Welcome everyone. Happy to have you here. We'll get started momentarily. Bear with us.
Let's let in the last few folks join in.
Welcome everyone to our building Brazilian schools webinar. We will start momentarily. I'm just waiting for the last groupings to come in.
At the top of the hour, but thank you for being here. In the meantime, please feel free to introduce yourselves in chat and share where you're coming from.
What schools you're at. etc, as we hope to make this as interactive as possible as well.
So looking forward to connecting with you all. We'll start in a minute.
I am Annie Lewis from Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. And this is new to me.
We have a counseling program. And I'm interested in finding out about disseminations for online counseling programs.
Welcome. Thank you. I wanted to have you.
Okay, we'll get started. Welcome everyone. My name is Ken Spiro. I am the president and founder of School Sims and I'm delighted on behalf of our team here at School Sims to welcome you all to this webinar.
Thank you for taking the time. So close to the holidays and hopefully it will be wishing you well.
Happy holidays and happy new year as you close out the year. Please feel free again to add in chat your who you are we're coming from what schools you're associated with as again we hope to have this be as interactive as possible both obviously with the presenters but also amongst yourselves.
With me is I think it's the next page. I have, will be joined by, John Summers and Lynn Wheeler from University of Indianapolis.
And they have been wonderful partners with us in in terms of simulation development and you'll see one today as well as, advancing our work, specifically in counseling areas.
But certainly from both a leadership as well as the K 12 implementation. So again, welcome everyone and I'll, you know, bring John on and Lin on in a moment, but I did want to just tee this up for some of you who are not as familiar with school Sims and our approach using simulation just wanted to really the the conversation around this idea of pedagogy, right?
We are all here. We are all involved, I believe. In pedagogy in some form or another, right?
We are responsible for educating students, whether they be. Pre-ed all the way through ourselves at whatever levels we're at and everything in between.
And obviously the art of teaching is a very important concept because how we can convey information is going to be very compelling, especially in areas that on the one hand may not be particularly interesting.
Or on the flip side, things that are just really, really complicated. And so I wanted to highlight both the definition on the one hand from Mary and Webster, but also this definition from Wikipedia and the reason why I wanted to highlight is because some of the words that are in there to understand the approach to teaching is is the theory and practice, right?
We need both. Right, there's stuff we don't know, which is the theory. In whatever subject matter and we need to be able to practice it because that's how we learn.
And how this is influenced by the social, political, and psychological development of learners. But importantly, how all these things manifest the theory and the practice in the social, in the political, and in the psychology of the individuals.
As well as of organizations and how it manifests. This makes things. Very difficult to teach, right?
The theory addresses subject matter, whereas it's the practice that allows us to put it into context and actually utilize it in a manner which can actually help us to solve decisions.
To make to navigate decision making. So we're going to present to you today on the one hand the pedagogy of theory and practice.
We're going to talk about a subject matter and how you blend it with experience with the practice component because that in and of itself is an important element of pedagogy.
And this is a very scalable format that if you haven't tried it out, we think it's.
Really worth looking at. And at the same time, also get into the pedagogy of simulation.
So as you're doing simulation, there's a way to deliver it. Obviously there's a variety.
We'll get to one of them today. But really, so you get a sense of that as well.
So as you process the information and and we're going to deal with a very important topic, the issue of absenteeism and resilience in our schools.
But we'll get into a little bit more depth. But one of the things that's really important.
About absenteeism as with many other challenges. Is it's not just about that, right? Because that's a problem.
That's happening and we have to deal with the issues and consequences of absenteeism, but it's also, well, their kids who have been in school.
And they're still there and they've got all their issues and the school and all the other issues that are going on.
All of these things are happening at the same time. And so as educators, as teachers or as administrators.
We not only need to walk and chew gum at the same time, but then there's 6 or 8 other things that we have to be doing at the same time.
And that's the stuff you really can't teach. That's the stuff we only get better at through experience.
Next slide, Danielle. And really, as we know from other industries, that simulation approximates experience.
It is through simulation that we can contextualize. We can allow for authentic, deliberate practice.
And it works, right? You wouldn't put a pilot in a plane. You wouldn't put a doctor in nursing him in a patient suite without hours of simulation.
We believe the same thing applies. And education for teachers and administrators. And this is an opportunity to do it in a scalable way.
The next slide. And so really what we, what we do when we talk about. Simulation, these are cognitive, whereas an aviation you might be more procedural or in health care.
There's a lot of procedural elements or using tools. In this case, it's more cognitive, right?
It's how to think. It's how to exercise judgment when you have trade-offs when and again this will become manifest in in the discussion of absenteeism.
So we use this modality to allow students to practice the theories that they're being taught. In a realistic or authentic context so they can actually practice.
And potentially learn by making mistakes. Right, our best learning opportunities and experience. Come from failing, right?
Come from falling down, scraping our knee, putting our, our hand on the stove. That's how we learn and that opportunity to blend the 2 together becomes a very powerful way for students to be better prepared for what faces them because what we do know is uncertainty is certain.
You don't know everything's unprecedented until you face it for the first time and your days are filled with unprecedented events.
And so how we act is going to be determined by how we think. And obviously that's how we have to deal both with the decisions as well as the consequences.
