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No Child Left
Behind (NCLB)
Resources
Parent
Newsletter Stories |
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Picturing high school success:
Why attendance matters most
Eastman Kodak couldn't find enough skilled workers to
make its line of digital cameras, so the upstate New
York photography giant recently announced it is sending
this production to a manufacturing firm in
Singapore-marking the first time in more than a century
that the company would completely outsource the labor
and manufacture of a product.
Fellow New York manufacturing giants IBM and Xerox,
along with other businesses large and small, are also
turning to companies overseas where employees are geared
for creative design and technical production.
What this trend means for our students Workers require
more academic and technical education than ever before.
And employers are looking for their new hires to come to
them job-ready. In fact, most of today's jobs-from auto
mechanics to Internet Web design-require additional
training beyond high school, if not a two-year or
four-year college education. Of the 30 fastest-growing
occupations in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics'
2006-07 Occupational Outlook Handbook, only three list
short-term, on-the-job training as the most significant
source of post-secondary education or training.
Attendance is not a school elective To help better
prepare teens for the world of higher education and
work, the high school curriculum has become more
challenging and varied.
Additionally, the way teens learn is changing so it
better reflects the work world they'll soon enter. High
school students are being asked to collaborate on
long-term projects with their classmates both at school
and electronically with their peers in other locations.
They are also learning while using many of the same
types of technologies (e.g., Powerpoint presentation
software and desktop publishing) currently used in the
workplace. This type of learning takes dedication. And,
unlike simple memorizations of facts, which can be done
just about anywhere, teens need to be at school and
on-task each day to get the most from hands-on learning.
Unfortunately, a lot of teens have yet to get this
message. School administrators say that many teens are
not making regular attendance a priority. And, unless
teens are at school and ready to learn, there's not much
that teachers can do to help prepare them for the world
they are moving toward.
During the 2006 Union Pacific/Principals' Partnership
summer leadership institute, nearly 350 public high
school principals were asked, "As the 2006-07 school
year begins, what are the three most important actions a
family should take to assure success for its high school
student?" School attendance was one of the most
important factors in school success that respondents
noted.
"Attendance is directly related to successfully
completing high school. You can't drop in occasionally
and think that you can keep up," said one high school
principal. "Families need to get students to school.
We'll take responsibility for educating them once
they're here," said another.
Helping teens make school their TOP priority
Along with strong reading, writing, mathematics and
thinking skills, employers say they value work habits
such as attendance, timeliness and dedication. Regular
school attendance - especially when they'd rather not
make the effort - is one means of teaching teens these
all-important life skills.
Even though teens are moving toward young adulthood,
parents still have the ability to influence their
attitudes and behaviors. Here are some ways you can help
instill an ethic for attendance and school performance:
- Help teens
understand that the attitudes they develop now are
the ones they will carry into adulthood and can
limit or expand their personal and professional
options (e.g., If they repeatedly skip classes in
college they'll fail out and waste a lot of your
family's money. In a competitive workforce,
frequently skipping work can cost them their jobs.)
- Familiarize
yourself with the high school attendance policy. It
can help to have the letter of the law on your side
when trying to reason with teens.
- Institute a work
first/play later policy. School attendance and
schoolwork need to come before friends,
extracurriculars and part-time jobs. Sometimes, the
real reason teens are reluctant to go to school is
that they haven't finished assignments or
presentations or prepared well for tests.
- Encourage
reasonable bedtimes. On average, teens need eight to
nine hours of sleep to be healthy and alert. As they
move into the high school years, teens' brains begin
to signal them to stay up later-and to sleep in
later the next day. Also the draw of the Internet
and online conversations with friends can have teens
burning the midnight oil, making early morning
wake-ups and school start times difficult.
- Schedule medical
and other appointments during non-school hours
whenever possible. Arrange family vacations during
school holidays or the summer recess so that
students aren't missing important lessons and
struggling to make up for lost time.
For permission to reprint this article, please contact
the Capital Region BOCES Communications Service.
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