Improving Attendance: How the Blackboard Connect Service Can Help Your School

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Improving Attendance: How the Blackboard Connect Service Can Help Your School Dr. Gwen Miller, Principal, J.R. Tucker High School Rita Morehead, Principal, School 17, Yonkers Public Schools Scott Law, Assistant Principal, Paramount West High School Cheryl Parris, Sales Engineer, Blackboard Connect, K-12

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Educators agree, and studies confirm, that a child who maintains a solid attendance record is twice as likely to graduate from high school. This direct correlation between attendance and graduation can be vitally important to your district. Not only will students be able to excel as their attendance increases, but school districts can also improve their revenue opportunities for a variety of functions including transportation and lunch or tutorial programs. Improving attendance is a 'win-win' situation for both students and the district. Join Dr. Gwen Miller, Principal at J.R. Tucker High School (VA), Rita Morehead, Principal at School 17, Yonkers Public Schools (NY) and Scott Law, Assistant Principal, Paramount West High School (CA) as they share the unique ways they are using the Blackboard Connect service to improve student attendance, as well as demonstrate how they are having success with Blackboard Connect overall.

Transcript of Improving Attendance: How the Blackboard Connect Service Can Help Your School

Page 1: Improving Attendance: How the Blackboard Connect Service Can Help Your School

Improving Attendance: How the Blackboard Connect Service Can Help Your School Dr. Gwen Miller, Principal, J.R. Tucker High School

Rita Morehead, Principal, School 17, Yonkers Public Schools

Scott Law, Assistant Principal, Paramount West High School

Cheryl Parris, Sales Engineer, Blackboard Connect, K-12

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Making their daily lives more convenient and secure

Keeping them informed and aware

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Engaging and assessing learners at all levels

Enrich the experience through devices they love

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Our Vision:

• Close the gap between the way students live and the way they learn

• Empower district leadership to communicate directly and effectively

• Engage parents in their child’s academic progress

• Deliver a 21st Century educational experience

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• Fully-hosted notification and alert solution for reaching millions in minutes through Voice, Email, SMS, Text, TTY, Wireless, and PDA capabilities

• 2,600 clients in K-12, Higher Education, and Government

• 470 million messages delivered in 2009. 99.99% uptime, serving:– 1 in 5 K-12 students– 1 in 6 Higher Ed students– 4 million+ citizens

Keeping them informed and aware

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Attendance –Critical to your Success

• 1.7 Million attendance messages sent during 08-09 school year

• Connect supports your district’s efforts to raise attendance (ADA, single count day, count period)

• Meet your needs with daily or period attendance

• Seamless integration with your student information

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HENRICO COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Blackboard Connect Client Spotlight

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Overview of county and school

• Henrico County Public Schools – located in Richmond, Virginia

• 67 schools in district• 49,407 students

• J. R. Tucker High School

• 1,666 students• Economic

Deprivation: 25.1%– Asian: 9.8%– Black: 18.1%– Hispanic: 7.7%– Other: 4.2%– White: 60.1%

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How are we using this for attendance?

• At the end of the day, the attendance secretary has calls go out to all households where absent students reside. Students from the VA Home for Boys and Girls and 11 group homes attend Tucker.

• At the end of each day, the principal’s secretary goes into the program and selects all students with unexcused tardiness. A wake-up call which the principal pre-recorded goes to those households one hour before the first bell on the following school day.

• Calls go out regarding important school and PTSA events.

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Results

• Our absences decreased by 50%

• Unexcused tardiness decreased by at least 60%. We went from an average of 70 per day to an average of 30 per day. On many days, we have below 20!

• Parental participation at major events has increased tremendously.

• Parents constantly compliment us on the effective way that we use this program.

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YONKERS PUBLIC SCHOOLSBlackboard Connect Client Spotlight

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Student Population – 24,956in Grades Pre-kindergarten through Twelve

24.3%African American 5.9%Asian51.4%Hispanic 0.2%Native American 18.1%White

72.8% of the students are eligible for Free/Reduced

Breakfast/Lunch15.2% of the students are Limited English Proficiency 13.3% are Special Needs Learners

2009-2010 Budget: $487,051,292 Personnel: 3,845 total staff

2,164 Teachers & Administrators1,681 Civil Service support staff

40 school facilities

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School 17 Rita Morehead, Principal

Student Population – 43628.7% African American5.3% Asian50.2% Hispanic15.8% White

Personnel: 2 Administrators 32 Teachers

197 Blackboard Connect calls in 2008-2009 143 Automated

Attendance calls 54 Community

Outreach calls 125 Blackboard

Connect calls in 2009-2010 79 Automated

Attendance calls 41 Community

Outreach calls

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One of Six District Goals The Yonkers Public Schools is maintaining an environment that welcomes parents/guardians and the community. Parental/Guardian involvement influences student achievement and is integral to the district focus, a “Community of Learners,” implemented through the Superintendents’ Non-Negotiable Goal for administrators. Daily use of the Blackboard Connect system for attendance purposes.Weekly use of the Blackboard Connect system to inform and update parents and students, and to support PTA activities and school events.

Achieving the goal…2,196,458 Blackboard Connect calls were made in 2008-

2009, an increase of 16% over the prior year. For the current school year, 1,122,509 calls were made through February 25, 2010.

100% of the District’s schools made 5,551attendance calls in 2008-2009.

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PARAMOUNT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Blackboard Connect Client Spotlight

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Paramount West Demographics

Paramount West Demographics

Paramount High School West Campus

Serving Paramount, Bellflower, South Gate and

Long Beach

9th Grade Campus

1,490 students, 64 teachers, 3 administrators

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Connect ImplementationConnect ImplementationDaily Attendance Messages

Daily automated call to 60-100 students who have missed one or more periods during the dayGeneric message with detail of absence and contact info

Saturday School notificationAny student with an absence is invited to attend Saturday school tutorial session (4 hours)500+ students receive paper invites and Blackboard Connect reminder messages detailing the tutorial and absence info

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Daily Attendance Message

Daily Attendance Message

Daily communication with parents requiring less than 10 minutes of preparation by Attendance Office.

Reduction in suspected truancy by constant parent notification.

Outreach with contact information results in 2-5 parent call backs to Attendance Office per day.

Call log is used as evidence in truancy hearings.

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Saturday School Notification

Saturday School Notification

Pre Blackboard Connect

Post Blackboard Connect

100 or less students invited each week

500+ invites

6 hours per week making parent calls

Less than 30 minutes to prepare list and send

messages

Average attendance was30 students per Saturday

Average attendance 155 students per Saturday

Year average Attendance <94%

Year average Attendance >96%

Recoup $34, 200 Recoup $176,700

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Challenge: Increase Attendance Rates & Parental Involvement

Parental outreach through multimodal communications

Solution: Blackboard Connect™

Result: 9X return on investment

“I thought that the [Blackboard Connect] service would pay for itself if attendance brought the ADA up...The system paid for itself many times over and has become an integral part of our communications plan.”

- Brian Marshall, Superintendent, La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, CA

La Mesa-SpringValley School District

Blackboard

Case Study

• 12,700 students, K-8

• 21 Schools• Blackboard Connect

client since Feb. 2006

• Automated attendance notification yielded an ADA increase of $450,000 in state funding in the first year alone.

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DISCUSSION & QUESTIONS?

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Thank you! Dr. Gwen Miller, J.R. Tucker High School

[email protected]

Rita Morehead, School 17

[email protected]

Scott Law, Paramount West High School

[email protected]

Blackboard Connect

www.blackboard.com/connectfork12

(800) 424-9299 ext. 422