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Elysian Charter School
Weekly Newsletter
A Positively Different Public School
January 11, 2016 Vol. 11 Issue 17
Please note that the school newsletter is sent out on Mondays. When there is a holiday, the newsletter is sent the following day. Please send news to lynne.shapiro@ecsnj.org by 1:00 PM on Mondays.
The weekly newsletter is archived on Elysian's website, www.ecsnj.org, so that you can always access both the most recent newsletter as well as all previous ones.
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Harry's Corner
Stopping Absenteeism at the Age of 5
From the NY Times, October 16, 2015
Two years ago, a woman I’ll call Lillian (instead of her real name) had grown used to the phone calls from her daughter’s school. At first, they were automated messages notifying her that her daughter — I’ll call her Annabelle — had been absent. Then came personal calls from a teacher, then from the principal himself.
Each time, Lillian tried to explain why it was hard to get Annabelle to school: Lillian was a single mother, unemployed, and under great stress. Then, one winter morning, there was a knock at her door. It was the school’s social worker and attendance counselor. They wanted to make sure Lillian understood that her daughter was in danger of falling so far behind in learning it could jeopardize her future. At the time, Annabelle was in kindergarten.
Annabelle is fortunate to attend Frank J. DiLoreto Magnet School in New Britain, Conn., where home visits like this are a standard part of the school’s efforts to improve attendance in kindergarten and first grade. This is unusual: 35 states don’t even require kindergarten attendance. In fact, nationwide, one in 10 kindergartners and first graders miss nearly a month of school, a common threshold for what is known as “chronic absenteeism.”
A growing body of research suggests that chronic absenteeism is a serious problem — so much so that last week the United States Department of Education announced an initiative to address it.
“It has a tremendous impact on learning,” said Joe Vaverchak, supervisor of attendance for the Consolidated School District of New Britain, of which DiLoreto is a part. “Academically, but also socially and psychologically. A lot of these kids — even if they miss one day in a week — they feel like they’re behind. Some of them get embarrassed because now the class is moving on. Other kids will say ‘you missed this.’ It really sets these kids up for failure.” One study concludes that attendance trends starting in first grade are a good predictor of graduation rates.
Vaverchak discovered the problem in his district more than three years ago, when he sifted through 2011-2012 attendance data to investigate why his school system had among the lowest third grade reading scores in the state. He was startled to find that nearly one-third of kindergartners and a quarter of first graders were missing at least 10 percent of the school year. The district hired outreach workers to convey to parents the importance of attendance and to connect families with needed social services.
Those efforts have since cut early chronic absenteeism almost in half — a change that has been accompanied by a substantial improvement in the children’s reading levels. In the fall of 2013, 35 percent of kindergartners and 36 percent of first graders were at or above average in reading. This past spring, those numbers were 52 and 48 percent, respectively.
What sets the New Britain school district apart isn’t only its deliberate response to the attendance problem; it’s that district officials discovered the problem in the first place. Unlike other school systems, New Britain closely monitors chronic absenteeism, which doesn’t distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. Most school districts focus narrowly on students at risk of becoming “truant” for repeat unexcused absences (the precise definition of truancy varies by state).
In general, efforts to improve attendance are almost exclusively focused on high school students. (Kindergartners, as you might expect, have more interest in skipping rope than skipping class.)
But by high school, addressing habitual absenteeism may be too late. Focusing on truancy instead of chronic absenteeism misses vital early warning signs about the youngest students, whose absences are almost always excused. Not surprisingly, students from low income families tend to have the worst attendance. Often the root causes include lack of access to housing, transportation and health care, combined with the misconception that regular attendance in early childhood is not particularly important. For example, the summer before Annabelle started kindergarten, Lillian had left her husband, Annabelle’s father, whom she says had been violent toward Lillian. The family had moved several times, including briefly to a women’s shelter. Lillian was suffering from depression and Annabelle was receiving therapy to help her cope with the upheaval.
The progress in New Britain is noteworthy because it’s one of the poorest school districts in Connecticut. The key, according to Vaverchak, is catching the problem early. He runs chronic absenteeism reports every 10 days to identify students who have missed 10 percent of classes at any point in the school year. (A student who has missed just one of the first 10 days of school will show up on Vaverchak’s report). Attendance review teams made up of teachers, administrators, social workers, guidance counselors and the school nurse meet weekly to discuss each case and put together an action plan. Interventions can be as simple as talking to parents about the importance of regular attendance or as complicated as helping families find permanent housing. With grant funding from the state and a local nonprofit, the district also hired two outreach workers specifically to engage with parents of kindergartners.
At the district level, an attendance review committee meets twice monthly to review the worst cases. This all-volunteer committee was created nearly two decades ago (before chronic absenteeism became a priority in the state — more on that below) when Vaverchak cold-called representatives from social service agencies and community organizations, introduced himself and asked them to join. For added incentive, he says, he had his mother bake banana bread for them. Now he has a network of people he can count on for support, from the police down to the local Boys and Girls Club.
