactive lessons, The Social Express aligns with basic tenets of Universal Design of Learning (UDL)  by offering different types of learning methods including online and offline activities.  In addition, The Social Express is both research-based and research-backed! A research study with over 350 students concluded there were statistically significant improvements for students when the implementation was part of a schoolwide initiative.

Each “webisode” teaches foundational skills for social and emotional learning such as:

  • Attentive Listening
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Conversations
  • Critical Thinking
  • Group Participation
  • Non-Verbal Communication
  • Relationship & Self Management

The best part about The Social Express is that even though you might have to “sell SEL” to other adults, you never have to sell it to the students themselves. The interactive lessons are engaging and fun. Countless testimonials concur that the application is awesome! Thousands of teachers worldwide are using The Social Express to help students feel less socially isolated, and learn how to interact in our very social world.

By Joyce Whitby

@jwhitby1 joyce@innovations4education.com

References:

 

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Good Social Skills Are Pivotal in Academic Success

We’ve all heard the stories about the long-haired nerd who avoids other people, sticks to himself, and aces every course he takes. The research shows that academic achievement rarely works like that – especially for primary and secondary school age children. In fact, the research shows just the opposite: Students who are well adjusted and have strong relationships with their teachers and other students are more likely to do well in school than those who don’t.

Schools Can Create Supportive Environments
When we see children who are well-adjusted, have productive and high trust relationships with their teachers and fellow students, and perform well academically, we applaud the students. On the other hand, when a student is not well-adjusted, is suspicious of others, and performs poorly in school, we blame the child.

Some children may have an innate drive in one direction or another, but the major influences on children are their home lives and their schools. These are the influences that can “make or break” a child. It also means that schools have a far greater role in determining the success of their students than most people have thought. The environment schools promote has a dramatic effect on the success of their students. The academic performance of the student body tells far more about the schools than it does about the aptitude and attitudes of the students on the day they enter their schools.

Social Skills Are Latent in Children and Shaped by Schools
Social skills are entirely voluntary. Positive social skills benefit others. These skills are easy to recognize because others can observe students and recognize their:

• sense of self-awareness
• awareness of their larger social environments
• ability to control their own emotions
• propensity to build high-trust relationships with others
• tendency to consistently make responsible decisions

Because these behaviors are voluntary, the role the school plays in shaping these behaviors is all but invisible. Nevertheless, the impact of schools on students’ social skills is profound. Further, the impact of students’ social skills on their academic performance is also profound. If we place this in the longstanding “nature vs nurture” argument, the evidence is very clear: nurture far, far outweighs nature.

In communities where parents don’t provide the social skills training that is so vital to academic success, it falls to the schools to provide that training.

Schools set the stage for building positive social skills several ways. The most obvious way is by setting school rules for behavior in the classroom and on playground. These rules tell children how to distinguish right from wrong. These values are not intrinsic; they are taught.

But rules are not enough. Teachers and the administration need to enforce the rules consistently all the time. Enforcing the rules is a matter of discipline. But this is still not enough.

Teachers need to recognize and reward their students’ social behaviors. More than that, students must recognize the achievements of the other students. This recognition of positive social behaviors provides feedback to each student about how to behave. They have to learn what is anti-social and what is acceptable.

Students who bully others need to be called to account – and quickly. Students will recognize their schools’ failure to identify and correct inappropriate behaviors. If left unresolved, these misbehaviors will leave lasting impressions on young children that can lead to lack of motivation in school, trouble with authority figures, and perhaps even expulsion. Schools recognize this dynamic and are adopting social programs that promote positive growth in the classroom and minimize bullying on the playground.

Academic Performance and Social Behavior Are Tightly Linked
Research has shown a correlation between childrens’ academic performance and their social behavior. Students who exhibit mature social behavior often have better academic performance than those who disregard others. Children who have positive relationships with their teachers are more apt to learn and be open to academic help and feedback. Through social programs, teachers and administrators create environments that promote meaningful student-teacher relationships and foster communities of students who want to come to school each day.

Peer-to-Peer Relations Are as Important as Student-Teacher Relations
Positive peer interactions and student-teacher relationships promote positive social behaviors and reduce bullying among elementary school aged children. These interactions and relationships can be structured through positive social emotional learning environments. This type of environment will promote cooperative classroom settings that, in turn, improve academic motivation and eliminate bullying. Social programs have the potential to reach students who are on the path for expulsion before it is too late.

