Combatting School Attendance Issues

Combatting School Attendance Issues

by Ville Carballido Sullivan 

If you’re a student at Nashua North it’s not uncommon throughout the year to notice kids wandering the hallways during classes or skipping school days as a whole.

Many students in the senior class of 2024 claim that each year student attendance has become a bigger and bigger issue.

It’s shown that students who skip classes or school as a whole end up with a much worse GPA and SAT score. Additionally, over 7.5% of students who dropout/fail out end up unemployed and that’s not even accounting for those with minimum wage jobs. The statistics show a good chunk of these students are actively killing their future and simply don’t care.

Constant attempts to put a stop to the issue at North have left some teachers feeling hopeless. Everyday students are given a period of time called E-Block. During this time students are allowed 40 minutes to catch up on homework, go to a teacher for extra help, or stay in their respected E-Block and socialize. However, a massive chunk of students use this time to simply wander the halls with their friends, or stay in the bathrooms.

In an effort to combat this, administrators have created a teacher hall monitor system. Everyday teachers in each wing are selected to patrol the halls asking students for passes, and sending them back to their home E-Blocks.

In order to see just how effective this method really is, teachers across North were questioned in an interview. When asked about hall duty Mr Watkins, an English teacher stated, “Yes…It’s a nightmare, I hate it.” Continuing, Watkins stated, “Kids don’t respect us” and “Groups of kids not being where they’re supposed to be and not listening to teachers when they ask them for a pass or to get to their E-Blocks.”

Following this teachers were then asked if they believe the administration have been effective when brainstorming ideas to combat students skipping. Ms. Yates, a longstanding FACS teacher at North was a prime target for this question as she is revered for her many social relations with students at the school.

Yates was first asked if she’s seen kids skip and how that makes her feel as a teacher, to which she said, “Yes in my class and in others.” and “Demoralized, I work really hard to try and make my room fun and entertaining. Thats the most important thing to me, is to engage with students to learn stuff.”

This leads to an idea that students skipping may not only be affecting themselves but also teachers who may feel unmotivated to teach and then in turn affecting the students wanting to participate and learn in class.

When asked if the methods used to combat skipping have been effective Yates stated, “Absolutely not.”

Following up she was asked if she has any ideas on how skipping could be prevented. Yates explained that she believes offering students an opportunity to experience certain classes before selecting them would allow students to find a class they may truly enjoy. It also gives them the chance to meet the teacher and see if they’re compatible.

Yates also briefly touched on the topic of cell phones which is another pandora's box at North. However she went on to say, “Cell phones are a problem, I’m not as interesting as Tik Tok…I can’t compete with that.”

Also mentioning she believes the issue came from the pandemic as kids were trained to “Wake up, sign in, go back to bed, wake up to the alarm, sign in, go to bed.” 

Referencing to the fact that most kids were simply signing into their online classes, going back to bed and waking up at the end of class in order to sign out and sign back into their next class. Pointing to the idea that for 2-3 some kids may have been drained of all social interactions as all they had was their computers, consoles, or phones.

In order to better understand the effectiveness of the methods used to combat skipping, you must get the administrations point of view as well. The first interview was conducted with APs Mrs. Closs and Mr. Massey with the question, “Why do you think kids skip?” Both immediately explained that for most it’s just to hang out with their friends and socialize.

They went on to explain the methods they use in order to combat skipping and how effective they believe they are. Closs explained they create a list of kids who skip, also asking teachers to write kids up. After that they will receive a detention, that will turn into an ISS, and then a out of school suspension depending on the consistency and severity.

In terms of effectiveness Massy stated, “For some it is effective, for some it’s not. Because again whatever the social or non school related issues outside of class, doesn’t stop them.”

Massy further explained the issue is a much larger cultural shift needs to happen that emphasizes the importance of education rather than coming to school just because you have to.

Closs added input stating she understands that schools keep kids here until they’re 18. A lot of kids don’t want to participate in traditional high school which she fully understands and respects, “I get it, high school is not for everybody.”

Going further Closs mentioned that in cases where kids have a chronic skipping issue, they’re offered other methods of learning such as adult learning centers, night school, etc.

Closs touches on a very interesting topic briefly mentioning how schools in NH keep kids until they’re 18. In the state of Massachusetts kids are able to dropout at the age of 16, which makes you wonder if kids know high school isn’t for them and were able to dropout at 16 instead of 18. Would this make a significant change in the skipping issues schools across NH face?

Furthermore, principal Nate Burns the head of Nashua North was interviewedWhen asked about how often he sees kids skipping Burns said, “Definitely have our share of kids that are skipping everyday I would say. A lot of times its the same kids in the same locations, in the same blocks, it happens quite frequently.”