Connecticut is one of the few states that look systematically at chronic absenteeism (California, Rhode Island, Maryland, Hawaii, Oregon, New Jersey, Ohio and Georgia do as well, to varying degrees). Recent state legislation requires schools to track data on chronic absenteeism and establish teams where necessary. It also requires that the state board of education have a chronic absenteeism prevention and intervention plan by early next year.
Legislation like that in Connecticut isn’t a necessity for tackling chronic absenteeism; most schools could readily set up an attendance review team to evaluate data they already collect. But in the absence of state reporting requirements, they don’t have to look at it analytically. That makes legislation the key to getting serious about the problem.
For example, the distinction often made between unexcused and excused absences has little rationale behind it, except that monitoring truancy is required by the No Child Left Behind system. So unexcused absences are the one type that is widely tracked, even though the detrimental effects of missing school are similar whether a student skips class to go shopping or is kept home to care for a younger sibling. Another commonly used measure of attendance is “average daily attendance” (A.D.A.), which looks at how many students are in school each day and is used by some states to allocate funding. Like truancy, A.D.A. masks the severity of attendance issues. A school can have 95 percent A.D.A. and still have almost 20 percent of students chronically absent because on different days, different students make up the 95 percent.
“When you create student information systems, you only generate the reports that you’re mandated to produce,” said Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, an initiative to call attention to chronic absenteeism and co-author of one of the earliest studies of the problem. “It just never occurred to anyone to look at how much kids were missing school for any reason.”
That’s changing. Alongside the federal Department of Education’s new initiative to combat it, which was announced last week, more and more school districts are adopting chronic absenteeism as their primary measure of attendance. That, in turn, is prompting a shift from punitive to preventive interventions. Truancy is largely handled through the court system, where stories abound of truant older students having their driver’s licenses suspended and parents being fined and even serving jail time. Because chronic absenteeism often begins at an early age, early interventions can be a major step toward stopping it before it becomes habitual and subject to punishment.
It’s an approach that many feel is long overdue and, at least in Annabelle’s case, seems to have worked. Now in second grade, she has a perfect attendance record so far this year.
Rikha Sharma Rani is a journalist who writes about public policy and foreign affairs. She is a director at the Solutions Journalism Network and a former editor of The Journal of International Affairs. Follow her on Twitter at @rikrani.
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ELYSIAN CHARTER SCHOOL
2016 PARCC TESTING SCHEDULE
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Pre Alg. & Alg. Units 1 & 2
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Friends of Elysian Meeting – Tonight @ 5 pm in Kate's room - 324
We are having a meeting tonight to talk all about the upcoming “Annual Friends of Elysian Fundraising Party & Auction.” (By the way, more info on the date and place to come this week in a separate email!)
We want to make this a wonderful and fun event for everyone, but we need your help! And it can be anything from helping secure auction lots to organizing gift bags to you name it! Please stop by tonight if you can. But if you can’t and would love to help out, email us at friends@ecsnj.org. Thank you!
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| KUUMBA Day Thanks!
Kuumba 2016 was a smashing success!
Weren't our third graders incredible?
This special celebration brought everyone together in our new building to enjoy lots of fun activities, arts & crafts, special dance performances by our Hip Hop artists and Derrick, and delicious food in our International Food Pot Luck- thanks in large part to the Nemeth-Szerdai family & Green Mansions Catering! The cake walk, as always, was a fan favorite, as was the red carpet photo shoot, thanks in large part Peter Tomasso with Manhattan Neon for the gorgeous backdrop!
All of which culminated in a spectacular dance performance by our 3rd graders!
Thank you to everyone who attended Kuumba Day, and for the donations of food, supplies, cakes and volunteers. A very special thanks goes out to our 3rd grade teachers, Amanda & Ashley for their hard work all semester long, and to our talented 3rd graders who could be seen at parks, playgrounds, during recess, eagerly practicing their dance. Thank you to Aram for helping us with all sound and tech equipment, as well as Derrick for a great performance.
Yahaya Kamate and his team of drummers and dancers also showcased their talents, following our third graders! Yahaya is a very special part of the Elysian community and we thank him for partnering with our school.
Lastly, thanks go out to the hard working Kuumba "Kommittee" for all of their behind the scenes efforts in making Kuumba Day such a fun event for all!
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Lost at KUUMBA Day
A bright blue reusable shopping bag that had an ECS green folder, origami paper and some office supplies. Please contact Lynne Shapiro
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ELYSIAN PARENTS: WE WANT YOU!!!!
..... to consider volunteering to lead an after school enrichment club for our Winter session. It's rewarding, it's fun and your kids think it's cool when you do it! Do you enjoy tackling DIY projects, are you a crafty person, do you have a unique talent or hobby you'd like to share with others? Then what are you waiting for?? Elysian is looking for a few good men/women (aka parents) to helm a winter club. Session to begin Feb. 8th and run for 8 weeks. We are also fortunate to have some of our teaching staff lead clubs this winter so you are in excellent company!
Thank you to those Elysian parents who have already stepped up to to lead a club! If you have any questions, please email Pam at pam.clubs@ecsnj.org. Forms will be sent home by Friday.