The Personal and Social Costs of Being Expelled from School Are Very High
Expelling students from school is a lengthy process. It often begins with chronic absenteeism. In extreme cases, students can be expelled for causing serious physical injury to someone else, carrying a dangerous object, possession of certain substances, robbery, extortion, or assault on a school employee. The principal and the district superintendent must agree that expulsion is the only viable course of action. Students who are expelled have generally been suspended several times.

Students who face expulsion often lack academic motivation. They are often distant from peers and don’t look for positive relationships with authority figures. According to the American Bar Association, these students are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested as adults. The American Psychological Association concluded that zero tolerance of misbehavior is ineffective and leads to higher rates of antisocial behavior in the future. Students who face expulsion are unlikely to finish high school. In fact, they tend to be headed toward a life of unemployment and crime.

Expulsions don’t just affect the students. They affect the entire community. Expelling students often leads to more crime in the community. This is particularly pronounced in communities with high school drop-outs rates.

Social Skills Must Be Taught; They are Not Innate
Social behavior is a skill like any other. Parents and teachers must reinforce these for children to see them as normal and natural.

The University of Maryland’s Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology conducted research that demonstrated how crucial it is to build positive student-teacher relationships and improve the classroom climates through social development programs. Interactive social development programs stimulate emotional learning through cognitive development and interactions with other children. These interactions are most effective at developing positive social environments when students reinforce each other. This promotes cooperation and trust. Social programs also build a sense of community in the classroom. This comfort and positivity in the classroom motivates students to come to school.

The research also shows that when students show positive social behavior they are more likely to be successful academically. Social programs build healthy student-teacher relationships that foster better learning. Social programs condition students to receive acknowledgement for academic progress and good behavior from both their peers and their teachers. This, in turn leads students to be more invested in their education.

In Summary
When schools implement social development programs in their classrooms, children are conditioned to associate the positive social environment with learning and interacting in their classrooms. This, in turn, promotes school attendance and academic success.

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Teachers and Students of California: Samantha

Samantha

“My bubble was bursted. No matter what was happening in their lives or at school, the students knew they could come to me and I’d be there to listen. I would talk to them. They would always try to come to school and if they weren’t doing their homework we would work together to find out why. I feel that they (the students) need to have that loving, caring place – almost like being a family – because you don’t know where these kids are coming from. You don’t know where they wake up. You don’t know what happens in their life. You’re not walking in their shoes at that moment. But if they have somewhere safe then it can start. It can build their security and make them feel empowered, and want to come to school,and want to do work. And you can build up from there.”

Samantha is one of the twenty-six thousand teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District that deal with chronic absenteeism in K-12 classrooms. The teacher turnover rate is almost 40-50 percent according the laschoolreport.com and that equates to approximately $2.2 billion in funding that is lost per year.

CoolSchool Central offers a solution. It Changes Futures.

Names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
Special thanks to Pexels for providing the stock image.
And special thanks to laschoolreport.com (http://laschoolreport.com/commentary-the-hidden-crisis-of-teacher-turnover-in-los-angeles-public-schools/)
Founded by SOMAmetrics Marketing Analyst, Winson Truong

winson@somametrics.com

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Survey: School Social Climate and Bullying

In conducting an initial bullying survey of 92 respondents, we sought to better understand the social climate present within different school campuses, in addition to the currently existing initiatives and challenges schools face in implementing successful SEL and anti-bullying programs. We also gauged the potential interest schools may have in implementing Cool School, a program which combines SEL and anti-bullying.

Of the survey respondents, 83.78% were principals and 14.86% were assistant principals. A majority, 70.27%, worked in elementary schools, while 28.38% worked in middle schools. In surveying the social climate, morale, and absenteeism in schools, the ratings given by respondents was fairly mixed among all grade levels.

Overall Findings

Overall, ratings were leaning more positively toward extremely good and fairly good. In rating social climate, there were no respondents that felt their school’s climate to be extremely bad, indicated by a rating of 5.

School Social Climate

A quarter of respondents found their school climate to be extremely good (24.68%; rating 1), and 48.05% found their social climate to be fairly good (48.05%; rating 2).

In terms of morale, 54.55% of respondents felt that the morale of school staff as a whole was fairly good (rating 2), with 20.78% of respondents finding it to be extremely good (rating 1).

Student Morale

The evaluation of the morale of students was positively skewed towards fairly good as well (53.25%; rating 2), with the second highest rating being extremely good (27.27%; rating 1).

