Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Attendance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Attendance and engagement cited as primary hurdles after middle-school goals missed
Summary
Middle-school leaders reported they did not meet targets for C's-or-better goals (ended near 59%) and identified chronic absenteeism as a main barrier (about 65% attend 90%+; 35% do not). District plans include more project-based learning, student showcases, asynchronous lessons and incentives to boost attendance and engagement.
Middle-school leaders told the Molalla River School District 35 board that they missed targets tied to student course performance and outlined attendance and engagement as primary challenges.
The district had wanted about 80% of middle-school students earning grades of C or higher (and a target score of 3.7 on a stated rubric); the year-end average was reported near 59%, short of the goal. Presenters linked much of the shortfall to chronic absence: roughly 65% of students attend 90% or more of school days, leaving about 35% with irregular attendance that makes consistent learning and interventions difficult.
Staff described multiple strategies to address engagement and chronic absenteeism: expanding project-based learning to increase curriculum relevance (adding roughly 10% more project-based content next year), launching additional student showcases so students have external evaluation and motivation, and implementing a new schedule to reduce disruptive trimester transitions. The district also plans asynchronous, standards-based lessons developed by a small teacher cohort so students who miss class can access recorded short lessons and recover learning.
Presenters noted a cadre of career-awareness workshops and field trips this year (35 events reaching roughly 409 students) intended to help students see school-to-work connections. The board discussed incentives ("gold card" bingo-style attendance incentives) and extra tutoring and intervention times within the school day.
No formal motions or budgeting decisions were taken in the work session; staff will continue to develop implementation timelines and report back through the district's 45-day KPI process.
