More high schools try incentives to boost attendance
Some see 'bribery' as wrong approach
October 24, 2004|Associated Press
LOWELL -- There used to be pats on the back, or pizza parties, but now it's prepaid credit cards and new-car lotteries. What's next in the effort to get students to go to class?
Lowell High School is offering seniors who maintain excellent attendance and gain acceptance to college or the military a free, $1,200 laptop computer at year's end.
''It makes students want to come to school more," said BunthaSok, a 19-year-old who has returned to school after a year off that included running with a street gang.
Sok returned to school because he wants to be a police officer -- not for a free computer -- but he said the appeal is undeniable. ''I grew up in a poor family. I never had the chance to use a computer," he said. ''I always wanted a laptop."
David Conway, one of five house--masters at Lowell High School, said school administrators came up with the laptop idea after seeing daily attendance dip last year to 85 percent at this campus of 3,000 students. To avoid sanctions under regulations of the federal No Child Left Behind law, attendance must reach 95 percent.
''Attendance is a societal problem," Conway said. ''Nobody really has the answers. There didn't seem to be any innovative ideas. It seems as though we rely on the punitive part: detentions, suspensions, telling the parents."
Nationwide, schools are turning to incentives in the face of the federal No Child Left Behind education law that requires every school to report truancy figures. Attendance is a factor that helps determine whether schools go on the ''needs improvement" list, which can force them to let students transfer and lose some government funding.
At Trimble Tech High School in Fort Worth, Texas, attendance jumped nearly three percentage points last year to 94.7 percent after officials announced eligible students could win a 2001 Ford Mustang. It's one of several car giveaway programs at Fort Worth high schools.
In Kansas City, Mo., officials say incentives roughly doubled enrollment in summer school. Students who didn't miss a day received a prepaid Visa card worth $125.
The buzz about the laptops already has improved Lowell's attendance, Conway said. The daily rate so far this year is 91 percent. To qualify for a laptop, a student must not be absent more than eight days in all classes, reflecting a 96 percent attendance rate, and must be accepted into the military or a two- or four-year college.
Educators in Lowell also hope the laptops will help deserving students offset college expenses. This year, three state colleges are requiring for the first time that new students own a laptop. More state schools will adopt that rule next year. It will add about $1,200 to the total cost.