Next slide, Daniel, please. And one of the things again that you'll see is the opportunity to deploy experience is valuable, but we it has to be available, and it has to be scalable because the more experience we have, the better off we're going to be.
And so you can do these both synchronously asynchronously. In person or online, whatever your format for wherever you're meeting your students, whether you're in higher ed, whether you're in the district, the opportunity to engage with your students where they are and to engage them in this pedagogy is something that's of critical importance.
And obviously available to you. And just so you know, I think the next slide. Daniel is we have a library of Sims and again, this is something we'll come back to at the end.
But we'll be sharing these slides and the reporting with you afterwards. So you'll be able to go back to this in more depth.
So with that, I'd like to introduce you again to John Summers and to Lin Wheeler, faculty at and directors at the University of Indianapolis Graduate School of Ed.
And take it away.
Thanks, Ken, so much. I'm John Summers, director of our graduate programs, our and leadership program at the University of Indianapolis.
And Lynn, you want to introduce yourself, please?
I am an adjunct at the University of Indianapolis. And taught at U in the educational leadership program for 10 years.
Also worked as a school counselor in school administrator in a variety of schools in the Indianapolis area.
So I'm glad to be with all of you today.
Right. And Lynn and I will just add this very quickly. We got into writing simulations and working with Ken and his team.
Through a low endowment grant. And the grant purpose was to help school counselors and principals understand each other and become part of the school leadership team.
And this was one of the activities that we did to kind of upscale our curriculum and it's worked out extremely well.
To kick things off, what we Well, everybody too. It's great to see so many people here in some familiar faces as well.
We would just like you to put in the chat. You can blame me for this metaphor.
Yeah.
Thank you. This is cool as a magnet. And, we do a lot of work with magnets.
And our other courses. And so in the chat, if you just think about, you know, what, what ingredient is essential.
To attract kids to come to school. And then on the flip side. What ingredient maybe repel students to avoid school and so if you just put a couple Just a couple quick comments in the chat. That would be great.
We'll give you just a couple of minutes to do that. And then we'll, I'll ask for a few people to elaborate real quickly.
So we appreciate you doing that.
And I'll just say some of them as we're going along, safety and enjoyment. Absolutely.
Engaging relevant instruction and we'll certainly talk about that. Engagement again. Kids, agency that that is a wonderful idea that kids have to feel.
As their agency and autonomy. Project based learning. We just read an old article by Dewey and and certainly project based learning.
Fund friends and caring adults, that kind of sums it up. The sense of belonging is so important and we will actually look at that in a little bit.
Worth and anxiety, yes, anxiety. Chockbeat just had an article about a teacher who's anxious and he shares that with his students.
I thought that was kind of neat. Engaging and relevant instruction, positive relationship with teachers and peers and we'll we'll hit on that if we have time.
That's a really good thought. Unmindful educators. It's a wonderful word, in phrase.
We all have to be hopefully mindful as teachers. Well, thank you for doing that. Lynn, would you like to?
Piggy back on any of those comments.
You know, I think. We're always looking for ways to hook students in schools. Hook them into coming to school, hooking them into building relationships and participating with others in building relationships.
And so all of the things that have been described here relate to that.
Thank you. And next slide, Danielle, please. Lack of community. Thank you, Annie.
Yes. So. This is, we're just gonna going to frame the issue very quickly because we want to spend most of our time in the in the simulation.
And I need to move people out of the way. But there's some alarming statistics out there right now, at least 14, 7 million students nationwide were chronically absent in 2021.
There's about 49 million, almost 50 million students. Who attend US schools. Chronic absenteeism is doubled.
From the more than 8 million students pre COVID. And as it turns out, serendipity.
There was a little news story recently that popped up on my screen. I went, oh my gosh, here's, you know, probably some bot for me talking about absenteeism and said, well, we're going to send John this new story.
So Danielle is going to do this. It's about 2 min, but it kind of frames the.
The simulation that we're going to do.
Now we begin a new series looking at what's been dubbed the COVID generation students whose lives were forever changed by the pandemic.
Cbs's Meg Oliver reports how young people continue to feel the effects. Not to their health but to their education.
In Louisville, Kentucky, Chris Lance is part of the attendance team. Making up to 30 house calls a week searching for chronically absent students.
First stop of the day. No answer. No answer again. Same. Same thing. Yeah.
In this school district in Jefferson County, 63% of families were lie on schools for meals.
Chronic absenteeism defined as at least 10 absences within the school year has always been an issue here.
But since the pandemic, 38% more students are missing weeks, sometimes months of school. Last year, nearly 14 million students nationwide were chronically absent, nearly twice as many compared to previous years.
I think it is a major crisis. Jefferson County Superintendent Marty Polio. When you think of housing instability.
Food instability, a student who doesn't have clean clothes may not come to school. There is a youth resource center in each Jefferson County school that provides everything from clean clothes and hygiene products to food for struggling students.
We don't want to. Punish them for not going to school. We want to take away all the barriers that might be keeping them from coming to school.
Students like 19 year old Hector who in addition to school works 40 HA week to help support his family.
How many school days did you miss last year? Like a half of the year and come to school. Half of the year you didn't come to school.
After several house calls Lance was able to convince Hector to return to school. How does it feel that this school helped bring you back to school after you missed almost half a year last year.