Absenteeism

In regards to absenteeism, other than a single respondent, most of the survey takers indicated experiencing low levels of absenteeism within their school districts (42.86%; rating 2 and 27.27%; rating 1).

SEL Initiative

In terms of currently operating SEL programs and general school funding, half of respondents stated that their school had an SEL initiative program currently in place. For the 50% that had an SEL program, 64.29% of them had an SEL program at the district wide level.

School Funding

Nearly half of respondents (45.45%) stated that state funding for their school was based solely on attendance, while 36.36% stated that it was attendance and enrollment in tandem. It should be noted, however, that the 82.43% of respondents from California gave mixed and occasionally contrasting responses on how state funding was issued and utilized in their state.

Bullying

When surveyed on bullying issues and programs, 44.59% of respondents felt that bullying presented a somewhat serious challenge in their school district. It should be noted that this marked recognition of bullying as a problem in schools contrasts sharply with respondents positively rating the social climate of their facilities.

Despite nearly three quarters of respondents evaluating their school’s climate as extremely good or fairly good, bullying is still identified as a severe issue in nearly half of these same respondents.

Survey takers stated that the types of bullying that concerns them the most is verbal (78.38%), spreading rumors (52.70%), cyber (44.59%), physical (39.19%), exclusion (31.08%), and threats (27.03%). Approximately 7% participants showed concern in almost all categories (excluding damage).

Bullying Prevention Programs

Having recognized bullying as a notable challenge, nearly three quarters of respondents (70.27%) have already implemented programs to prevent bullying in their schools. Of the remaining respondents, 20.27% are currently in the process of implementation and an additional 6.76% have yet to implement a program in their school, but would like to in the near future. Of the programs already in place, 89.86% are ongoing programs.

The majority of schools with one-time programs would like to change over to an ongoing program.

In regards to who the program is designed for, respondents were fairly divided in terms of which grade levels programs were directed towards (8.57% for K-2, 31.43% for 3-4, 27.14% for 5-6, and 32.86% for 6+).

Accessibility of Bullying Prevention Programs

Over half of respondents (61.43%) noted that a significant challenge for these programs in their districts is a lack of accessibility for students and parents. Of the programs currently in operation, 60.98% were accessed only in the classroom through either one-on-one counseling (17.07%) or through PBIS/group counseling (17%). An additional factor barring accessibility is the fact that many schools (81.82%) received no state funding for their program. Of the schools receiving funding, monetary sources that were identified included funding from the district (41.67%) and from grants (25%).

Measuring Outcomes

In measuring the effectiveness of these programs, 64.18% already measure the outcome of their program, while 26.87% do not but would like to. In terms of frequency of measurement, 69.05% measure the outcome of their programs more frequently than once a year, and 19.05% measure annually. There are various ways that schools measure their programs. 35.71% measure the outcome through ongoing evaluation, 26.19% through analyzing changes of other data they gather, and 16.67% use other measures like discipline referrals or a combination of surveys, ongoing evaluation, and data analysis.

Cost of Programs and Lack of Funding

When prompted if they had any potential interest in a complementary program to their existing ones, 68.75% of respondents were not interested. Reasons for not wanting to complement the program included the additional cost/lack of funding, already having several other programs in place, or the need for district approval. However, 43.08% of respondents stated that they would be interested in a program combining SEL and anti-bullying. For the 56.92% that were not interested in this combined program specifically, reasons included the costs of implementing a new program or the existence of an already working program.

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Addressing Teacher Turnover in Public Schools

Teacher Turnover rates are at an all-time high in public schools, and they are disproportionately impacting kids from low-income households.

“When I applied for my job there were 70 applicants; when we advertised for new teaching positions last year there were three. The drop in numbers is scary – maths and English are struggling to recruit…” remarks Jonathan, teacher and head of his department for five years. Yes, it is getting harder and harder to recruit teachers for our public schools.

Here is what the Federal data tells us:

  • Over 17% of new teachers leave their jobs within four years. Over a quarter of these teachers leave involuntarily due to budget constraints or performance levels.
  • Teachers are more likely to leave if they are over the age of thirty and in their second career.
  • Male teachers are also more likely to leave their careers, as well as Alternative Certification Program teachers. For example, in the year 2011-2012, twenty-one percent of the Alternative Certification Programs teachers left their careers verses the sixteen percent of traditionally certified teachers.
  • Teachers with their first year in a high-poverty area are also more likely to quit or transfer to a more affluent area.

