BROOKFIELD - Attendance is a crucial component in ensuring student’s success. In compliance with CSIP goals and the Brookfield R-III building goals, the high school has set a goal of 95% or higher attendance. The goal is to have the overall high school attendance percentage by the end of the 2010 school year to be at least 95%. An attendance incentive committee was formed and off to work they went. The committee felt it imperative to gather student input to determine why some of them had substandard attendance patterns, and to determine what kind of incentives would motivate them to improve their attendance.
The committee wanted the students to feel they had ownership in this cause so that this would lead to them becoming intrinsically motivated to improve their attendance, not just extrinsically. After gathering student input a list of incentives was proposed. The incentive requests submitted by the students ranged from wanting: a chance to be principal for the day, getting to job shadow the School Resource Officer for the day, getting a bottle of juice everyday before school for a week, getting gift cards to be used in the community, preferential parking spots at school, and money added to their school lunch accounts. The students and the teachers will continue to work together to improve the incentive program.
The school’s inaugural attendance assembly kicked off in January. The overwhelming consensus was that it was a big success. Students that had shown they had 95% or higher attendance for the first semester were awarded recognition and their name put in the drawing for one of the above mentioned rewards. There will continue to be monthly and quarterly assemblies to encourage good attendance and those students who also show increased attendance patterns will also be eligible for attendance incentives. The students will begin to help coordinate future attendance assemblies and events. Currently the committee will begin to work with students from each grade level 9-12 to coordinate a high school lock-in that will be organized by the students to help raise money for future incentives. The goal is to have a fun night with games and activities that the students pay an entry fee to attend the all night lock in. The money they raise goes back to fund the incentives they choose for their attendance. The committee will check monthly to track the improvement in attendance. “We have already begun to see a positive reaction amongst the students, I have had several students that had low attendance last semester come to me and say, ‘this has really opened my eyes, my goal is to have perfect attendance this quarter,’” Mrs. Varner said. The committee has also had a growing number of students show interest in wanting to know their current attendance rate and want to increase their attendance. This is a building goal for the high school and through faculty collaboration the teachers have worked together to find a way to get student input and commitment as well and put this goal in to action.
Recently Megan Watkins and Tabitha Burns got to cash in on their attendance incentive. Both of their names were drawn from the students with 95% or higher attendance…Megan got to shadow Officer Dixon for the day and Tabitha was Principal Shaw for the day. When asked why he agreed to be part of the incentives and allow himself to be shadowed for the day, Mr. Shaw’s response was, “ Because it was an idea the kids came up with, and that’ big, we want to show them that we want them to come, glad to do my part.” Officer Dixon, the school resource officer, was asked the same question and his response was much the same, “Whatever makes the students get to school, I will help do my part to make it happen.”
Student sentiments show that they are equally as eager about the new attendance incentive,” Ally Luckert commented. “It’s a good way to influence kids to come to school, I think it is a great thing!”
“It gives us another reason to be here, I think it is a really good idea,” Austin Cupp added to his fellow classmates comment. “I have always had good attendance and I now I get recognition for it; it’s a good thing!” an ecstatic Michael Crutcher commented, he was the recipient of one of the incentive prizes, and was awarded front row parking for a month.
“If you recognize and reward kids for doing good it will make them want to do it more, and then they will just get to the point they want to do it.” Senior Tiffany McKenney added.
“I’m going to improve my attendance this semester; the freshman class had higher attendance than the seniors; and I don’t want that to happen, seniors are going to win those prizes next time.” A competitive Kelsy Sackrey added in a playful tone.
“I was one of the students barely below the 95% attendance and it set a goal for me to want to reach, so yeah, it will encourage me to get 95% attendance or higher.”-Paige Weimer
Recipients of incentive prizes at the January assembly were: Skylar Chowning, Austin Cupp, Caitlin Bradley, Nick Crutcher, Megan Watkins, Michael Crutcher, Ethan Harmon, Tabby Burns, Dylan Williams, Coltin Almond, Tristand Sheppard, Levi Henderson, Lydia Palmer.
Suzanne Liebhart one of the committee members stated: “I thought it was a great idea from the start, after we had the first assembly I was amazed at the response from the students and the comments I would hear in the halls, kids talking about wanting to increase attendance and challenging their friends to have perfect attendance with them.”
- Article submitted by Kristi Varner
This article can be seen in its entirety in the 01-29-10 Linn County Leader.