Let's feel like I'm Spicer. Yes. With added support, Hector will graduate high school in 2,025 at 20 years old.
Do you feel like you're making a difference? Especially when you're going to these doors and no one's even answering.
If you affect one person it's a difference especially you know in some of our communities you could save a kid.
Meg Oliver, CBS News, Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Great, thanks. Thanks, Aaron, for mentioning that. You must be from with the youth resource.
And you're welcome to say something.
For those I don't know about in, they've set the sub family resources. It's throughout the state in every district and they are great resources for clothing, sometimes even assistance with health and transportation and it's a part of the state funding and it's separate and it's it's amazing resource that the state of Kentucky and it's separate and it's it's amazing resource that the state of
Kentucky is created and done for those are unfamiliar with it.
Fantastic. Detroit has done something similar, not quite the same. With different resource centers for families.
Can get help and kids can get you know clean clothes and food and so forth. Thank you. Just a little more quick framing and I was I was just going to say real quickly that as you teach simulations, you always it's really nice to have an anchor phenomenon and that video that we just saw could be a great anchor phenomenon to get.
Students in school aspiring school leaders. Kind of talking about, you know, what's going to come up in the simulation and so forth and to try to frame it.
So what we, what Lynn and I thought we would do is, showcase Indiana.
And it's been very interesting recently what the state board has been talking about. So in the chalk beat or yeah chuckbeat there was an article about and from our state superintendent about Poor attendance is hurting academics.
What they're what the state board is talking about is that there's so much churn and so many kids absent that it really is as we could imagine impacting state test scores and kids being prepared to take tests.
And this is an alarming statistic here. If all the Indiana students who miss school you know, showed up one day, it would take, you know, would occupy around 3,000 buses.
So that just kind of gives you a visual. About how, and how many kids are missing school.
And as you look at the numbers real quickly, you're going to see that kids of color, Hispanic kids, kids living in poverty, English learners, they're all missing at greater rates than than white students and as Katie Jenner as our superintendent of instruction, it's probably a root cause, which we certainly believe.
And Lynn or anyone else can comment very quickly on that.
Yes. I guess I think that the video that you just watched illustrates very profoundly how many students who are frequently absent are experienced things experiencing things at home about which we have no idea that the whole notion of secondary students holding full-time jobs while attempting to be full-time students in a high school.
The notion of families where parents are working to jobs where transportation issues are significant. In one large school district in Indiana at present, the students have to basically provide their own transportation from far away geographical areas to school.
So it isn't just all around students who don't want to come to school. Many are experiencing significant barriers.
Absolutely, thanks. Next slide. This will give you just very quickly, this was from the chalk beat article as well.
And you can just take a look at. The chronic absenteeism rate. Who miss 18 or more days.
So some people define chronic absenteeism as missing 10 or more days of school. Most of the articles say 10%.
So we have 180 day school year here in Indiana, a lot of states do and said be 18 or more days and you can see.
Percentages of kids going up and obviously this varies per per school and we if we have time I'll mention a map.
That you can go to and actually look at different bubbles of schools and their absenteeism rate and so forth.
So. So if you go on Danielle, we'll make this. We just put this again, framing it.
This The first bullet absentee rates are highest. This is Indiana in kindergarten and high school.
So we have a lot of kids. Missing kindergarten. We know that that puts them on a somewhat perilous track as they go forward.
One third of all black students were considered Sorry, I gotta move people all the way. Absent in 2022 23 compared with 19% and 1819 the Hispanic students, the rate has surged.
Asian students have doubled in that time frame. And then. That this this will be an interesting.
Prelude to the simulation absenteeism for English learners. Who are not doing well on the state test and they're declining compared to other student groups has also doubled since 18.
19.
So we're going to jump into the simulation. And what we'll do, Oh, Aaron.
Thank you, Erin. Let me look at your question there. There's any data or research on a comparative study of student absenteeism and workforce.
I do not know of that research. We've looked at a bunch of it. If anybody else knows the And Aaron, go ahead and just say, just a.
Something about what you're asking if you would.
So, you know, recently with, I work a lot with economic workforce development as a lot of higher, do. And we're just hearing that a lot of people are just not coming to work.
I wonder if there is anything after COVID of employees not coming to work and students not going to school if there's some type of comparative study that's the same rate just out of curiosity.
Yeah, yeah. What's it called? A quiet quitting. Yeah.
Yes.
That's really good. I will, I will look for that. That is, that's an excellent idea that there might be.
Some covariance there for sure. This is the what's going to happen during the simulation is we're going to actually.
Now and then put you in breakout rooms so you can talk with each other and talk about what the decision is and what choice you would make because you'll have different choices if you haven't played the simulation before.
And then at other times we will, Have you just, we'll just do kind of a group.
Chair, you know, I think the answer is A because, and so we'll do that as well.
It's really nice to mix it up like that when you're actually doing these simulations with with students either undergrads or graduate students.
I use them a lot. We just got through playing 3 of them this semester and I just scored the last ones this morning.
And I will say very quickly at the university level, we are dealing with the same situation here. We are, we are dealing with absenteeism and the provost required us this semester to put in our grade books.
To create absent or to create attendance rosters in our bright space or LMS and we had to track kids and they were monitoring.