One of the problems that new teachers encounter is the stark contrast between what they envisioned their lives would be as a teacher verses the reality of actually teaching in our public schools. New teachers become overwhelmed by the basic fundamentals of the education system including standards, formal assessments, benchmark tests, collection of data & analysis, phone calls to parents, variability within student comprehension & ability, and advance curriculum planning.

To the new teachers, there seems to be an improper balance between time spent teaching, paperwork, and personal time—creating disillusionment, particularly for new teachers.

Gaby Proctor, 22, former teacher-in-training who quit after three months in the program says, “Now I’m going to work, doing my work and working hard, and I can go home and I don’t have to worry about it at home. There was no downtime with teaching. You have to take it home with you, you don’t have a choice. I have mental health issues anyway, with depression and anxiety disorders, and I found it made them so much worse. The pressure, it’s crazy.”

The Tragedy of Poverty

The real problem, however, is lack of funding, which is especially apparent in poorer areas.

“Low-income students need extra support and resources to succeed, but in far too many places, policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it,” says former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The highest teacher turnover rates happen in the very areas that need good teachers—high-poverty areas in inner cities and rural districts.

For example, one reason well-funded schools attract highly qualified teachers is better work conditions. The schools are cleaner, well maintained, and well-provisioned with teaching supplies.

In the Teachers College Record Study of Teaching Conditions in Massachusetts Schools, it was found that 53% of the teachers in more affluent areas believed that their school is “a good place to work and learn,” while only 32% of teachers in the areas with the highest degree of poverty believed the same.

Unfortunately, far too often, socio-economic conditions become reliable predictors of student success.

Experienced Teachers are Leaving

Many teachers within high-poverty districts are leaving these schools. Often, these teachers relocate to school districts in more affluent areas, with better performing students, and less ethnic diversity. In 2013, The American Educational Research Journal stated that this “…results in organizational instability and concentration of less experienced, lower performing teachers, both of which hurt student achievement.”

Low Salary

The “Public School Teacher Attrition and Mobility in the Five Years,” study focused on new teachers that began their careers in 2007-2008. A growing percentage of the teachers did not choose to continue their careers: 10% of teachers did not continue teaching in 2008-2009. This increased to 12% in 2009-2010, then 15%in 2010-2011, and 17% in 2011-2012.

A big reason for the turnover was salary. The study observed that 97% of teachers whose salary their first year was $40,000 or more continued teaching in 2008-2009. Furthermore, 89% of these teachers continued teaching into 2011-2012.

By contrast, only 89% of teachers whose salary their first year was less then $40,000 continued teaching in 2008-2009. This number dropped further to 80% of teachers who continued teaching into 2011-2012.

Wealthier schools with proper funding were able to afford to provide higher salaries. Therefore, they were able to attract and retain more qualified teachers. This further translated to better stability and moral, eventually resulting in more successful students – a sharp contrast to their cohorts in poorer areas.

The Vicious Cycle of Lack of Funding

Lack of funding creates a vicious cycle for schools in lower-income districts:

  • Because of the way schools are funded through local property taxes, these schools already start with less funding when compared with their counterparts in more affluent suburbs.
  • As a result, they have difficulty providing the salary or the working conditions necessary to attract high-quality teachers, or retain them once hired.
  • This high turnover of teachers only exacerbates the truancy rates that these schools already experience. The higher truancy now costs these schools sorely needed Federal funding.
  • With still lower funding, these schools continue to struggle, and lose teachers
  • This results in classroom disruptions, bullying and harassment, further leading to penalties and more truancy.

And the vicious cycle spirals down.

A Solution with a Catch

What can our public schools do to reverse this trend, and attract and retain high-quality teachers?

We know mentoring by seasoned older teachers helps. It is not unusual for new teachers to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do each day, without seeming to make any apparent impact.

“If I was having a problem with a child, someone would come into the room to observe and give me advice. I felt like they had my back,” says Jennifer Scoggins, 32, a teacher in New York, who is also on her way towards getting her Ph.D.

There is research evidence to support that mentoring programs work. In 2008-2009, 92% of teachers with mentors continued teaching into their second year compared to 84% without mentorship. In 2011-2012, these numbers 86% compared to 71% without a mentor. The results of this study induced the Federal Government to invest $21 million to create twenty-eight teacher-residency programs that provide prospective teachers with hands-on experience.

