Not Present or Accounted For: The Attendance Crisis in Baltimore Schools“Not Present or Accounted For": Part 4
The following is a transcript of Part 4 of the radio series “Not Present or Accounted For: The Attendance Crisis in Baltimore Schools,” which was supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.
The epidemic of truancy here is so pressing that some educators and researchers have spent years molding unique programs and solutions. Can their reforms work in the hallways and principal’s office? Reporter Melody Simmons sought answers in the fourth installment of WEAA’s documentary, “Not Present or Accounted For: The Attendance Crisis in Baltimore’s Schools.”
An electronic beep has replaced the traditional school bell at Baltimore Talent Development High School on the Westside. Each day, students gain entry to school by swiping ID cards through a computer. Jeffrey Robinson is the principal.
“It helps us to get off to a positive day, set the tone, so, we’re tone setters.”
A majority of these 520 students enter 9 th grade with math and reading skills as low as a fourth grade level. They are immersed in a remedial curriculum and taught study skills and discipline.
Robinson, principal since this unique public school opened five years ago, explained social challenges some students face.
“Their living situation may not be the best, they move from relative or house to house, or it could be crowded in the house. Limited food, electricity on and off, very hostile environment outside of the house…Just the stigma of how they have been treated in school before they arrive here, teachers saying you’re never going to be anything. Not caring, some teachers just passing them, showing movies. Not holding them to expectations and standard.”
Robinson said the school’s success is based on its rules and curriculum, part of which was developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Last spring, all 92 students who received a diploma in the first graduating class at Talent Development were admitted to a college. He detailed one student who got off to a rocky start.
“Her ninth grade year, she never would attend. I recall myself driving to her house, I would get her out of bed…a number of staff members calling her, having students being her buddy. . . by her junior/senior year, she was coming every day working really hard. She got accepted to a school in New York, and she also won a scholarship through our school.”
Robert Balfanz, a Hopkins researcher, helped develop the 12-year-old curriculum at Talent Development High. One major component is curbing chronic absenteeism.
“The schools have to be resourced so that every absence brings a response. A phone call, a talk with the student the next day, something to say, hey why weren’t you in school yesterday? We missed you. What can we do to make sure you come tomorrow?”
Balfanz said schools must mobilize volunteers, parents and teachers to monitor attendance.
That’s what saved Tyrone Hicks. Now 16, and a junior at Talent Development High, he began failing math last year. Disillusioned, he stopped coming to school altogether. An encouraging phone call from his middle school math teacher brought him back.
“I really wanted to drop out, but I just didn’t because the teaches told me stuff, like if you want to be something, you’ve got to come on in. that’s why I just came to school ever since. I’ve been doing good and it feels good to come to school every day knowing that if you keep doing this, you’re going to make it in life. Nobody in my family ever went to college. I want to be the first one to go to college.”
Hicks, who lives on the east side, has to ride a series of city buses each day to get here. He said he doesn’t mind the commute, though. It has saved him from what he calls “that gang stuff.” His goal instead is to someday own his own business.
I’m Melody Simmons, reporting from west Baltimore.