How many kids were missing class and then they were, you know, absolutely early warning system. And implying a little employing a little bit MTSS.
But in this stimulation, I gotta move people over here. Unfortunately, it says you're going to assume the role of the counseling church.
That's one of the decisions you're going to have to make. At a medium sized middle school and Lin and I actually base this simulation on a on a part of Indianapolis near us.
And seeking to understand and implement processes to reduce truancy at your school and we'll look at the difference between truancy and chronic absenteeism if we have time after the simulation.
But you'll consider various impacts resulting from absenteeism. And it's a really nice resource to understand the complexity of absenteeism and the trade-offs and and then how would we set up some networks from you know improvement science how could we set up comparable networks for each of us could do different strategies and figure out which ones work best and so forth.
So if that gives you a very quick insight into simulation. We can. I'm gonna look at the chat room just a second.
Yes, mental health is, a huge. Factor in K 12 schools as well as universities today.
So here are some of the folks you're going to see Adam Peterson is the assistant principal. And Devin Smith is the Dean of Students.
And Jayden Taylor, it's the seventh grade lead teacher who you'll you'll get to know real well.
And Kim Lee is another eighth grade lead teacher.
And Amanda Roberts is the principal. Which is important. And Camellia, So Niga is the, and Niga is the lead teacher and she's relatively new.
To Aptown Middle School.
Welcome to the Planning for Student Achievement Simulation, created by Schoolss Together with the University of Indianapolis.
Select the next button to begin. In this simulation, you will assume the role of the counseling chair at a medium-sized middle school.
You will seek to understand and implement processes to reduce truancy at your school. And we'll consider a variety of impacts resulting from absenteeism.
The simulation is an excellent resource to encourage, discussions, and consider trade-offs as you explore this complexities of absenteeism.
About Aptown Middle School. App Town is a grade 6 to 8 middle school, located on the southeast edge of a neighborhood that is slowly becoming gentrified and attracting new businesses and projects that cater to young professionals and their families.
For years, AMS has served diverse working-class residents that took pride in their community values, stability, and cross-cultural connections.
Societal change signified by refurbished houses, microbreweries, and coffee cafes has slowly but steadily pushed its way into the neighborhood.
The traditional community is feeling a loss of community spirit and connection.
The Changing Environment AMS has witnessed increasing student unrest and external pressure to adopt what is referred to as a modern curriculum.
Teachers have noticed cultural divides developing amongst students and have heard talk from new students about the need to consider a more technology-rich curriculum.
Although AMS has been rated as a c school on the state performance system, it still prides itself on providing a solid curriculum of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Absenteeism, a growing problem. Over the last 2 years, the administration has been concerned about an increasing absenteeism rate among its more traditional students who still comprise nearly 70% of the student body.
Over that period about 11% of students in the state were chronically absent. AMS is pushing around a 19% rate which has resulted in more pressure on the school counselor, social worker, and teachers to contact parents.
At faculty meetings, teachers are complaining about the need to reteach lessons, students falling behind in both academics and socialization and keeping track of missing students.
Even the school secretary who monitors the parent line and records absent students is voicing concern over the additional workload.
She said recently to the principal, when I compare the parent line reported absences to the teachers list, more and more kids are just not showing up.
Parents are not calling. What is going on?
Last minute change of plans. Hmm. About 20 min before meeting time, you receive a call from the secretary informing you that Principal Roberts has been summoned to a meeting with the superintendent and she has asked that you chair the meeting.
Regular attendees include the Dean of Students, the assistant principal, grade team lead teachers, and you.
Your role. You are the head of the counseling department at App Town Middle School, a team of 3.
You've been in this role for the past 2 years, and you're too often overwhelmed associates have each been here for over 5 years.
The principal is trying to determine what to do about and how to combat this rise in absenteeism. She has fired a warning shot that the regularly scheduled first term review meeting, set for this coming Friday, will focus solely on this topic.
Alarming Trend. You welcome everyone and explain that Dr. Roberts is unable to attend as she has been called to a meeting at district.
You explain that you will guide this team through her agenda, which focuses on only one item, absenteeism.
You inform them that as attendance data for the last year was reviewed and compared to this point, end of the first quarter November of this year, we are seeing an alarming rise in student absences.
The rate is currently approaching 19%. This means that, on average, students are absent about 34 days over our 180 day school year.
This is equivalent to almost 2 full months of instruction. Obviously, it's time to take stock and turn this ship around.
The questions the principal would like us to address are. What is causing students to not attend school? What are our current interventions?
What data are we tracking and who's tracking it?
You share your sense of urgency and explain that this team needs to quickly engage with this problem and begin turning this trend around.
How will you direct the team at this point? Brainstorm potential immediate solutions. We need to begin turning this around immediately.
Consider long term solutions. Despite the need for quick results, we need a comprehensive solution that is sustainable.
Set a deadline for gathering relevant data. We need to drill down into the numbers to discover patterns.
Assign responsibility for recommending solutions. Ask an individual or group to take responsibility for identifying next steps.
Begin by focusing on the chronically absent. Start with low hanging fruit and get a quick win.
This will buy you time to develop an expanded solution.
Great. So there was a lot of context there to kind of get your head around, but. So at this point, what we're going to do is just not going to break out rooms and we're just going to do this.