However, there is catch here. An increasing number of experienced teachers are leaving their teaching careers, resulting in a shortage of mentors for the programs.

“I can’t see myself doing this until the current retirement age. I can see teachers, working early mornings, late nights, demanding days, at 68 years old… I can see teachers dying in the classroom, I really can,” says Graham, 30, teacher and assistant head of her school.

So, what now?

Changing the Social Climate

As discussed above, schools in poorer areas have especially hard time recruiting and retaining high quality teachers. We also showed that this creates a vicious cycle that only deteriorates with time. So, how can these schools turn this situation around?

We know the answer lies in better funding, which would help create a better environment for both students and teachers. However, clearly there is not much that schools can do about  state and local funding. That formula is out of their control.

These schools, however, can do something about Federal Funding–if they can reduce their truancy and bullying rates. In California, public schools lose over $1 billion in funding each year to truancy alone. The vast majority of the schools that lose such funds are in low-income areas. Keeping this funding would go a long way in creating the climate that is conducive to high quality education.

The key is to create a positive social climate that is attractive to both teachers and students. But, how do we do that?

What if we get these kids to want to come to school and stay in class without disrupting? How can we make learning more accessible and more fun?

One way this can be done is through an emerging concept called Interactive Learning, which is more engaging and more effective than traditional teaching methods. Through the use of interactive animations and video modeling, students are able to grasp complex concepts and place them in real world situations, building strong cognitive skills. With interactive learning, real-life concepts become balanced and aligned with a thriving classroom atmosphere that includes teamwork and positive behavior, improving the educational climate for teachers and students.

This is why interactive learning has been proven to be an effective mechanism for delivering Social Emotional Learning (SEL), which can ultimately change behavior within the student population, leading to a reduction in bullying, classroom disruption, and absenteeism. Improve absenteeism and reduce bullying, and funding will begin to improve.

About Us

CoolSchool develops video based interactive lessons for teaching Social Emotional Learning, reducing bullying and absenteeism in public elementary schools.

Contact us today for a demo of the suite of products that significantly reduce both absenteeism and bullying.

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Addressing Bullying with SEL

Statistics from 2013-14 report more than 6 million students (13% of the population or 1 in 8 students) were absent 15 or more days of school.  Over 500 school districts reported absenteeism of up to 30%  for at least 15 days a year.

Unfortunately, this is a nationwide problem.

Out of an estimated sum of more than 600,000 secondary students:

  • One-quarter of high school student report acts of bullying in the past 12 months
  • 5% of students missed one or more days of school in concerns for their safety in the past 30 days

Bullying Laws

  • 46 states have incorporated bullying laws into their legal system, enforcing school districts to enact anti-bullying policies, 3 of which do not provide the definition of the term “bullying”
  • 36 states include “cyberbullying” or any form of bullying over electronic media, as a part of these bullying laws
  • 13% of states assert the authority of the school system to behavior of students off-campus, when it begins to create a “hostile” environment.
  • 41 states have bullying policies, 12 of which are not mandated under law
  • Schools located in places where the legislation is more complex school policies pertaining bullying than those that are not

Laws are a Beginning but More is Needed

A study by the American Institute for Research creates a correlation between SEL programs and decrease in bullying, bringing an emphasis on “school-wide” programs that target not only the “victims” or “bullies,” but also bystanders and educators, from teachers to administrative staff. With everyone playing an active role in SEL and anti-bullying prevention, the core values of these programs integrate into situations beyond the classroom, such as the “hallway, cafeteria, playground,” and home.

There are a number of categories of social and emotional skills that these programs address:

  1. Self-awareness & Self-management:
    • “Recognize and manage emotions in order to respond to conflict in calm and assertive ways.”
  2. Social awareness:
    • “Be tolerant and appreciative of differences, and interact empathetically with peers.”
  3. Relationship skills
    • “Initiate and sustain friendships and other relationships.”
    • “Resist social pressure to enable, encourage, or directly participate in bullying, and actively defend victims.”
    • “Be able to seek help from peers or other adults when needed.”
  4. Responsible decision-making
    • “Think through and resolve social problems effectively and ethically.”

There are reasons why the SEL approach is a beneficial way to looking at anti-bullying tactics.

For one, studies show that “bullying is actually a group phenomenon,” attributing responsibility to the bystanders, as well as the bully and victim. This perspective allows the situation to be analyzed as a whole, evaluating the problem from the individual-, peer-, school-, community-, and familial-level to balance the factors that contribute to bullying.

