“The bottom line is, we’re all missing too much school.”
That’s how Steve Paine, the state superintendent of schools, described the issue of absenteeism among West Virginia’s teachers and students.
Last month, figures released in our state’s annual Balanced Scorecard found 38% of public schools did not meet the standard for attendance, with 20% of their student populations being chronically absent.
Chronic absence is calculated as having missed 18 or more days of the 180-day school year — 10%. The data showed 59% of the state’s high schools failed to meet even the minimum standard for attendance; 6% met or exceeded that standard.
Then this week, research by the state Department of Education found that 52.75% of teachers missed more than 10 days. State teachers work under 200-day contracts with 12 days of leave built in that can also be sick days, plus four personal days.
The percentage of teachers who missed more than 20 days was 10.9 percent, which would be classified as chronic absence if the same standards applied to students are used.
Let’s be clear. Teachers get sick. Probably sicker than many due to their constant exposure to hundreds of children daily. Like everyone else they have obligations too to care for their own ill family members, etc.
Furthermore, nationally, teachers are absent from the classroom on average about 10 days per year.
Still, we find it a bit disconcerting that attendance rates for teachers, overall, aren’t much better than students and force schools to rely on substitute teachers, financially straining school districts.
Monongalia County reported spending $2.4 million to hire substitute teachers during the 2018-19 school year.
But more importantly, absenteeism among teachers creates greater problems than additional spending of public funds.
Students learn best from their established teacher and not just as a result of continuity, but they are usually far more qualified to teach the subject.
Also, anyone who has sat in a classroom being taught by a substitute, who is not familiar with the lesson plan and individual students, can attest to that. That is no knock on substitute teachers who should be commended for taking on a classroom he or she has no prior connection to.
Common sense tells us when a teacher is absent, student learning is disrupted. When a teacher is chronically absent student performance is impaired.
Research supports that notion, too. The more a teacher is absent, the lower his or her students score on tests.
Finally, we should note that on any day of the school year, 94% of state teachers are in their classrooms.
But it’s obvious our state’s teachers and students can do better. How? By not missing as much school.
