News & Announcements
OSI-Baltimore Hosts Forums About Baltimore's High Truancy Rate
Press Release
What: Discussion about reducing chronic school absence, featuring
Ken Seeley, president and CEO, National Center for School Engagement
When: 10 to 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 16
Where: Open Society Institute-Baltimore, 201 North Charles
Street, Suite 1300
Editors’ note: Seating is limited. Please call Justin Schaberg at 410-234-1091 to reserve a seat.
BALTIMORE—The Open Society Institute–Baltimore will host four forums from January through April about truancy in Baltimore public schools. The topic is timely as new state figures show that more than 9 percent of Baltimore City public school students are “habitually truant,” missing a fifth or more of school during the 2006-07 school year. That figure is more than double Prince George’s County’s percentage and more than quadruple the state average of 2.21 percent. In some Baltimore middle and high schools, the percentage of students chronically truant ranges from 10 to 40 percent. And far too many elementary schools also have unacceptably high percentages of truant students.
The first forum on January 16 features Ken Seeley, president and CEO of the National Center for School Engagement, which provides research, training, and assistance to organizations and cities developing and evaluating programs to reduce truancy. He has served in a variety of roles related to children and families over the past 30 years, both in Colorado and nationally. He previously was founder and president of the Colorado Foundation for Families and Children. Seeley has expertise in early childhood education, public education, and family support. He will discuss how schools can reduce chronic absenteeism and help students become more engaged in school.
Truancy has devastating consequences on children’s chances for success in school. Students who are frequently absent – even in elementary school – tend to score lower on achievement tests, drop out of school at higher rates, and become involved in the juvenile justice system more often than their peers. “Truancy is dramatically reducing student achievement in Baltimore City public schools, and it often places students on the path to suspension, expulsion and dropping out of school,” said Diana Morris, director of OSI-Baltimore. “With this forum series, we hope to bring together policy makers, educators, service providers, advocates, and funders to learn about chronic school absence and to discuss innovative strategies that will improve school attendance in Baltimore.”
This series builds on OSI-Baltimore’s ongoing effort to help reduce the number of Baltimore students suspended and expelled, especially for minor infractions, and to increase the number of children who can attend school each day. Past forum series and grants have promoted school-wide approaches to teaching good behavior, supportive services to address students’ non-academic needs, and in-school consequences for students who misbehave.
Subsequent Forums
10 to 11:30 a.m., February 22 – Hedy Chang, a consultant conducting research for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, will discuss the chronic absence among young children in Baltimore. Her research analyzes data on a wide array of student characteristics to help uncover the causes of early chronic absenteeism among elementary school children.
10 to 11:30 a.m., March 18 – Kimberly Henry, assistant professor of psychology, Colorado State University, will discuss truancy and adolescent drug use. Her expertise is in drug and alcohol use among adolescents and young adults, and her current research focuses on the relationship between substance abuse and school disengagement.
10 to 11:30 a.m., April 23 – Daniel Losen is senior education law and policy associate of The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. He will discuss the impact of the federal “No Child Left Behind” Act on truancy and drop out. Prior to joining the Civil Rights Project, Losen practiced education law for economically disadvantaged students in Massachusetts. Before becoming a lawyer, Losen taught in public schools for ten years. His current research and advocacy work concerns the impact of federal, state and local education law and policy on students of color, the school-to-prison pipeline, and school “push out” and “drop out.”
