Absence rates at Oakland Unified schools alarming

05-23-2011

By Jill Tucker/Chronicle Staff Writer

One out of every seven Oakland Unified public school students last year missed nearly four weeks of school, a rate of excused absences that startled district officials into action and underscores a problem statewide that researchers say could lead to academic failure in the future. "For all the focus on school accountability, there's a basic fact that is often overlooked: Even the best teacher can't help students who aren't in the classroom. Frequent absence is a red flag, a sign of trouble ahead," said state Superintendent Tom Torlakson, who hosted a state policy forum on the issue Thursday. The forum's purpose was to share the study results in Oakland and generate interest in an early-warning system that schools could use to identify chronically absent students and help parents steer their children back to the classroom. (more...)

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Absence rates at Oakland Unified schools alarming

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