As There's the full room. And so as you look at these different choices, Think about if you were directing the team at this point, would you pick a?
Choice one, choice 2, choice 3, choice 4, choice 5, and go ahead and exercise your vote.
And then we'll ask for some comment. And just know that I will, I do a lot of cold calls and so I'll just say Dr.
Bar Bob Jarvis, what do you think?
Yeah.
And everybody, everybody voted.
Yes.
Looks like yes, okay. So it looks like choice 5 is the choice that people like choice 4 and choice 3 okay So anybody that picked choice 3.
Just make a quick comment. You would please if you're if you're willing if we don't want throw anybody, you know, who doesn't want to speak up.
Okay, go for it. Yeah.
I'll help it start. That John, I've played this before where I started with choice 5, which was the most interesting possibility among our group today.
This time I did choice 3 just because I felt like I still need more data. I in disaggregated data about what's really going on here.
We've just kind of scratched the surface.
Okay, very good.
I agree with that. I think that you know you don't you don't rush to solutions.
You take a look at what's going on, what the root cause is. And you can get it the root cause.
Sometimes by taking a look at the relevant data maybe. David that you haven't considered before.
Alright, very good. And just so you know when you when the STEMs are written Chad does all the magic behind the curtain that each of these choices has a different pathway.
Depending on which choice you make. So let's just go with 5. Begin by focusing on the chronically absent, which is an interesting choice by the way and Hopefully we'll be able to see that.
So we, so why don't we go ahead to the next. Seen Danielle and
Response. On your suggestion that the team begin by focusing on chronic absenteeism, Mr. Peterson says.
I'm uncomfortable jumping right to solutions for chronic absenteeism. We know that absenteeism is on the rise.
I feel strongly that we need to drill down into the data and first identify root causes. What is driving absenteeism?
We need to base solutions on facts and not just our guts. I think we all agree that long-term solutions need to be based on data.
But I also believe that there's low hanging fruit here. Near term solutions that we can identify and implement while we wrestle with some of the more subtle underlying issues to develop our long-term strategy.
Beginning by focusing on the chronically absent might be the best place to start.
Tension building. Extended discussion and with the time allotted for the meeting running out you conclude the first term review with an agreement to reconvene early next week and launch an initiative addressing this growing truancy problem.
That afternoon, you call Principal Roberts with an update, but before you can even begin, she says.
I've just had 3 female students in my office complaining about the new kids. It seems that a group of new students from the Burbs is bullying some of the old guard.
Tensions are rising and the feeling of safety in the school seems to be receding.
Based on information to this point, which areas might you drill down into? In the space below, list data that you might find most helpful in your analysis of absenteeism.
So this is a place where students can, or we can put, some of our thinking in here and then at the end of the simulation a report is generated and you can actually see what what people put in these little boxes which is really great and it really makes for some very good qualitative data and discussion points.
But somebody Kathleen or Samantha. Maybe just one little comment about what you might put in there.
What data you might find most helpful.
Or Anna Marie's bots going to start talking here in a minute.
Who is absent?
Hey, Pat? Go for it. Go for it.
Who is absent?
Who is absent? Yeah. And why, why is that important?
Well, I think that's important to see. If they're trends within certain
Starting families. Are certain areas. Certain grade levels or the people who are being bullet or. That type of thing.
I think it helps you to find out the root calls.
Okay, very good. Yeah, thank you so much for helping us along. So Danielle, won't we go on?
And that it's a really interesting comment too because you'll see what some of the research says if we have time to get there.
Individual initiatives. Really? At your recommendation that the team begins by focusing on the chronically absent, several ideas are half-heartedly proposed and the team's energy seems to dwindle away.
Finally, Miss Smith says. It seems that the ideas were generating are focused on individual students that will have minimal systemic impact or value.
Suspect that without a clear idea of root causes, any ideas we may generate here will likely address individuals or symptoms, not true systemic problems.
I think I speak for the entire team when I say that we probably need to spend some time gathering and analyzing available data before considering solutions.
Maybe that's an appropriate next step?
It's Tuesday and the team has reconvened. While some members are reluctant, after some discussion it is agreed that additional data should be collected and analyzed prior to identifying and implementing strategies focused on reducing absenteeism.
Which additional data might be most helpful? Select as many as needed. Survey data. Student surveys and or parent surveys.
School Achievement Data Grades, Awards, PSAT, etc.
School Culture climate survey results, teacher ratings by students, community surveys. Safety data.
Discipline, counseling, social worker, and community resource utilization data, etc. Absences and truances.
Disgregated by excused, unexcused, ethnicity, disciplinary, office referrals, etc.
Aces data. Social worker input, trauma related data, etc. Neighborhood data.
Atlas data, household size, income, jobs, free and reduced lunch, etc. Extracurricular data.
Stem, Clubs, Special Interests, Competitions, etc. District Comparative Data Related data from neighboring schools.
Social Emotional Data Divorces, social worker engagements, social skills training, anger management, etc.
Special Education Data Percent Special Education, disaggregated by disability, related services, etc.
So, as you can see, what do they say? Schools are data rich and information poor.
As we brainstormed all the data that we that L and I and others have had in K 12 experiences.
These are all data sets the law schools collect. So as you think about this. What are 2 or 3 data sets that you think you might think would be helpful?
