You Get What You Grade For: Chronic Absenteeism Roils California’s Public Schools

Californians are confused by the sustained Chronic absenteism in public school students. Over 27,000 of the 98,000 were available in January 2023. San Diego Unified is home to 28% students, were considered chronically absent in California’s second-largest school district. This is an astonishing increase from levels pre-2020, which were stable over years and at about 10-12% of the student body. While lockdown and illness are past, many students remain at home. 

RSV, COVID and flu outbreaks are the most common explanations. A few data points show that this phenomenon is not caused by RSV, COVID or flu epidemics. Asian American students are at comparatively low risk of chronic absenteism (around 11.4% of the total statewide population), while African American students were at 42.5%. Diseases do not discriminate based on one’s race, so other factors must be at play.  

California’s establishment educational leaders puzzled by this phenomenon have resorted to their preferred methods of analysis, typically those involving more race categorizations, leading to more technocratic-oriented solutions that give more centralized power to bureaucrats. Many questions remain to be answered in the wake this fixation. 

I would like to draw your attention to a neglected variable: The grading policies set by California’s State and individual school districts.  

While we know that students who have not completed virtual learning or locked downs are now more behind than ever before, California is still graduating more students. Both of these factors should be taken into consideration. Students who have suffered a lot in recent years have now been exposed to the floodgates for accountability. 

They are being held to a new standard, possibly indefinitely. Nobody is even having a serious discussion about how to restore accountability for helping kids. The student groups most affected are those with the lowest incomes. They include the homeless, the disabled and the marginalized. This group is chronically absent at a rate exceeding 40%. The afflicted were more hurt than others, but those who are financially or culturally resilient, continue to pull ahead, almost always unscathed.    

San Diego Unified changed their grading policy in 2020. This transformed what was once an academic grade based on a 1-100 scale to a condensed 1-4 scale, with many of its contributing elements removed. In true Orwellian fashion this condensed scale was created. “standards-based grading” eliminates previous standards that were once factored into a student’s grade. A missing standard is particularly relevant in the rising incidence of absenteism. “citizenship” Students were previously held more holistically accountable for their grades. 

Presently, attendance, homework submission, and turning in homework are not factors in a grade. AB 104 was also passed statewide. Students can now remove D and F grades on their transcripts in order to report a pass/fail grade. Both grading mechanisms effectively lower the bar and allow for an easy exit for those who desire one.  

Every teacher knows that students have a remarkable ability to determine where their attention should be directed to achieve a desired grade. They will follow the path of least resistance, and they will succeed. This is similar to how adults behave in the market for goods, services, or jobs. 

Getting students to love learning more than they value a grade has been a perennial challenge of grading systems, which, while never perfect, did traditionally move students towards proficiency and knowledge in a way these new grading systems don’t.

Under San Diego’s new “standards-based grading,” This proficiency often shows up in a 3 of 4 grade. Many students with high academic achievement find the 4th grade impossible to reach. Students with less ambition will find that the 2nd out of the 4 grade is seldom used as a punishment instrument, so they are also incorporated into 3 out 4 grade holders. We have managed to achieve grading “equity” This transformation of students to one common mass of scores of 3 has been achieved. The graduates are now absorbed into one another and undistinguishable.

This illustrates how ideologically driven ideas can quickly and decisively impede reality. You can see the direct result if you remove the incentive for students to learn and participate in grading. “economic” The result was thousands of children staying home.

The good news? Average daily attendance is the primary variable that holds California edu-power responsible. Districts get funding based upon attendance. This means that they cannot lose money long term. It is unacceptable that students are being sent to private charter schools, and large numbers of students staying home, to continue losing students.