Board of Ed for November: staff attendance data

 the memo is here

and this is Rob Curtin
released for the first time district and school staff attendance data

communication to districts starting back in February; required review prior to release
data comes in through EPIMS (Educator Personnel Information Management System); collect days attended and days expected to be attended
does not include school nutrition, coaches, or transportation
first time it is being published; plan to make annual
attendance rates at teacher, administrator, and all staff level, and average number of absences
were going to do 10 or more days; districts noted that there are different denominators as local expectations are different for staff
reports by each district, school (including charter and virtual)
absence is missing for more than half of the workday for a reason outside of paid vacation day or district-approved PD
data suppressed for six or fewer
combined effect of data is student absence + staff absence
"important that students have access to their teachers but all staff"
"different stories here told by different" district
encourage districts to review their own data and tell their own stories
"ability to have access to the staff is as important" as students attending
Martinez: districts are in different places
"what we're hoping is to model...and it's not all perfect, but kudos to Rob and the team for giving multiple opportunities to correct it...I didn't want us to be making editorial comments about this"
data for looking at what is happening, look at this 
Curtin: think it's important to handle data carefully when it is released the first time
"to let the data breathe a little bit"
"a release of data without coming to you without a lot of academic analysis"
"there will be plenty of time and plenty of people who will be interested in asking the questions"
Grant: think in this process districts should be able to control for 
Curtin: thought about loss of student access to instruction
consistent baseline around the absence
Rocha: student has a teacher on leave, but has access to teacher nonetheless
safeguard that this does not become a tool for punishment
truly being able to understand the impact of this data
Curtin: intended to complement the student data
not to convey blame
very much "not intending to use it in the accountability system for now"
"frankly like we would never turn around" on the student data
Martinez: another way for our agency to understand what is going on in the field
Provide more instructional time to students because they need it
what happens during our regular school day and our regular structure when teachers are absent?
"we'll go deeper with this data...and we'll continue to build on it"
Curtin: much more information is published on student absent than on staff data, and that is intentional
staff data has more nuance to it "and we need to learn"
staff working in multiple districts; staff with different employment expectations
Hills: this can be used by districts and will be used by families 
"this is a huge issue without actually knowing how it compares to other districts"
"on the other hand, be careful not to set yourself up" such that it undermines the entire project
"if there are legitimate issues, not footnote it in six point font"
think the issue for families is not how many absences are allowed; it's how many are taken
Curtin: to be clear, we are confident in the data we are releasing today under the process and under the reviews provided to districts

Hills notes goals of Commissioner at next meeting, vote in January

Adjourn