by Alex Porter ‘13

Attendance is now kept in the Pinnacle system, and it provides teachers with a more accessible means to see excused and unexcused absences. photo by Pinnacle Database

MCPS has changed its attendance policy to fight the high absence and tardy rates caused by last year’s removal of the Loss of Credit policy that was in place in MCPS for numerous years.

After five unexcused absences, students will have to either appeal absences that were incorrectly recorded or complete an attendance intervention plan created with approval of a counselor, assistant principal and the teachers of affected courses. If the student does not meet the requirements of the intervention plan or continues to have unexcused absences, the consequence is now failure of the course. Three unexcused tardies equal one unexcused absence.

According to attendance secretary Janet Murphy, after three unexcused absences, students and parents are to be notified, followed by a meeting with counselors and administrators for students. Another notice will be given at five absences to inform parents that an appeal or intervention plan must be completed, which is ultimately signed by the principal or an assistant principal. Murphy will notify administrators when teachers are not taking attendance.

Problems with last year’s policy were particularly prevalent among seniors toward the end of the year, though they were seen in students at all grade levels and courses. Assistant Principal George Awkard, the 12th grade administrator this year, believes this was due to uncertainties over whether there were definite repercussions.

“We saw an increased number of students being late or tardy [because] students felt there were a lack of consequences,” said Awkard. In prior years, students had the threat of loss of credit to discourage absences. Last year’s policy was removed after problems with consistent implementation. He also described the amount of work for one or two people to monitor the entire building as “overwhelming.”

To address students skipping her class last year, English teacher Brianna Russell took it upon herself to diligently track attendance of her students and implemented her own consequences. Students could not make up work missed on days they were absent unlawfully in her class. Russell says students were only discouraged “if the teacher made a consequence.”

Awkard says that giving E grades this year will be a stronger deterrent than just a loss of credit, which did not impact a student’s overall GPA. He added that while the school year has just started, there is already a feeling among students that things are back to normal after the leniency they felt they had last year. Murphy says there has already been some improvement within the first month of school.

Awkard acknowledged that teachers were frustrated by last year’s policy, but is confident that teachers will be happier this year. Russell says it is good to have everyone working for students to be successful. “If we aren’t all working together, it really is a lot more difficult.” She hopes that “consequences stick for students.”

Murphy also supports the change, saying it was common for students to reach the five unexcused absences last year and she believes this will make them care about attendance more.

While staff members are optimistic about this policy, there already has been a potential difficulty. An automatically generated letter is supposed to be sent after three unexcused absences as a warning, but the system will not be operational until October 17. For now, it is up to teachers to report to administrators when students have three or five unexcused absences. Even when the system begins to work, there are worries that students can exploit it with a new option to email in notes excusing abscences.

Staff members are aware that there will always be some skipping, but Murphy stressed that all notes will be checked and verified. Awkard promises that for students not to fail after five unexcused absences, an actual plan will be developed and administrators will not just sign off on forms to let students get by with a passing grade.