Ed note: Our first guest article.. and it’s a DANDY!
Thanks to Joe’s recent post, I’ve been mulling my former teaching career and the idea of what keeps kids in school anyway? I won’t rehash the statistics but essentially, Natomas Unified is failing to keep kids in school. Why is that and what can we do to make it better?
I stumbled across an old Dept of Ed article called “Manual to Combat Truancy.” This line in particular jumped out at me “I’ve never seen a gang member who wasn’t a truant first,” says California District Attorney Kim Menninger. Based on the crime stats in Natomas and ongoing problems as the economy sinks around the nation, we’re obviously not doing enough to keep kids in school. The article has a few ideas of programs that have worked but none seem to focus on the real problem at hand: Why should kids care about staying in school?
The answer is simple to adults and complex to kids. If you have only seen your family treated poorly, suffered hunger, gone to school in clothes that were dirty, walked miles because you can’t afford a bus pass, then you have low expectations. While working at an alternative school, I had a student who traded sexual favors for food from a neighbor. It was the only way to feed her 4 year old brother who was often left in her care for days or weeks on end. She came to school every day because it was the only bright light in her horrid life. This happens every day to kids right in our own neighborhood.
But those kids are a mere fraction of the statistics represented in Joe’s report. The rest are simply kids that got left behind. I’ve seen undiagnosed learning disabilities that were so severe that kids in high school were still functioning at a 4th grade level. They worked so hard, for so little. I’ve seen others who had to work at night to help pay rent, others who failed year after year but got passed on anyway. I’ve seen gangsta kids who thought the streets had a better life with more money available to them. Do you know where I saw them all? SCHOOL.
And here’s the simple answer. What keeps kids in school? Having an adult they trust who they believe cares about them. It’s that simple. It can be a parent, teacher, family friend, pastor, principal, school counselor, even school safety officer. But they have to feel accountable to someone and feel like they matter. Will someone know if they don’t show up at school? Will someone call their house and track them down? If not, one easy day turns into 100 then a failed exit exam then jail. It really is that simple.
You can throw money at the problem all day long but essentially, it boils down to time. I was lucky to be a teacher in two schools that encouraged me to give my heart and soul to my class and to take time. Miss a staff lunch because someone is crying in your classroom? No big deal. Want to plan a life-changing field trip with no money? We’ll make it happen. Too many teachers are hog-tied by regulations, restrictions, low-esteem and the “no way it’ll work” administration. Why do so many new teachers leave in the first five years? Because too many people tell them they can’t change the world.
Second to that, schools need to have freedom to design a system that works for their students. Since Brown vs. Board of Education, a vastly different population of students has entered a system that was designed for wealthy white boys in the 1800s. The system hasn’t changed to meet the needs of the students. Why do charter schools work? Because they are individualized to what a small group of students need. Our system needs to be more diverse, more understanding and more broadly defined, not less. If your student needs online school, homeschool, big classes, single-sex classes, alternative schedules, block schedules, gifted acceleration, remedial tutoring,- you should be easily able to find it within your school district.
With enough parental pressure, Natomas Unified and every district in the state could easily meet these needs. If only the administration would stop saying “No.”
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Ed notes:
Check out a Michigan county’s Truancy Intervention program:
“Truancy is not viewed as just a school problem any more. Many students with attendance concerns come from at-risk families. When students enroll in school they bring all of their problems with them. The truancy coordinator works with school staff, students, parents, law enforcement, prosecutor’s office, family court and district court, and prevention service agencies to insure that long term solutions are in place to assist students and families. Because of truancy intervention school attendance is up, daytime crime is down, court referrals have decreased, and students and parents are held accountable for their actions.”
Check out this truancy program in Texas
“A major problem that many schools districts encounter are high truancy rates. Absent Student Assistance Program (A.S.A.P) is a program that started with volunteer deputies visiting the homes of absent students. ”
Stop telling us what can NOT be done, and start telling us what CAN be done! This city has low expectations of itself because of our bureaucratic, same as it ever was leadership. Time to step it up Sacramento!
Yay! Thank you for this moving article, Tracy. Hopefully Tracy will contribute regularly for us! Check out her blog when you get a chance: http://blog-sacramento.blogspot.com/
This is the first time since I moved to Natomas that I have seen citizens raising hell about the truancy and delinquency situation. Bravo to both of you for making some noise! Let me know how I can help.