SEL brings a focus on the “social, emotional, and moral climate of the school, as well as on the social and emotional competence of the entire school body,” becoming the more effective way to prevent bullying, through “a combination of school-wide rules and sanctions, teacher training, classroom curricula, conflict resolution training, and individual counseling.”

How can we improve the situation in our schools?

  • By adding Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Positive Behavior Systems (PBIS) into our school system.
  • Incorporating positive behavior and effective communication into our children at a young age, prevent future incidents of bullying and preparing them to take action against such behavior. Therefore, increasing their chance of finishing education, later on.

About Us

Cool School, by The Social Express, is the next generation of Social Emotional Learning

and Anti-Bullying solutions.  Cool School was developed by psychologists and is based on proven video modeling techniques, which engage students while providing a safe place for students to learn how to communicate effectively.

Sources:

  • http://www2.ed.gov/datastory/chronicabsenteeism.html
  • https://www.cdc.gov/
  • https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/bullying/state-bullying-laws/state-bullying-laws.pdf
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Bullying and Chronic Absenteeism

Education researchers are finding out that chronic absenteeism is one of the strongest predictors of success in school, impacting not only performance but high school graduation rates. Kids who are chronically absent find it very difficult to keep up with their school work and eventually may drop out.

We are also seeing research evidence tying bullying at school with chronic absenteeism. Any strategy to combat chronic absenteeism must also include strategies for combating bullying at school.

this article describes these issues in more detail and proposes some solutions.

Defining Absenteeism

The Federal guideline states that a student is considered chronically absent if she/he misses 10 percent or more of the school year—for any reason. That is roughly 18 school days, or about a month per school year.

However, since actual attendance is taken at a local level, definitions of absenteeism vary from state to state. For example, in some states, absence as a result of observance of a religious holiday may be excused. In others, absence due to care for a family member may be excused and not count as lack of attendance. Still more complicating the definition of absenteeism is whether attendance is recorded at the beginning of the school day or at the beginning of each class.

With that said, the vast majority of schools do not really keep attendance record by student, but mostly track percentage attendance per day. Therefore, a 90% daily attendance simply means that 90% of students showed up that particular day (and perhaps didn’t stay all day). It does not in any way provide information on which students missed 10% or more of school that year.

What we know about Absenteeism

In a comprehensive study on the effects of chronic absenteeism (Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2012): Chronic Absenteeism: Summarizing What We Know from Nationally Available Data. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools), raises an alarm that all educators should heed:

  • Chronic absence in kindergarten was associated with lower academic performance in first grade. The impact is twice as great for students from low-income families.
  • Chronic absenteeism increases achievement gaps at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
  • Chronic absenteeism is most prevalent in poor and/or rural communities, regardless of race and gender.
  • The study postulates that strategies that reduce absenteeism can drive up achievement, high school graduation, and college attainment rates even more than any changes in improvements of the education system.
  • The negative impact of absenteeism on school success increases with each passing year as students who are chronically absent tend to continue this pattern year to year unless steps are taken to change this. In other words, achievement gaps worsen with each passing year as such students end up missing a year’s worth of school in a five-year period.

The study also found out that only six states—Oregon, Rhode Island, Maryland, Florida, Georgia, and Nebraska—collected any data on chronic absenteeism. The picture from this data is not encouraging. The percentage of students who are chronically absent (miss 10% or more school days in a year) are from 6% (Nebraska) to as high as 23% (Oregon).

When looked at by specific counties, rural and/or poor counties tend to have a disproportionate rate of chronic absenteeism, reaching as high as 20% to 34% of students who are chronically absent. The problems are especially more urgent in high schools, and particularly among seniors. In many of these impacted areas, half or more of the students are chronically absent, missing as much as a month or more per school year.

For example, in one county in Maryland the percentage of students who are chronically absent are 24% of elementary students; 41% of middle school students, and 67% of high school students.

Furthermore, when a cohort of sixth-graders in Florida were tracked for seven years from 1997-98 through 2003-04, 46% of the students were found to have been chronically absent at least during one year (missed at least one month) and 18% of these sixth graders missed at least two months of school that year.

This long term tracking found that while for one-third of the students the chronic absenteeism occurred only once (only in one year), for two-thirds of the students, it was more persistent, occurring at least two out of the seven years: 39% were chronically absent three years or more; 22% were absent four years or more; and 10% were absent five years or more. The last group missed an average of 171 days of school in the seven years—practically a whole year of school.

