Chronic absenteeism remains a widespread challenge in schools across the country, but in Wisconsin, Racine Unified School District’s Julian Thomas Elementary and Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School are demonstrating that innovative, data-driven approaches can make a difference.
Using Panorama Education’s data platform to monitor attendance, student well-being, and academic performance, schools in Racine USD equip educators with valuable insights that enable them to design targeted strategies that tackle absenteeism at its root. The district relies on Panorama’s platform as a one-stop shop when it comes to data. The platform lets school and district leaders drill down to grade- and classroom-level data to examine attendance, grades, behaviors, and SEL components.
After joining Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School as the academy principal, Jason Paproth started digging into the school’s attendance data and discovered that while building attendance was between 83 and 84 percent, Black student attendance was 13 percent lower than white and Hispanic student attendance. So, school staff set about changing that trend and turned to the real-time data collected via Panorama’s platform to begin.
“I took that on right away,” Paproth said. “Attendance was a problem district-wide, and the district supported us in creating attendance teams. When I look at students struggling with attendance, Panorama guides the interventions I want to use.”
Those interventions can address a multitude of factors contributing to attendance, such as a student’s sense of belonging–something research has shown is a critical part of academic success. Panorama defines student belonging as “the extent to which students feel that they are valued members of their school’s community,” and its Social-Emotional Learning Survey is one research-backed tool district educators use to identify opportunities for student growth and to celebrate student success.
For example, if a student has rated their sense of belonging at 0 or 1 and also exhibits low attendance, Paproth assigns a mentor to work with that student as part of an overall intervention plan to boost that student’s well-being and encourage better attendance.
“Having the data and the number of things you can pull from that data–it’s just incredible,” Paproth said. “We can look academically, behaviorally, attendance-wise to see if students are trending in the right or wrong direction. It’s real-time data you can use immediately. The AI feature can show me all 8th grade students who are chronically absent who also have a zero for their sense of belonging.”
The district’s challenges with student attendance are not unique–across the nation, chronic absenteeism is one of education’s top challenges.
“We conducted research across 7,000 schools and over 11 million students and found that schools can directly influence a student’s likelihood of being chronically absent by as much as 22 percent,” said Douglas Coulter, Panorama’s Director of Data Science. “When looking at schools using our surveys, we found factors correlated with chronic absenteeism shift by age: for elementary schools, feeling safe at school is the strongest predictor of attendance; for middle schools, it’s about school climate and whether students feel a sense of belonging; and for high schools, attendance is tied to social connectedness and the ability to set goals, plan, and manage time. Schools that recognize these patterns–like those in Racine–are using data-driven approaches to address absenteeism in ways that truly resonate with their students, leading to real, measurable improvements.”
First steps are critical
Using data to meet students and their families where they are, and to make attending school fun, go a long way in the effort to improve attendance, said Emma Baertlein, a social worker at Julian Thomas Elementary.
“As a district, we noticed that attendance was declining, and our attendance teams bring the issue to the forefront to address concerns,” Baertlein said. “The Panorama data has been great in enabling us to get more specific information on a student, including SEL components and how students are doing overall.” This data informs educators as they craft attendance plans based on a student’s individual data and needs, she noted.
“The first step is collecting reliable data to gain an early understanding of what factors are likely to contribute to a student being absent, such as using a research backed survey to assess some of these critical life skills/competencies. Schools that take a proactive, data-driven approach can pinpoint what’s working and what’s not. Take Racine–they were able to make a tangible impact on students by gathering the data, understanding it, and then taking action,” Coulter added.
“Meeting the family where they are [is critical],” Baertlein said. “Having teachers involved, having a social worker step in, showing how much we care about the students and care about them being here. It helps the family know how much we want them here, and it helps students with a sense of belonging. Positive communication with families is key.”
“Once schools understand the root causes of absenteeism, they can focus on creating a safer, more supportive, and engaging environment. Implementing school safety programs through activities like creative writing lessons and modeling conflict resolution techniques can help younger students build empathy and positive social skills,”Coulter said. “Providing safe spaces and coping tools, along with regular check-ins, ensures students feel supported. Training staff in a resilience informed approach–such as maintaining predictable routines and fostering strong relationships–can also help create a more stable learning environment. For high school students, building strong student-teacher relationships is key. When students feel that their teachers genuinely care about their success, they are more likely to show up and stay engaged.”
“You have to get on it right away,” Paproth said. In Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School, teachers call a student’s home after that student has missed two days of school, but they make the phone call positive, asking parents and caregivers how the school can support the student. Phone calls like that often shed light on personal information administrators may not have known about, such as challenging family or work dynamics, and they lead to open conversations designed with the student’s attendance and success at the heart of the discussion.
“When parents know we want their kids here, they’re more open to communicate. We look at attendance from a positive lens: We want your child here; how do we get them here? When you start the year with that mindset, it will get you off to a good start,” Paproth added.
Return on investment
Improvements in student attendance can be linked to data-informed decisions–and how the schools celebrate students when they come to school.
At Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School, chronic absenteeism decreased by 3 percent, and Black student attendance has increased by 13 percent since the school started using attendance teams and analyzing attendance data.
Julian Thomas Elementary has observed an 8 percent reduction in student absences through careful interventions and incentives based on what Panorama’s data revealed about student attendance.
A duck pull at Julian Thomas Elementary is the latest draw for students to maintain attendance–if a student is absent for 2 days or less, they can participate in a monthly duck pull.
“We hold the duck pull on Tuesdays because our Panorama data revealed that Tuesdays are our least-attended day of the week,” Baertlein said. “We use it as an incentive to come on Tuesday. The kids love it–they know where their attendance is and if they’ll make the duck pull that month. We’ve seen an 8 percent reduction in absences.”
Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School motivates students with in-building celebrations and events, including field trips, quarterly dances, and bike raffles, all linked to student attendance.
“We know our lowest attendance weeks are those leading to holidays, such as Thanksgiving and spring break,” Paproth said. “We hold grade-level homeroom challenges with ice cream or a pizza party as a reward.” This year, the school saw great success, with student attendance about 6 percent higher in 8th grade.
“The intervention you’re using, the reward, has to be what the kids want, not what we as educators want,” Paproth said. “We’ve asked our kids what they would like if they came to school every day for 2 weeks–McDonald’s, a new backpack–it has to be student-specific if you want it to be successful. Our kids are unique, with their own challenges and successes.”
“It’s really about the kids coming to school and having fun, getting to experience things and earning positive rewards,” Baertlein added.
“Last year, we had eliminated all discrepancies related to race and attendance,” Paproth said. “Getting that data in front of our support staff, teachers, counselors, social workers–everybody has a hand in getting kids in our building. That team approach and getting that data [are critical]. That data is in front of everybody; we talk about it biweekly. It’s really at the front of everything we’re doing right now. If our kids aren’t in the building, they’re not learning.”
For more on student attendance, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub.
Chronic absenteeism remains a widespread challenge in schools across the country, but in Wisconsin, Racine Unified School District’s Julian Thomas Elementary and Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School are demonstrating that innovative, data-driven approaches can make a difference. District Management, Educational Leadership, Featured on eSchool News, Profiles in Innovation, data, design, district, educators, middle school, school, schools, student eSchool News