As for why he believes kids are skipping, Burns explained there’s a list of possibilities as to why a kid could be skipping. Reasons included; Too far behind in class to care, school may not be their thing, they didn’t learn what they needed in middle school and now lack the basic skills in order to be successful in high school, they want to meet up with their friends, etc.

When speaking on the methods used to combat the issue Burns essentially explained everything APs Massy & Closs touched on. Going a bit further with effectiveness stating, “In some cases it’s effective, other times it’s not. You know its the same kid and we’re having the same conversation with them. We bring in parents and try to have a conversation with them as well to try and set them up with success plan or maybe some alternatives such as modified days, or adult ed opportunities. We have a couple other programs we partner with, so if they qualify for those it’s another option.”

Analyzing what the administration has said, it would seem they are in agreement with each other when it comes to this situation. Compare this to some of the teachers interviewed and it seems as if they feel quite the opposite.

The perspectives of the administrators as well as the teacher has been spoken on, however what most people overlook is the opinions of fellow students. Both students who attend their classes and those who don’t were interviewed in order to get a deeper understanding of the topic.

We first interviewed senior Abigail O’Malley. When asked about her opinion on children who skip, O'Mally said, “My first thought is, why even come to school if you’re not gonna go to class? And what are you gonna do after high school?”

Following that, Sarah Weintraub, the class of 2024 vice president was asked if she has any ideas as to why kids begin skipping. “I think that they start skipping at a young age because they were bored, and if they were to go back to class now they wouldn’t be capable of doing the work. So they keep skipping and they are probably doing drugs.” This is a very different idea as previously, teachers nor administration mentioned anything about students doing drugs. However as we’ll see this is not a rare claim made by most students.

Weintraubwas then asked if she, as the class vice president, has any ideas to combat skipping. Sarah explained that she feels as if the people she currently sees skipping are the same people she saw skipping in middle school.

Adding on she claims that the middle schools are the root of the issue as they fail to lay a good foundation for some students, they lack an engaging curriculum that keeps students involved. Circling back to her original point of students doing drugs in the bathrooms, Weintraub says she doesn’t know how to help that.

Finally, a student who requested to stay anonymous urged, “People skip because they’re druggies, I’m telling you!”

The last set of individuals that were interviewed were fully consenting self admitted skippers. These students were interviewed during Block 2 or E-Block and stated reasons as to why they skip.

The first interviewee was with student Joss Tran. When asked why he skips E-Block everyday with his girlfriend in the B-2/3 stairwell at the end of the hallway, he replied “E-Block is boring.”

Following that, student Kailey Clancy, a student in Mr Watkins' class stated that she skips classes if there’s a substitute teacher. This creates a new idea of the fact students aren’t respecting substitutes enough to stay in their class. Even if there’s work that was assigned that day.

Senior student Kam Langelier said, “There’s b------ in my cosmetology class that I absolutely f------ hate. So I be skipping that class.”

The final interview was conducted with senior Clare Tran who very often skips E-Block as well as her third block. When asked why Tran stated that she just needs her exercise and she’s also sick of certain people.

Looking at all the data, no two answers are the same. Additionally, most of the answers given don’t really match with the predicted reasonings faculty gave for why kids may be skipping.

Although the pool of students interviewed were small, it’s important to take into account that kids may not be skipping simply because they wanna hang out with their friends. Two of the four students mentioned that other students are a reason they don’t want to participate in class. Neither of the students touched on it further however it’s not unreasonable to assume some sort of bullying may be at play here.

Bullying of any kind is a topic that cannot be overlooked. It’s the responsibility of the teachers and administrators at North to create a safe and healthy environment for students.

It’s imprudent to assume administration doesn’t already investigate this as a factor for skipping. However, it’s still important to at least mention that most other students and even faculty members automatically group kids who skip in a bad light.

No matter how rare you may think it is, 1 in 5 students report being bullied throughout a school year. Before handing out that detention slip, be human and talk to your students.

In order to make a difference with this issue, you need to understand everyone lives different lives. You can’t group every student who skips together because that creates prejudice when a chunk of students disrespect you or abuse drugs in the bathrooms. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or administrator, treat these students like humans and understand where they’re coming from before taking action.

Simply writing students up or giving them detentions will only create resentment which will in turn create that stereotypical kid everyone thinks of when they hear “skipping kid.”

Whether it's someone who knows high school isn’t for them and wants to drop out but can’t due to NH laws. A student who faces bullying and escapes that through skipping. Or even a kid who just doesn’t have the correct tools to understand the curriculum. We all need to do better in order to help these students' futures.