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How to get students to show up: Bribery? Tough love?
Paying chronic absentees $50 for each week of perfect attendance -- a desperation move in Oakland high schools -- hasn't made much of a...
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 9, 20242 min read
2 comments


Please come to school, pretty please, with a cherry on top . . .
Schools are struggling to get students to show up every day. Twenty-six percent of students are chronically absent, missing at least 10...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 8, 20242 min read
5 comments


Students show up when parents get cash for perfect attendance
Nearly 200 low-income families living in Birmingham (Alabama) public housing qualified for a drawing worth $300 in rent and utility...
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 11, 20241 min read
4 comments


School's out early: Some students get much less class time than others
Some students get less class time -- and usually learn less.
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 11, 20242 min read
4 comments


In college, but not in class: Kids with 'snowplow parents' give up easily
Absenteeism -- physical and mental -- is high for college students too.
Joanne Jacobs
May 19, 20241 min read
5 comments


Can't be bothered: Kids are absent from everything, not just school
Chronic absenteeism is way up, writes Robert Pondiscio, but kids aren't just absent from school. A disturbing number of young people are...
Joanne Jacobs
May 3, 20242 min read
3 comments


Four years after 'two weeks to flatten the curve' ...
Four years ago, schools across the country closed their doors. It was supposed to be for two weeks or three or . . . Most schools stayed...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 22, 20242 min read
9 comments


Cash for class: Ohio may pay students to show up at school
Ohio may pay students to show up at school, reports Laura A. Bischoff in the Columbus Dispatch. Under the proposed pilot program,...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 23, 20242 min read
2 comments
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