And we can do a pull in a little bit but it would anybody like to say something runny more unite spoke this morning.
Do what what's one piece of data you think you would you would choose?
I think I would. Be most likely to choose, and I'm so sorry because I can't remember exactly which data point it was, but, something relating to the student experience, like in their own words, how are they experiencing the space?
Yeah.
Yeah. Anybody else?
Megan, handle. What do you think? What piece of data would you choose?
Hey, thanks. There is a lot on there. Honestly, I got a little overwhelmed.
Okay. Yeah, I know.
Good.
I do think it's important to get the culture data and then, Gosh, will you scroll for me?
I always want to look at special education and ethnicity data I think would be important considering the school is going through the gentrification process like Are people feeling alienated that way too?
Are we? Is my staff biased? Is there something I need to look into there? Scroll up again.
Yeah.
Sorry there were I in my head they were like 20 and I was like oh this is so much data rich I would, I also wanna look at achievement data or like.
Are my kids that are achieving really, really well still chronically absent? That would be really interesting to find out.
Absolutely.
Yeah, thank you so much. And some and somebody in the chat put, you know, any data that was would show social emotional.
Okay.
Status and conditions and so forth. So the ACEs data, I'm not saying check it, but the ACEs data could certainly show some of that.
Oh, check it.
Yeah, that's right. Go ahead and check it and.
That's great. So let's go with with that. And thank you.
Go right, let's see what happens.
Some write data of culture. You're decision to gather school cultural information provides insights into the changing perceptions of your school's climate.
Your review of the most recent school climate survey indicates a large decline in sense of community, and teacher ratings dropped by almost 10% over last year.
Parental surveys suggest that satisfaction and involvement have declined significantly over the past 2 years. You're pleased that the team agreed to start small.
This will allow further rounds of data collection and analysis if necessary, but gets the ball rolling and launches the initiative within your area of control.
It seems we may have opened Pandora's box and probably prematurely involved community resources in any potential initiatives that may come from this initial research.
We're going to have to be extremely careful of the way we now approach certain aspects of absenteeism.
As parents and community resources are going to weigh in. At this stage, we've probably introduced confusion, frustration, and difficulty in maintaining control into the equation.
Well, I for one welcome their involvement in perspectives. Yes, there will probably be moments of tension and disagreement, but aren't those positive elements of any creative process?
Drill down Discovery. Your choice to collect and analyze safety data, including disciplinary, counseling, and social workers data, and or truancy data disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, grade, and special services.
Enables the team to discover that a large recent spike in truancy is occurring among EL students.
The team is excited to discover this and thanks you for your guidance in data collection and analysis.
Okay, the team has reconvened to review and analyze the data collected and to identify strategies to reduce and ultimately prevent absenteeism.
Which of the following processes will you use? Identify root causes. Have the team drill down and disaggregate the data.
Allow discussion of the data. Encourage the team to discuss the data and possible solutions. Encourage a quick review and summarize conclusions.
You feel a sense of urgency and want the team to move forward quickly to identify solutions. Send the team to get more data.
The data collected leaves questions and you feel you need to drill deeper.
Okay, we have 4 choices that you can choose and the fifth choice is you see on the poll if you have another idea or another process that you would like to, you don't think is on here.
Please pick choice 5 and. And tell us what that is.
So we'll give about 20 s for people to choose.
Obviously we know we're hurrying you along and we apologize.
We have choice, one at 33%, choice 2 at 33% and choice for it. 33%. Anybody would like to offer another one?
Choice 5? Maybe.
Choice 2 is moving ahead. Okay. Alright, they will. I think I will in the poll there.
There the results. So, 44% of us. Thought choice 2. And and then 33% for okay I'm just trying to get my head around here so anybody that did or would you like to say Why you thought maybe send the team to get more data?
Might be.
A good idea?
Things here a little heavy on quantitative and you need to get some stories. To get behind the numbers.
Oh, interesting.
Oh. Excellent. Thank you. Yes.
Please, please.
Hey, Dr. Summers, can I make a statement about that then? So I have seen a situation where 97% of the faculty staff at a at a school district was very happy.
Working there. And, you know, that's, that's great, right? But then when we looked further into the situation, there were only 3% to the situation they were only 3% in academic achievement.
Oh my gosh.
They were actually happy not doing anything. I wonder if that goes with with Dr. Vincent his discussion about digging deeper into some of that qualitative about why are you getting that so anyways that sparked my thought.
Absolutely. And, and, and we know that, you know, the quantitative data will only tell you so much.
Hmm.
The real story is the qualitative data. That backs that up. So anybody else would like to make a comment before we.
Move on from like another couple minutes.
Please.
Sure, I'd like to make a comment. I have it administrative intern who is doing a problem of practice on this particular topic.
And she shared the story of. Having a what she called a parking lot conversation with some other colleagues. And they said, you know, we're noticing this in our classroom.
And, and yeah, we're noticing it too. We really need to do something about that.
And you know, again, those partner lot conversations do get into the. Qualitative pieces of what they've observed.
They observed that, you know, there was a group that They happen to be. The oldest in the family of a single mom.
And so they were, you know, actually kind of filling in for the mom when the mom was having to go to one or 2 or 3 jobs.
And they were having to make sure that the kids, you know, got off to school and they had.
