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NYC Department of Education Releases First Attendance Rates For Remote Learning
By
Sophia Chang
Published Apr 18, 2020
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By
Sophia Chang
Published Apr 18, 2020
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The Department of Education has released attendance rates for participation in remote learning, starting with Monday April 6th through April 14th.
Attendance rate is an average of 84.3 percent across all grades, with higher rates for younger grades and tapering off for the high school grades, according to the DOE. In 2019 average attendance was 91.5 percent across all grades for the same time period.
Pre K through second grade averaged 85.9 percent attendance rate. Grades 3-5 averaged 87.9 percent attendance rate. Grades 6-8 averaged 85.7 percent attendance rate. Grades 9-12 averaged 77.1 percent attendance rate. The information was based on reporting data for an average of 81 percent of students per day, the DOE said, and attendance rates will now be released each week.
Remote learning attendance
NYC Department of Education
“Moving 1.1 million students to remote learning was an unprecedented effort, and while we knew nothing could replace in-person instruction and support, we immediately shifted to develop a structure that made sense for schools and kept students involved. This cannot be considered attendance in the traditional sense but helps us understand who is and isn’t interacting daily, and is data we’re using to support students and prevent learning loss. This allows us to push for the best learning experience possible and prioritize meaningful engagement, frequent learning opportunities, and continued support from staff,” said DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot in an email statement.
The attendance is taken via the Student Interaction Tracker on STARS Classroom, “an easily accessible and familiar online system that schools use during normal school operation, but is not used for attendance. Schools are expected to indicate which students have not interacted in a given day, similar to the practice of marking certain students ‘absent’ rather than marking certain students ‘present’ during in-person attendance procedures,” the DOE said.
The DOE has been questioned over the relevance of taking attendance this way—one skeptic noted that the attendance interaction can be as little as a few seconds.
The DOE said the interactions are defined by each school and can span a range of activities from participating in online forums and chats to phone calls or emails—or "other evidence of participation as determined by the principal.”
The attendance rate is also affected by students who haven’t been able to participate in the remote learning components yet -- the city is still trying to distribute laptops and tablets to thousands of students who reported they didn’t have access to internet-connected devices.
After schools shut down March 15th, the DOE said 300,000 students would need such devices to participate in remote learning. These students would have a device by the end of April, Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised. About 240,000 families requested a device through a DOE survey, and 70,000 devices have been distributed including 13,000 for students in homeless shelters. Schools had also issued 175,000 devices to students before the survey was sent out.
The DOE is also prioritizing outreach to students who haven’t been in touch with any educators or school staff since the school shutdown went into effect: “Starting this week, we’re asking schools to conduct an additional focused round of outreach to students who are not consistently engaging to identify barriers and help students and families overcome them. Schools should develop a plan to reach out either by phone, email, or remote learning application and ensure they have devices, language access, and any academic or social-emotional support they need,” the DOE said.
Tagged
COVID-19
coronavirus
schools
remote learning
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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