Upon Further Review…
New Attendance Policy Has
Unintended Consequences
January 2006
If you’re an avid reader of
INHS, (if you’re not you should be), you may remember that
the September 2005 installment talked about the high
school’s new attendance policy. The stricter policy was
meant to make kids go to class, and presumably to make it
more likely that kids would learn. If you read that
September article you’ll see I was a strong supporter of
this new policy; I still am but I do have some unintended
consequences to report.
The biggest issue with the
new attendance policy doesn’t lie in the spirit of it. I
still strongly support the goal of getting kids to go to
class. The problem is Novi High School, like every other
school in the world, still hasn’t found a way to motivate
students who aren’t motivated. The new attendance policy has
gotten more kids into class. In my first two years at Novi
High School I would say there was an average of two kids
absent per class. This year, it’s genuinely shocking if
there’s somebody absent. Last year 39% of seniors had more
than 10 absences, this year that number has dropped to just
11%!
In a way the new attendance
policy has already been an unequivocal success. It has
boosted attendance. But something that wasn’t considered was
the ramifications of the influx of kids that would rather be
sleeping in their beds at home. Instead of having fewer
students in class, but a higher average alertness, there are
now more students in class, with a lower average of
alertness. Looking around my classes, especially early in
the day, there are far more glazed eyes and heads down than
ever before.
So what’s the solution?
From the picture I’ve painted above, it may seem as though
the new attendance policy has simply created a new problem.
I think that would be an oversimplification. The new
attendance policy has been good for Novi High School. But it
has not been the cure-all that many, including myself,
thought it would be. The fact remains that motivating
teenagers who don’t want to learn isn’t easy. It’s probably
one of the hardest things in the world to do.
Getting kids to class, I
suppose, is the first step in getting kids to become
students. Now should be a time to applaud the administration
for taking the first step towards making more kids students.
If they can take the next leap - to more productive students
- it will be the time for a standing ovation.