Food and you know did their homework or yeah there was just a variety of things that they said they shared so I think that's important too.
Yeah, that reminds me of member of the hall and hoard book about change and Gene Hall always talked about the importance of one-legged conversations.
Yes.
Right, no, it's one legged conversations are so important. Go ahead. Yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
Oh, I think Vince, I thought you were gonna say some, sorry.
With the data. March.
Yeah. Oh, please.
Oh, I actually was gonna say something. Excuse my camera being off. I have my daughter here. I'm in New York City, Department of Education teacher and I see like a lot of instability with data driven instruction and teachers being social emotionally supportive to students.
I had I'm trying to become a leader and I observe a lot of teachers and what they do behind closed doors and it's unacceptable the way they respond to students in order to drive data.
And I feel like that's a component like especially the department of education is missing. We get observed as teachers on our instruction and management is always just the quick checkoff.
And I think that's where we really need to start working on. And it's really concerning to me, especially as a mom now and for the next generation, like there needs to be a change.
And I'm looking forward to working with people like you. To figure out that change.
It's a really nice comment and that kind of makes me member we say Children are not data points.
Yes, yes, they're not an experiment.
They're children. Right. To not experiment and not to be treated as, you know, as just a bunch of data points.
So I think that's a. A very essential way to think about and plus the relationship thing that, you hit on as well.
And I don't know if we have time, Ken, to keep going or And I love
Well, might as well just see the video and then. What comes right after that.
Okay, and before we do that, Danielle, I just want to Vince had.
Wanted, I just want to say is quantitative data, quantitative data is the satellite view and qualitative data is the street view.
I love it. That is great. Thank you. Go right ahead, Daniel.
Yeah.
I think we need to consider the amount of time I and my fellow teachers are spending, reteaching content to a growing number of chronically absent students.
At what point do we call it enough and just allow them to suffer the natural consequences of their poor choices?
I for one am tired of mollycoddling those that choose to ignore the standards and believe that they would be better served by our justice system rather than a team of overextended.
Educators. Suggest that Mr. Taylor drill it in a bit. I know we all deal with the fallout from this growing problem.
So I suggest that we put our emotions in biases on the shelf and try to deal with this problem in a cool headed and collaborative way.
We need solutions, not increased faculty and staff tension. I suggest we take a break and then come back and dive into the data we've collected.
And see if we can uncover some root causes.
Yeah.
Well, that's kind of like a cliffhanger, folks. I have to stop there.
But, I think you'll hear that you might have access to this simulation from Ken.
So thank you for your discussion. We really appreciate it.
Thank you, John. And, you know, for those who want to stay beyond, we want to respect everybody's time and you know bring it to some kind of closure at the top of the hour.
If people want to stay on we are happy to stay on. But really the opportunity you know one thing you know going back to the pedagogy for a moment.
Right? You know, the value in the modality is, and what we didn't really get to do so much because of our limited time.
Is that opportunity for discussion, right? Because we are social creatures, especially when we're doing things.
In a synchronous manner the opportunity to hear the insights that were mentioned from each of the individuals, which is basically you're talking about having an experience.
And then sharing from your past experiences. And getting insights that you otherwise wouldn't have because these are based on perspective.
These issues that we're trying to wrestle with are contextual by nature, which means perspective is key.
Each person has their own perspective. And it's valid and we'll only know it if they share it.
And so the opportunity to engage and even in asynchronous where you can use message boards and things along those lines.
The other strategies and technologies that are out there. It's important to be able to process these things through your own experience, but then also through the experience of others to relate back.
To the theory. Right to the to the ideas that are being expressed that are really, really important. But also need to be wrestled with in terms of how do I apply them, right?
That last video demonstrates where When theory comes into practice, right, this teacher was getting very frustrated and it's very hard for them to.
Navigate both the day to day, but also this added additional element and etc, etc. And again, there's not an answer.
Is not a right answer for that. There's gonna be a better answer in that moment. Or a worse answer in that moment.
And the only way we're going to be able to do that is by exercising good judgment. And we only can get to that through the combination of being able to process the theory with the practice so that we can actually have some consequences.
That we can learn from, right? We can scrape our knees a little bit and there's no at risk here, right?
Some of you might have been feeling one of you mentioned being overwhelmed by the data when we have that list of data, right?
That emotional engagement, that's part of what helps make this experience even though it's simulated.
Sticky because we know from brain from neuroscience research and brain research that the way to get to long-term memory, which is stuff that would be retrievable.
Is through the emotional engagement through capturing some of that tension, some of the stress, some of the overwhelmedness that even though in a simulated setting right in your mind's eye you're beginning to react.
You're beginning to to respond and if anybody's interested in a further dive on this, by the way, we did our last webinar was on the neuroscience of stimulations, please feel free to go back to our website under resources and webinars and you can see the recording of that.
But one last thing just so you know in terms of the the simulation itself the one thing that's important that we didn't get to was and, John mentioned the report at the end that is an opportunity for reflection and so that does come at the end of this sin because we want you to live the life that's why you saw there was no back button as there's no mulligans you make decisions you deal with
it But one of the things that we'd like to offer, anybody on this first of all, we will have a few minutes left for questions, so by all means, but also if you're interested in learning more, please feel free to, use the QR code, reach out.