Although we have data for only six states, the numbers in Florida and Maryland are likely representative of the nation due to the diverse nature of their population. It appears that anywhere from 10-11% of students nationally are chronically absent, missing one or more months of school per year, and that half of these are likely to be chronically absent at least two years. Millions of students nationwide are missing months of school.

Who, When and Where of Chronic Absenteeism

From the John Hopkins study, we see that chronic absenteeism starts high in Kindergarten, gradually decreases to its lowest level in third and fourth grade before rising again to peak in high school. This seems to indicate that initially, children miss school as parents adjust to new circumstances, and that this adjustment has reached its peak by elementary school. The fact that absenteeism rises again especially in high school indicates that new circumstances are the cause of it later on. There seems to be a correlation between key transitions in schooling.

The John Hopkins study further showed that gender does not seem to be a factor—those that are chronically absent tend to be equally divided by gender. Nor does it seem to matter whether the school site is urban, sub-urban, or rural.

However, the study shows a high degree of correlation between poverty and chronic absenteeism—students from poor areas (regardless of gender, race, or geographic location) showed high levels of chronic absenteeism. For example, in Maryland, the study found that chronic absenteeism were three times higher for economically disadvantaged students for middle and high schools, and at least twice as high for high school students. Similar results were shown for Oregon, Nebraska, and Georgia.

What may be more revealing is that the study consistently found that chronic absenteeism seemed to be concentrated within a few schools. Whether this is solely due to concentration of disadvantaged or poor students in that school or whether there are additional factors is not clear.

Does Attendance Matter?

Now that we have a better understanding of what chronic absenteeism is and whom it impacts, the next question is: How big an impact does it really have on learning success?

Various studies show that chronic absenteeism impacts students at all stages from kindergarten through high school graduation.

  • A study by Change and Romero (“Present, Engaged, and Accounted For. The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades”) showed that chronic absence in kindergarten had an immediate impact on academic performance on all children, with long term consequences being most significant for poor children. The study found that not only the chronically absent children were affected, but so were the regularly attending children due to the constant disruption and changing dynamics.
  • A 2010 paper by Douglas Ready (“Socioeconomic Disadvantage, School Attendance, and Early Cognitive Development: The Differential Effects of School Exposure”) showed that chronically absent students had 14% less literacy skills in kindergarten than regularly attending students. These gaps became more pronounced by first grade with 15% less literary skills and 12% less mathematical skills.
  • More significantly, The Ready study showed that children from low-income households with good attendance gained more literacy skills than their higher income family peers.
  • Research by Michael Gottfried (“Evaluating the Relationship between Student Attendance and Achievement in Urban Elementary and Middle Schools: An Instrumental Variables Approach”) states, “The findings support the premise that a significant and practically meaningful relationship exists between attendance and achievement across multiple grades in urban schools: students with a higher number of days present have higher GPAs. Attendance also appears to be more strongly correlated with a higher GPA as students advance through years of schooling.”
  • Research by Chicago University Allensworth and Easton (“What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public High Schools. A Close Look at Course Grades, Failures, and Attendance in the Freshman Year”) showed that how well students did in ninth grade was a strongest predictor of high school graduations and that, in turn, attendance was found to be the strongest predictor of academic performance.

These and various researches have indicated that from kindergarten through high school, attendance is highly correlated with academic performance—regardless of gender, geographic location or socio-economic status. In fact, these studies show that regular attendance was the single most reliable antidote to performance gaps shown between students from low-income households and more students from more affluent households.

What causes Chronic Absenteeism

So far, we have examined absenteeism and the incontrovertible evidence of significant impact on k-12 academic performance. The next question becomes, what are the causes of chronic absenteeism and how do we effectively deal with these to improve student attendance?

Various studies show that there are primarily two categories of reasons why students are absent from school:

  • They cannot go to school because they are required to be elsewhere (as in working to help support family or taking care of a family member) or are too sick to attend school
  • They will not to go to school because are trying to avoid unpleasant or even dangerous situations at school or on the way to and back from school.

Considering the fact that chronic lack of attendance for any reason is highly detrimental to academic success and high school graduation, it is imperative that schools find effective strategies to deal with each type of reason for such absence. However, as the reasons for absence are different, it is important to understand that the strategies must also be customized to address the reason for absence.