Thank you.
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| Art Room Wish List
Dear parents, we could use the following:
- travel magazines
-brown paper shopping bags
-black sharpies (fine and ultra fine)
-tissues
-Clorox wipes
-skinny glue gun sticks
Thanks!
Nikki
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Basketball Update
Wednesday, January 13 it is a half day for Elysian. Therefore, basketball practice for the 6,7&8th grade girls' team will be held from 1:00 - 2:00 PM. Practice for the 7&8th grade boys team will be cancelled, due to a game that day.
On Monday, January 18, Elysian is closed and practices are cancelled. Thank you.
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PTSO Corner FREE MONEY FOR ELYSIAN!! It is too easy! For all of you shopping for the holidays, please remember to sign up for Target, AmazonSmile and iGive as an easy way to help earn money for your school while you shop. It only takes a few moments to sign up! And if shopping at TinyPrints, use TPPHX3Z437 for 40% off through 12/31/15. Please email elysianptso@gmail.com for a 40% code for use on Shutterfly products. Just be sure to go through our storefront! Please refer to No Brainer Moneymaker section of this newsletter for all the details and links. Happy shopping!
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No Brainer Moneymakers
Easy Ways To Raise Money for Our School At No Extra Cost To You. Shop through our storefront for Shutterfly and sign up for Amazon Smile, iGive and Target and just shop as usual!! It just takes two minutes!! Pass along to your friends and family too!- Shutterfly, TinyPrints and more - Go to http://elysiancharter.shutterflystorefront.com. Shop as usual. No need to sign up, just use this link.
- Amazon Smile - http://smile.amazon.com/ Click on ‘change your charity’. Select Elysian Charter. Bookmark this address. Shop as usual.
- iGive -Go to www.iGive.com/ElysianCharter . Fill out name, Password and email. Click ‘Register Now’ button, install iGive button. Shop! You might have to click on a pop-up screen to verify at certain online stores.
- Target - Go to www.target.com , click on REDcard and then ‘Learn about REDcard’. Page down to ‘Take Charge of Education’ and click on ‘Learn More’. Enter information under ‘Sign me up’ and click ‘Enroll’.
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| Elysian Collects Box Tops and LABELS for Education: Look for the container near Deb's desk in the office! Thank you!
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| January 2016 Calendar Monday, January 11- Applications for 2016-17 school year lottery are due today.
- Sibling applications are due today.
- Friends of Elysian Meeting, 5:00 PM, Kate's Room, #324
Tuesday, January 12- Middle Division Basketball Game, Elysian Charter 5 vs. Wallace 5 (Grey), 6:00 PM, Wallace
- Middle Division Basketball Game, Elysian Charter 6 vs. Wallace 6 (Grey), 8:00 PM, Wallace
Wednesday, January 13- Half Day of School for Staff Development. 12:30 dismissal. Afterschool Program available as usual.
- Lottery for Admission. 1:30
- Basketball practice for 6,7&8th grade girls' team, 1:00 - 2:00 PM.
- No basketball practice for the 7&8th grade boys team (see game info below).
- Grammar Basketball Game, 7th and 8th, Elysian Charter vs. Mustard Seed, 7:00 PM, Multi
Monday, January 18- Elysian closed for Martin Luther King Day
- All Basketball practice is cancelled.
Tuesday, January 19- Middle Division Basketball Game, Elysian Charter 6 vs. Connors/Calabro 6, 6:00 PM, Wallace
Wednesday, January 20- Grammar Basketball Game, 7th and 8th, Elysian Charter vs. Hola, 7:00 PM, Multi
Thursday, January 21- Middle Division Basketball Game, Elysian Charter 5 vs. Wallace 5 (Black), 7:00 PM, Wallace
Friday, January 22- Morning Community meeting. All are welcome to attend.
Saturday, January 23- Girls Basketball Game, Elysian vs Hudson, 1:00 PM, Multi
- Small Fry Game, Elysian Charter 3 vs. Wallace Gold 3, 1:50 PM, Wallace
- Small Fry Game, , Elysian Charter 4 vs. Wallace Grey 4, 2:40 PM, Wallace
Monday, January 25- 7:00 PM Board of Trustees meeting. is Saturday, January 9!
Tuesday, January 26- Middle Division Basketball Game, Elysian Charter 5 vs. HCA 5, 7:00 PM, Wallace
- Grammar Basketball Game, 7th and 8th, Elysian Charter vs. All Saints, 7:00 PM, Multi
Thursday, January 28- Middle Division Basketball Game, Elysian Charter 6 vs. Hoboken Charter, 8:00 PM, Wallace
Saturday, January 30- Girls Basketball Game, Elysian vs. Stevens, 2:00 PM, Multi
- Small Fry Game, Elysian Charter 3 vs. All Saints 3, 6:40 PM, Wallace
- Small Fry Game, Elysian Charter 4 vs. All Saints 4, 7:30 PM, Wallace
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1460 Garden Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Harry Laub, Ph.D., Director
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harry.laub@ecsnj.org
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Phone:201.876.0102
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Fax:201.876.9576
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