We're happy to do demos. Happy to talk about your particular curricula and programs and how this might fit.
Obviously there's opportunities for new Sims, because that's how the library continues to grow.
And happy to talk to you about all those elements. But really interested in your thoughts, comments.
Obviously the absenteeism is a critically important. Subject that needs to be attended to. That is going to be with us for a while and how do we help stem it?
How do we help navigate it? Because of the, the trade-offs that exist and look forward to chatting about that in more depth.
So thank you all for coming. And we'd love to chat with you further about this, the application of Sims or absenteeism.
So I'll open it up to questions.
I actually have a quick question. Are there school, I'm an elementary school teacher, from CATS 5.
Are there school Sims for elementary school students and are there any that are based on social emotional awareness?
That's a great question. You know, one of the things we look for in, in simulation, writing simulations is authenticity.
And the challenge with elementary age students is I don't speak student. It's been a while and so it's hard, but the concept.
Can work. We've actually done Sims now for high school students on bullying and civic engagement.
So I'd love to talk with you further about that in terms of.
Yeah, that's amazing. Our way to, retrieve data and that sense is very poor.
We have one count, 3 counselors to thousands of students and like our data on their social emotional standpoint is not strong enough and maybe this is an interactive like character trained, simulation.
Would be amazing.
Thank you. Love to follow up with you. Thank you. Anybody else?
Any other questions? Comments.
Hello.
You know, just say if I may, first of all, is, appreciate the information and glad that I saw this on LinkedIn.
It's something new to me. I've never seen anything like this before. But, What, sparked my interest was at the beginning when you talked about, simulations, being a, in career tech.
I mean, we spend such a great deal on simulations from welding to nursing. And so what a great concept to to use this in in education like like this, never even thought about it being possible.
Thank you.
So thank you for opening up my eyes to something that's different out there in education. So grateful.
Thank you.
And Ken, will they have access to the slides? Okay.
Okay.
So you have access to the slides and recording of the presentation. And If people are interested in.
Seeing the simulation more please reach out and you know we can provide you access to the simulation to play it you know again so you can complete it first of all and get 1 one round through at least and see the the entirety of it.
That's another benefit of the modality. Is that whereas a case study kind of focuses on a point in time.
The simulation allows us to experience the flow of time, right? Because these things happen and it happened in a flow, right?
Other things are happening in the meantime. Which complicates always so in terms of being able to have that experience we are happy to share that.
I was gonna mention, on the slides, Daniel, I don't know if you can pop those up in a hurry or not.
But if you want to go to one spot, which you may know about, it was new to me.
Is the attendance works. And if you go down the big green, the gag, right?
Yeah, it's called attendance works and there's a better slide. Danielle, a little bit higher maybe.
One more. Go up.
Okay, it's not there. But anyway, attendance works. And that's the, it's just, it's just a great site.
It has. Case studies, it has problems of practice, it's just a wonderful and those slides like 23 and 24 and 25 come from attendance works yeah so I.
Here are myriad of resources on attendance works and other. Venues online and I think that's a reflection of how significant attendance is as a problem to our schools, our businesses, and our society.
Absolutely. So it's very cool. It's a really cool site. And it's great for higher ed.
I was thinking, when I played this, with our school aspiring school leaders.
We're certainly going to do some pre work on attendance works and then we'll do some post work on it.
Thank you, Danielle.
And Daniel, if you could actually flip through the slides so that in the reporting people will see because there's a lot of really good content there.
So it might be worth just slipping through those slides so people see them. And they can, you know, flip through it as.
In the recording. Thank you. Any other questions, thoughts?
And yeah, I would just start one thing if you take a look at this slide, classroom and pure effects.
This is the study that showed that If you have kids being absent in the fall, other kids go, oh, I'll be absent in the spring.
And so there's a there's a direct kind of correlation I guess between who misses class in the fall and then also causing more absenteeism in the spring.
And the other thing that attendance works talked about and other people September is the most important month of the school year.
Because if you can reduce If you can get more kids to attend in September, The amount of absenteeism that you'll experience throughout the school year will go down by 2 to 4 to 16 times.
And this was the tenant's works and kinda how they. Help us kind of step through the data or not help us but show us how what's a good model for stepping to the data.
And this is the 4 conditions that they believe should be in any school that will help the school. Become a place where kids want to attend.
And then they go to the MTSS model. They, the mental health triangle and they actually give insights into each, particular tier and.
About what to do.
And then this is where Lynn and I were going to talk about all those great theories that we've all explored in the past.
Okay.
With I always go back to Maslow's hierarchy but if you just if you just there's so many others like Joyce Epstein's you know parents family and community connections and and Drakers and Bloom even you know mastery learning and so forth.
So there's just a whole lot of things that we can call on to
To make attendance. The number one thing rather than absenteeism.
Thanks, Dave. Yeah.
Thank you all very much. And at this point, I wish you all a wonderful, happy, healthy, wonderful holiday Merry Christmas happy new year and look forward to being in touch.
Whether it's this year or in the new year. And wishing you all. Wonderful time.
Thank you.
Thank you. This is so nice to hear like all this greatness. Especially as an educator for the young children like this is the change we need.
I'm so happy to be part of this.
Thank you. And thank you very much, John and Lynn. That was great.
Okay.
You're welcome