Executive Summary
A new year calls for a new resolution, and we have just the one for the start of this school year! Taking a whole child approach to improving attendance is the wave of the future–and the only way to truly change is from the inside out. RaaWee’s comprehensive truancy prevention system meets students (and their families) where they are and helps educators utilize field-tested tools to get young people back on the pathway to academic success in a variety of learning models. So let’s re-up our commitment to student and family welfare by avoiding three key pitfalls of a non-integrated attendance intervention plan.
While each of the pitfalls has its own trappings, all three can be avoided by adopting a high-quality, substantial, and centralized attendance improvement system. Stand-alone versions simply don’t make the cut in a world as mutable as ours. When vetting your options, consider these imperatives of selecting a truly integrated platform to yield the most impactful outcomes: 1) clear and varied communication tools, 2) valid, diverse, and dynamic data; and 3) the program’s ability to quickly adapt to emerging societal conditions. RaaWee hits all of these marks and more. Look before you leap into this school year to protect your most valuable resource of all: our students. They deserve an attendance system that makes sense in order for them to make a difference.
About the Author
Dr. Kim Wallace is a professional educational consultant with Process Makes Perfect. She started her career in public education 27 years ago as a high school instructor before going into site and district administration. She most recently served as the superintendent of a large San Francisco Bay Area district. Kim consults, writes, and presents on the topics of leadership, curriculum and instruction, policy and protocol, and future trends in education.
