5 FEATURE
OPINION
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FOOD GUIDE TO: LOCAL INSECURITY CERAMIC STUDIOS
DEAR DIARY: GOLU DOLLS
SMOKE SIGNAL
THE
MISSION SAN JOSE HIGH SCHOOL
VOL. 58, NO. 3
41717 PALM AVENUE, FREMONT, CA 94539
BY THE NUMBERS: TARDINESS AND ABSENTEEISM By Jeffrey Li, Michael Qu, Daphne Senecal & Lucy Yao Staff Writers
In light of growing absentee and tardiness rates at MSJ, Principal Amy Perez implemented the new Tardy Sweep Program. According to an email sent by Perez on October 20, at random periods on random days, teachers will be told to lock their doors the second the bell sounds, and students caught being tardy will receive a 30-minute detention. To gain insight into the newly-instated Tardy Sweep and its impact on tardiness and absenteeism, the Smoke Signal conducted a school-wide survey from October 30 to November 6 with 195 Google Forms respondents and interviewed students, teachers, and administration.
PREPANDEMIC The Smoke Signal previously covered student tardiness in a January 2020 article, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit. At that time, 40.7% of the 200 surveyed students had at least one unexcused tardy in the past month, with 10.1% on tardy contracts, which are letters given for more than 11 unexcused tardies that penalize further tardies with Saturday School. Out of those that were tardy, 95.7% were late for one to five minutes. However, the earlier start time, which at that time was 8 a.m, and shorter passing periods, which were five minutes compared to the current six, may have contributed to the tardy rates. On a national scale, according to research group Attendance Works, prior to the pandemic, about 8 million US students were considered chronically absent, defined as missing 10% or more of school days in the school year. That number has now doubled to 16 million when reported in the spring of 2022. This corroborates data collected by School Innovations & Achievement, which analyzed 30 CA school districts and found that 13.5% of students were chronically absent before the pandemic compared to a rate of 33% in the 2021-22 school year.
42.48% Commute to school 33.63% Distance between classes something to do 30.09% Had during passing period
25.66% Held over in previous class Most Common Reasons for Absences.
81.88% Illness, mental health 42.03% Medical appointments 33.33% Extracurrciulars
statewide trends
Note: West Contra Costa Unified School District’s average daily attendence rates were converted to daily absenteeism rates,
STudent Absent Rates 30%
Tardy Sweeps
Since the implementation of the Tardy Sweep, many students have changed their habits when getting to classes. Of the 195 responses in a survey sent by the Smoke Signal, 24.6% were directly affected by the premise of a Tardy Sweep, with 79.17% of those impacted arriving earlier to class, indicating a positive correlation between the implementation of the Tardy Sweep and increased punctuality. “Starting the week of the announcement of Tardy Sweeps, there were no groups [of students outside the classroom] that I came by,” Kottenbach said. However, many students are divided on the enforcement of the Tardy Sweep, with 71.3% of the surveyed students asserting that the current tardy policies were unnecessary. “I don’t think that the Tardy Sweep program will be effective because there is a general disregard among the student population [when it comes to] Tardy Sweeps. If students are informed [beforehand] they may try to get to class earlier but I feel that MSJ culture is just so nonchalant about showing up to class,” Senior Shohini Sarkar said.
Do you think the current enforcement of the tardy policies is necessary?
2021-22 30%
11.3%
20%
Yes
17.4%
15%
No 2020-21 14%
5%
2021-22 8.99% 2019-20 4.1%
CA Department of Education
ONLINE
THIS MONTH
www.thesmokesignal.org
“Some teachers give students a bit of extra time to come in [and] a lot of teachers don’t mark students tardy if they come in tardy, so there isn’t any structure or no clear set expectation. So it’s nobody’s fault really, there just wasn’t any sort of guidelines or foundations set to begin with, so I wanted to relook at that.” — Principal Amy Perez “I do believe that brunch is too short, and it’s something that we’ll revisit again this year when we vote on the bell schedule. But I also want students to know that I don’t determine the bell schedule, it’s something that the administration and teachers have to work out and agree on, and from my knowledge last year, that was attempted but it didn’t go through.” — Principal Amy Perez
Coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, schools across the nation have seen the same trend: a two to three times increase in student absenteeism and tardiness. According to the CA Department of Education (CDE), at MSJ, the rate of chronic absenteeism has increased by 7.8% since pre-pandemic years. This caused the average number of days absent to increase from 6.5 days in the 2018-19 school year to 9.5 days in the 2022-23 school year. Out of the 70.77% of surveyed students who reported being absent for one or more days in the school year, 81.88% reported illness or mental health in their reasons for absence, 33.33% extracurriculars, and 42.03% medical appointment. When it comes to tardiness, while many students report reasons like needing to speak with teachers after class, a significant number of student tardiness can also be attributed to negligence. “During my period of prep, … before the discussion of Tardy Sweeps, I would see large groups of students still out and about after the bell rang,” Government Teacher Keith Kottenbach said. Since the Tardy Sweeps were announced, students have taken actions to avoid being tardy, despite an actual sweep currently not having taken place yet. However, students may not always have full control of their actions during the passing periods. Although students are mainly responsible for arriving to class on time, there are outside factors that affect punctuality. One significant factor is the distance between classes, coupled by the fact that many students may have to stop to use the restroom or get water during passing period. Students are unable to control the location of their classes, and sometimes the distance is too far to make it in time while also taking care of these essential tasks. Based on data from our survey, 55.75% reported a personal or class-related task during the passing period as a reason for being tardy. Unexpected events may also occur, with commonly cited examples including the breakfast line being too long, needing to go to the office, or being held over in the previous class. These external factors are all out of students’ control and can happen on any day. “[Being tardy is] a natural thing … I don’t think anybody is doing it on purpose,” Chemistry Teacher Katy Kuei said.
