Expanding What We Know and Can
Do Together
A recent report from the Fordham Institute found that “a broad set of family SES (Socio-economic status) factors explains a substantial portion of racial achievement gaps: between 34 and 64 percent of the Black-White gap and between 51 and 77 percent of the Hispanic-White gap, depending on the subject and grade level.” These gaps have long challenged national reform efforts and are consistent with performance measures seen in Shelby County school systems. To address factors that are primarily outside of the context and sphere of control a broad and inclusive set of strategies should be deployed to improve outcomes - data-sharing and integration enable this type of work to happen.
Seeding Success has a long history of such projects and is proud to partner with its charter and district partners to develop these solutions. Such efforts include:
The impact of summer literacy programs
The longitudinal impact of Books from Birth
Family supports to address chronic absenteeism
The impact of housing stability on educational outcomes
Targeting health interventions to reduce asthma-related absences
Increasing the rate of vision screenings and prescriptions
FAFSA completion
Improving the delivery of support services for families experiencing poverty
The impact of community schools
These projects often help uncover critical policy changes that shift baselines.
Since our first chronic absenteeism analysis in 2015, for example, the State of TN has decided to include students who are chronically absent—missing 10 or more school days a year—as an accountability metric, ensuring districts prioritize this key indicator in their day-to-day operations.
Knowing the rates is necessary, but insufficient, to addressing chronic absenteeism. Using its own data, a district can look at attendance patterns and understand who is and is not chronically absent. But, because we know that a lot of school outcomes, such as grades, test scores, behavior, graduation, and attendance, are partially driven by out-of-school SES factors, we will never have a systematic understanding of chronic absenteeism without more data that helps explain why students are missing school. How can a district and individual schools marshall their limited resources and build the best partnerships to make sure students are in school and learning?
Enter cross-sectional data: by connecting its data (while complying with data and privacy laws) to partners who support families and students, MSCS and its partners can share accountability to reduce the barriers to attendance many families face. Sharing data deepens our understanding of the issues, supports coordination of effort, and allows for rapid response to changing conditions. Practically speaking, it tells the district and its partners how to align their programs and resources to address the most salient and moveable barriers to school attendance, or any other issue with multiple causes.
Another live example: over the past few years, Seeding Success has worked with MSCS, Innovate Memphis, Enterprise Community Partners, and others to analyze how housing stability affects school attendance. This work relied on connecting data across systems (MSCS data with publicly available housing and eviction data). This work has sophisticated the district’s and partners’ understanding of the relationship between eviction filings, attendance, and chronic absenteeism. And, this data work has the potential to galvanize action: If we find that housing instability depresses attendance, then the systems that strive for a healthy housing market, housing affordability, neighborhood stability, and those charged with educating our children must coordinate.