As many will recall, Inderkum made a huge move this school year to begin fighting truancy. They were one of three Sac County schools that instituted a rigid truancy program. It began to pay off immediately, according to the minutes of the NUSD board meeting. Then the county decided to ax the program. Read about it here in the Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1001211.html. Of course, it is always the best, most needed programs that get canned. Perhaps residents of Natomas should actually contact someone other than the police about the mess in the schools. Contact the County board of Supervisors and demand this program get re-funded.
Thanks for the link Mike!
On Inderkum’s truancy program: “Modeled after a successful program at Luther Burbank High School, the attendance center takes kids caught skipping school and tries to solve the problem at the root. A county employee on the center staff links students and their families with available public services. The community-based counselor would stay on.”
How about county and/or city VOLUNTEERS (they use volunteer police in other states) VISIT the kids house like they do in other states? I would got to a few houses a day, no problem. Why are we counting on PAID positions VULNERABLE to budget cuts to staff critical truancy programs? IMO truancy programs should NEVER be in the budget snafu cross hairs, nor should public safety.
We have those ‘city guide’ folks downtown, right? Why not have similar volunteers to assist with truancy in places like Natomas? How about asking the Guardian Angels to help with truancy? There are so many ways to skin this cat it would seem.
What about Natomas High? Are they taking similar steps as Inderkum?
As for Dickinson, he and the SAc county supes slash the budget, cut the funding for the thin programs they have, and THEN want a news sales tax to plug the hole?! Unreal
PS: truancy programs need NOT be so rigid and inflexible (inflexibility and lack of creativity being the main theme of Tracy’s article). There are other ways to get the community involved in truancy programs. I’m very surprised they built one at Inderkum largely predicated on the health of the county’s budget
In my humble experience, punishing kids and parents for truancy is a short-term, short-sighted solution. If they’re going to fail high school anyway, why bother sticking around? It’s up to the schools, parents, teachers and community to make kids see the value in an education, not to charge them with a crime if their butt isn’t in a boring, useless seat.
I would happily volunteer to visit the homes of kids who are consistently truant and on the brink of dropping out. However, as a legal mandated reporter that puts me in a sticky situation. If I have to call CPS but I know that things will actually go from bad to worse for the child, is me being there actually helpful to anyone?
Volunteers are the best solution to the Inderkum truancy closure. Natomas needs to embrace this solution as well. The schools also need to start using their SARB procedures too. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ai/sb/ I’ve got no statistics but I’m willing to be that Natomas Unified does not actively follow this procedure, particularly since it’s barely mentioned on their website in a laundry list of other specialized “student” services.
Guest articles, huh? I’m a little hurt that I wasn’t asked to contribute.
Danny, email me and I will give you a login as I did Tracy and you can submit articles any time you want. Can’t guarantee I will publish all of them, but I totally welcome your contributions. Bring it on.
Tracy, let the volunteering begin. I am right there with you. I am more than happy to go out to a few houses a day and give a friendly reminder. I know others would be too. These agencies need to get out of their tiny boxes and start asking the community for help. Everyone is afraid to get shown up by someone with a better idea. What we need is some humility in the government ranks so the community can get involved hands on with these kids. Note: for all the big talk in this community, not a SINGLE person emailed me and offered to assist in the mentorship program I proposed. Not one. The Bee didn’t even mention it in their article about low income housing in Natomas, nor did the people they interviewed.
Do people REALLY want to do something out here, or do they just want to TALK about it and install more surveillance cameras and neighborhood watch programs? I am really beginning to wonder. In order for your ideas to be entertained do you have to be a part of another program? PLay nice? Say nice things about incompetent people? Give me a break.
Joe, that’s a wonderful sentiment that you and others share here: That is, you want to be part of the solution to the problems in the school. NUSD has a mentoring program for the kids producing at the lowest 20% in test scores. I was one of 700 that volunteered last year in Natomas schools and that group of students saw dramatic increases in test scores, especially at the Elementary school level. Also, truancy went down in that group. Dr. Farrar would like to see mentoring for all students if they had the volunteers. Hopefully your blog will help get that word out to everyone. All they need to do is apply at the School Board office on Gateway Park Blvd., let them do a background check and you can be a mentor. Thanks again for the attitude that trumpets the message: “Let the volunteering begin”.
Mike, great point, great program aimed at kids who actually go to school. But I see that one as more of an academic mentoring program (which is great!) than a kid mentoring program like Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
In any event, I am talking about knocking on doors, not helping kids with math. You DON’T want me helping kids with math, trust me
Mike-
The HOSTS program is designed to raise test scores and has succeeded in doing that. It’s my understanding that this is a skills based, academic program and has little to do with establishing a true mentoring relationship. From the NUSD website:
“Help One Student To Succeed – A nationally recognized academic structured mentoring program that pairs a student who needs help in reading or math with a volunteer who wants to make a difference in a student’s life.”
