Education First Compact – Improving Student Attendance through the New ABCs – Dec 7 (Change in Location)

Posted by Philadelphia Education Fund on December 5, 2023

It’s been three years since COVID forced the nationwide closure of school buildings. With the closures came virtual learning. And, with virtual learning came a dramatic decrease in school attendance rates. Despite high hopes with the re-opening of schools, studies reveal that – even three years later – rates of chronic absenteeism remain at all-time highs.

In the past, researchers might have identified the primary drivers of absenteeism to be barriers like illness, unreliable transportation and poverty. Post-COVID, experts suspect an increasing number of students are sitting out because they feel disconnected, unengaged, and unseen.

The relationship between student attendance and student achievement is well-documented. It is a predictor of high school completion and college success, as noted in the Everyone Graduates Center’s seminal work, Early Warning Systems, and its subsequent research informing Pathways to Adult Success. And, in Philadelphia, the problem has intensified.

If Philadelphia is to be home to the fastest-improving large urban school district in America, it must quickly and dramatically increase student attendance rates…but how?

Join us at Education First Compact, on Thursday, December 7, 2023, 7:45-9:30 AM, as we examine new and evolving strategies in improving student attendance by focusing on agency, belonging and connection for students.

Location: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Learn more and register.

You are invited to stay and learn more about the College Access and Success Ecosystem (CASE), a newly-formed, data-driven, collective effort. CASE leverages the talents of nonprofits, school leaders, government and industry to move the needle on rates of high school, college, and postsecondary completion.

Join us on December 7 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Academy of Natural Sciences for CASE’s first working meeting: To RSVP for CASE, click here by December 1.