The 50% Challenge Step 1: Crafting a State Road Map
Organize a Team
Improving attendance requires a cross-departmental team that will “drive” towards the goal. The team will have the insights and resources needed to design and implement an effective and sustainable attendance strategy. Assembling this team requires getting the right people on board.
Who should be on your state team?
The key person is a powerful, high-level leader who can convene and move the plan forward. In many states, this can be the state superintendent, governor or a legislator. Team leadership can consist of several high-level executives who co-lead the group. The role of top leadership is to mobilize all relevant partners to do their parts. For example, in Rhode Island, the governor and state superintendent have raised awareness of the attendance crisis and, using a publicly accessible real-time chronic absence dashboard, created a sense of urgency and commitment from mayors, district superintendents and businesses.
High-level state executives may also distribute leadership by designating a task force or legislative work group to devise a plan to halve chronic absence in five years. Other options may involve starting with an existing work group and then expanding to others, as the process evolves. In Colorado, for example, the commissioner of education connected the 50% challenge to one of the department’s four priorities (student engagement) and included it as part of the state education agency's new strategic plan. In this state the priority is developed by an existing cross departmental team that led previous attendance efforts.
What are the key functions of a state team?
To develop and execute the strategy to cut chronic absence in half, the team must:
Share and analyze data trends and patterns to gain insight into student and family groups affected by chronic absence.
Listen to the voices and perspectives of students, families and educators to learn about root causes and solutions.
Map existing statewide attendance, engagement and health assets and resources
Determine which of the major routes described in Step 3 to prioritize, based on an analysis of data, existing resources and understanding of best practice.
Leverage and pool resources from different departments within the SEA and other state agencies.
Provide guidance, incentives and professional development for districts to adopt best practice strategies Below are some examples.
Ensure adequate resources are available for schools to improve attendance. Use data to determine how to distribute resources to high-need districts and schools.
Develop a public awareness campaign. Below are some examples
Create the plan and monitor implementation.
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