Children fall behind when they miss school and absence rates are higher than ever before. Yet Tools children don’t want to miss a minute and their teachers connect it directly to their investment in their learning.
What we heard from teachers and administration at after implementing Tools at
“They don’t want to miss school!”
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Committee search to choose the right curriculum
Selection of Tools of the Mind curriculum & professional development
Tools training and implementation for all relevant staff
Teaching and learning review and outcomes
In a post-COVID-19 era of troubling absenteeism, with chronic absence levels on the rise – even in elementary schools – children in Tools classrooms don’t want to miss out on learning they’re excited about or disappoint ‘study buddies’ they know rely on them.
Listen in as these Tools teachers talk about how, in contrast to recent trends, attendance rates in their classrooms are higher than ever before, with huge numbers of students earning perfect attendance awards and one child even insisting that the class waits for him to get back from the bathroom before continuing with the lesson.
There are many reasons why children have been increasingly absent from school in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, including illness, lack of reliable transportation and an altered view of the importance of daily attendance at school after long stretches of at-home learning. One sometimes overlooked reason is a lack of student engagement in the classroom. When students want to come to school, they are more likely to, and their sense of belonging and connection in the classroom is a powerful motivator. By setting up a classroom community where children are invested in their peers and in their learning, Tools teachers are finding that students don’t want to miss out on the action.
See this article for more on the challenges of chronic absence and how we can respond.