Notes From The Field
Cutting Full Day Kindergarten Is a Bad Idea
Submitted by Frank Murphy, May 3. 2011
Typically when analyzing the struggles of schools to achieve No Child Left Behind’s “Adequate Yearly Progress”, the discussion focuses on student achievement scores. But failing to make sufficient test score gains in a given year isn’t the only way a school can fail to make AYP. A school whose average daily attendance rate is less than 90% for the year, will be considered a failure under the rules established by the No Child Left Behind Act. This will be so regardless of the test scores of its students.
On the face of it, this NCLB requirement appears to be reasonable. Students who attend school on a regular basis should have an increased likelihood of success in school. Creating an expectation that no more than 10% of the student body can be absent on any one day actually sounds like a fair way to track this important goal. But this is not necessarily the case. One or two low attendance days in a month can seriously skew the