From the HOSTS website:
“Through the use of diagnostic strategies and individualized lessons, instructors and mentors are given the tools to help all students succeed while maximizing use of existing core curriculum and tracking achievement. HOSTS Learning is the only program identified in both the NCLB language and the IDEA reauthorization as a successful, research-based practice.”
I have great fear of any program that was specifically mentioned in NCLB. That means it’s program based, not student focused. Not what Joe is talking about.
Doesn’t matter to me if they can’t read or do math on grade level if their other needs are not being met. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs says that a person essentially cannot achieve if their more primal needs are not being met. Shelter, food, safety come first, followed by love and belonging, THEN achievement.
Maslow! Exactly Tracy. http://www.joesacramento.com/cup-of-joe/at-risk-youth-and-maslow/
I am waiting for the day when KJ or someone else mentions Maslow and draws a collective “Wha—–?” from the community. Poverty and crime are WAY more tightly interwoven than people think. There are endless studies to support that. Mike, your church is doing EXACTLY what needs to be done in the community: OUTREACH. And THAT is what I am talking about here. We just need to do it on a more personalized level where there is some accountability. Police need to help us. That is ONE of the reasons why people at the community meeting were asking police if they can let us know what happens to these kids after they get arrested. Cops bust them and then we never hear from them again… until they are waving a shotgun in our face
Takes a VILLAGE
Tracy: I am a member of the Foundation that raises money for the HOSTS program. What you have quoted is the party line on the purpose. However, I and many other mentors will tell you that you do one part education with 3 parts loving every time you sit down with the kids. I want to be sensitive to some of my kids and not tell their stories, but let me tell you how wonderful it is to listen to the problems, difficulties and fears of an 8 year old who has come to see you as a brother or dad because you listen. Yes, it’s math, but when a kid that was going to be kicked out of Natomas Middle School is mentored for just two months and pulls all his F’s up to B’s….and stops getting in trouble at his apartment complex, that is more than just meeting the higher smaller end of Maslow’s pyramid. Safety can come when an adult believes a child who says “I’m not safe at home”. Tracy, if you can design a better way to get involved, I am right there!
Mike-
I don’t doubt that you do a wonderful job because you sound like an amazing person who really cares. HOSTS is a fine program for what it does and I enjoy seeing so many kids meet responsible, caring adults. However, if the party line is raise those test scores, how much can a program do? You’re well connected to community resources, what about others? Is it part of the training to learn how to refer kids out for services beyond your capabilities and to follow up? I’m sure there are many of you who have dedicated your hearts to this job. And there are plenty others who are there to teach those darned young kids how to do math. It’s hard to know anything different when all the ads for the HOSTS program show one adult, one kid sitting at a desk doing academic work.
Please don’t think I’m criticizing you because I truly value what you’ve put into the NSF and HOSTS. Really, we shouldn’t even need an NSF… but that’s a whole different article.
I celebrate ALL programs that assist youth. I hope that goes without saying. I would just argue the effectiveness of this program as a SINGLE, unilateral solution to the youth issues in Natomas. I mean, Mike, are you saying this is the only program we need and we all need to step up and volunteer for it? If so, I will respectfully decline because academic mentorship is not my forte. But put me on a basketball court with a kid and watch me shine.
Different people bring different skills to the table. We need 31 flavors of youth programs in my opinion, not just a select few a select group of people support.
On a related note one of the things that keeps people from volunteering is the lack of flexible programs that lend themselves to some customization based on the kid and the mentor. A lot of people don’t want to be bothered with a bunch of rules and regulations just to go say WASSUP to a kid and see how he is doing and let him know he has got someone looking out for him.
We;re all trying to get to the same place, I just think we need a wider variety of programs customized for the needs of kids AND mentors.
I would love to see the police get involved and offer some program a means of following up with juvenile offenders who are being released into Natomas. I am more than happy to talk to those kids and get them pointed in the right direction. Whatever you do, do NOT release them into Natomas without any support.
Still waiting to hear back from youth dev officer (I incorrectly referred to as PD office–apologies) who is heading up some sort of youth program in NAtomas. Emailed quite a while ago. No response.
I liked the idea of the penetentary . Build one out in Natomas. You people are going to need it. Plan ahead!