A new initiative by Putnam City Public Schools is designed to help students not only attend class regularly, but also complete their assignments on time.
The district says it is pleased with the increased student attendance this year, but now plans to keep students in the classroom and reduce absenteeism rates.
AJ Graffeo, communications director for Putnam City Schools, said
“We officially launched the ‘Be present be bold’ initiative last spring when we implemented the first round of policy changes across the district,” said AJ Graffeo, director of communications for Putnam City Schools. “Since May, we have seen a 5% increase in our students’ daily attendance and, in turn, a 5% decrease in our chronic absence, which is huge.”
Teachers say they have also seen an increase in positive grades thanks to this change.
“A lot of our instruction is collaborative, so if we want students to work together to learn, they need to be here,” said Sarah Tabor, a third-grade teacher at Central Elementary School.
In addition, another teacher at Central Elementary said that students lack communication with other students about class material when they are not present.
“They are missing out on the conversations where they can learn from other students and participate in the group dialogues that really help them learn,” said third-grade teacher Emma Miller.
Classes at Putnam City Schools begin at 8 a.m. on Wednesdays.