During the coronavirus pandemic, there was a surge of statewide student absenteeism and tardiness. According to the CDE, chronic absenteeism rose from 14% in 202021 to 30% in 2021-22. Additionally, a FUSD statewide assessment reports that district chronic absenteeism rates stabilized to 13.4% in the 2022-23 school year, substantially lower than the statewide rate of 24.9% but still more than double FUSD’s 2019 rate of 5.5%. Districts outside of Alameda county have reported similar trends. According to a study conducted by the West Contra Costa Unified School District, “Average daily absenteeism rates have increased from 4.1% in 2019-20 … 8.99% in 2021-22 … For the first 30 days of the 2022-23 school year, the average daily absent rate was 7.5%, based on data from 100 districts.” This data suggests that while there has been progress in reducing chronic absenteeism in school districts across CA, the effects of the pandemic continue to linger, negatively impacting attendance patterns.
10%
November 16, 2023
current tardies and absences
Most Common Reasons for Tardies.
25%
20
West Contra Costa Unified School District
71.3%
Not sure
policies at msj and other schools
MSJ’s current policies aside from the Tardy Sweep consist of Truancy Process Letters — students who have been absent for three, five, and more than eight days are respectively given First, Second, and Third Truancy Letters before deemed a habitual truant and referred to the Student Attendance Review Board. Other schools in FUSD, such as Washington High School, have a zero-tolerance tardy policy, with students immediately receiving detention for being late. Although Tardy Sweeps have been present at schools for years, they have grown in usage — and criticism — coming back from the pandemic. According to a March 2022 ABC10 article, Lincoln High School implemented Tardy Sweeps after students received more than 18,000 tardies in just the fall semester of 2021-22 school year. Its implementation greatly reduced numbers to around 4,000 in the spring semester of that year. However, other schools have received substantial backlash towards the new program. According to a December 2022 article from San Rafael High School’s newspaper titled “San Rafael High School Needs to Get Rid of Tardy Sweeps,” the article’s author cites many points echoed across the rest of the student body, such as “I think the the sweeps causing Tardy Sweep program will unnecessary stress, be really effective. Recently, there have been crowding in hallways more tardies as the school year goes on and being both a cause and punishments have yet to be enforced. ... [Being] effect of tardiness, and the tardy by one minute doesn’t affect learning at system’s ineffectiveness. “A all, ... [but] if the [student] is tardy by 20 minstudent who is only five minutes, they might miss out on [learning].” — Cham utes late will instead have Yu, 9 to miss a much bigger portion of class ... we are forc“I feel that if students are tardy it’s because ing them to miss even more they have to walk far distances across campus. crucial teaching, defeating ... Maybe because this is a new administration the whole purpose of the that hasn’t experienced [this] student body besweep,” the article said. fore but I feel like the students here have been more or less consistent with how late or early they show up to class.” — Shohini Sarkar, 12
ALBUM REVIEW: HEAVEN KNOWS
MSJ ISHAARA WARRIORS PERFORMANCE
PinkPantheress released her debut album, Heaven Knows, on November 11 under the label Warner UK, her first album following her 2021 mixtape. Read the Smoke Signal’s review of the album on our website.
On November 16, MSJ Ishaara performed at the Warriors game at the Chase Center that L2 Fund collaborated with. View the Smoke Signal’s coverage and photo gallery of the event on our website.
FOR MORE COVERAGE, VISIT www.THESMOKESIGNAL.ORG