In this article, we look a little further into the second reason for chronic absenteeism—why children make a conscience effort to avoid school.

Why Kids Will not Go To School

While it is true that some kids are chronically absent because they find school boring and would rather be elsewhere, a significant portion of chronically absent students who make a conscience decision to avoid school do so avoid being harassed or bullied by other kids, either in school or on their way to and back from school.

An annual report called, “Bullying in US Schools. 2014 Status Report” indicates the following:

  • About 17% of all US public school students report being involved in bullying (12% were bullied only; 3% were both bullied and bullied others; and 2% reported bullying others).
  • However, the report found that bullying was the highest among 3rd grade students who reported being involved in bullying with 4th graders being the second highest at 19%. We will recall from the section on chronic absenteeism that this was precisely when chronic absenteeism was lowest, perhaps contributing to the higher number of students reporting being bullied.
  • This could also be indicative of why absenteeism continues to rise after 4th grade as more kids try to avoid being involved in bullying.
  • The report also shows a strong correlation between bullying and liking school: in grades 3-5, one out of five students exposed to bullying reported strongly disliking school. This number goes to one out of two students involved in bullying reporting strongly disliking school.
  • The report further showed that the level of empathy for those bullied was highest among 3-5th graders, and decreased with each increase in grade—from a high of 73% of 3-5th grade girls who want to help those being bullied dropping to 48% by the time they are 9-12th graders; and from a high of 69% of 3-5th grade boys who want to help dropping down to 42% of boys by 9-12th

This report tells us two important pieces of information we need to address regarding bullying in schools:

  1. It is highest among 3-4th graders
  2. That is the age when kids have the highest sympathy or empathy for those who are being bullied.

Therefore any strategy that focuses on teaching 3-4th graders to reduce bullying—by teaching those that are bullying that it is wrong; by teaching those that are being bullied how to properly respond so they are not bullied in future; and by teaching bystanders what the appropriate way is to help those that are being bullied—will have the highest impact on reducing bullying in schools or grades going forward.

The classroom curriculum should include instructions that help kids know how to appropriately respond to being bullied so that they are less likely to be bullied again. It should further teach compassion so that other kids know how to appropriately step in and help those that are being bullied. Ultimately, the goal is to teach kids why it is wrong to bully others so those likely to bully others stop doing so.

In a bullying-free school zone, kids would have fewer reasons to dislike school and avoid it, improving attendance, which improves performance at school.

This is born by evidence. A 2011 BERC study showed a strong correlation between 6th grade attendance and high school graduation rates. For kids who missed less than 10 days of 6th grade school, the high school graduation level was 70%. On the other hand, only 13% of students who missed 40 days or more of school year in 6th grade ended up graduating from high school.

The BERC study strongly indicates that reducing the number of school days missed at an early age increases high school graduation rates. Any effort that goes towards reducing absenteeism increases graduation and overall academic success.

Effective Anti-bullying programs for Schools

The most effective anti-bullying programs for schools should focus on very young children that are between kindergarten and 4th grade. It is especially most effective when taught to 3rd and 4th graders precisely because that is when bullying truly begins and kids at that age also have the highest empathy levels for other kids.

At a minimum, the characteristics of an effective anti-bullying program should look as follows:

  • It is directed primarily at young children
  • It teaches by example and is engaging, utilizing the medium that children prefer such as video animation
  • It does not create a burden for the teacher or the school, but enables the homeroom teacher to easily weave the program into the normal curriculum
  • It is builds on lessons so that students increasingly understand why bullying is wrong, why they should not engage in it, and why they cannot be just bystanders but must act appropriately to stop it. The program must be offered on an ongoing basis from year to year throughout elementary grades.
  • It is data driven and measures the effectiveness of the program, enabling teachers and administrators to see the effect and adjust the program as necessary
  • It should be inexpensive enough for every school to purchase, implement, train teachers and administrators, and continue to use the program from year to year

Conclusion

This article has documented the research done to show the impact of chronic absenteeism on overall academic performance and high school graduation levels.

It has also shown that a major contributing factor to chronic absenteeism is a need on the part of the student to avoid harassment and bullying in school. The article further shows studies on bullying that provide strong linkage between bullying and the dislike of school.

More importantly, the article makes the case that the right time to prevent bullying and increase classroom attendance is very early in elementary grades, where the likelihood of the of the effectiveness of programs are the highest.

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