Students who miss school miss out on important opportunities to learn more and achieve higher. Metro Schools knows the importance of attendance, so for National Attendance Awareness month, MNPS decided to celebrate with a friendly competition across our elementary and middle schools.
Dr. Carol Lampkin-Brown, Director of Attendance Services, and her team wanted to create a campaign where students could creatively express themselves while also sharing the campaign's message and theme that Attendance Matters.
Elementary school students were asked to design a poster, while middle school scholars could record and put together a video. Both the posters and the videos were to creatively convey the importance of daily attendance.
"We loved seeing all the creative posters and videos from our students that displayed their perspective on how much attending school every day matters for their social and emotional development as well as their overall academic growth," Brown said.
Poor attendance creates significant learning gaps and inhibits the many valuable opportunities and resources consistent schooling presents to students. A student who misses just two days per month, every month is considered chronically absent and is less likely to graduate. By the third grade, their chronic absenteeism has led to a 50-day learning gap and more than a quarter of a school year. By the time this student graduates, they have missed 140 days, almost a full year of education.
Regular and daily school attendance is critical to the development and education of students, and MNPS students showed this through their creations for this campaign.
Middle School Attendance Matters Competition
MNPS middle school students showed their creative abilities through technology by creating fun and engaging videos that embody the importance of showing up to school. Margaret Allen Middle School, the school that won first place, created a video explaining the importance of showing up in the classroom and urging us to come together and support one another through a song they wrote.
Congratulations to the middle schools that won best videos: 1st place: Margaret Allen Middle School; 2nd Place: Antioch Middle School; 3rd Place: Jere Baxter Middle School
Elementary School Attendance Matters Competition
MNPS elementary schools created colorful and fun posters that showed things such as the consequence of not coming to school, the things we miss and the many advantages of good attendance.
Congratulations to the MNPS elementary students awarded the best creative posters.
- 1st Place: Group poster submission from 5th graders Simon St. Marie, Crosby Williams, Canaan Gibbs, Sam Ashely and Owen Gunn at Sylvan Park Elementary
- 2nd Place: Tie between 5th grader Derrick Chudasama at Alex Green and 4th grader Kleo Currie at Sylvan Park Elementary
- 3rd Place: 3rd grader Nicole Alfaro at Mt. View Elementary
Elementary Honorable Mentions
- Mrs. Bridgewater's 2nd grade class, Una Elementary
- Mrs. Martin's 2nd grade class, Una Elementary
- Ms. Pincheon's 1st grade class, Thomas Edison
- Luciano Henao, Park Avenue Elementary
- Jace Southall, Park Avenue Elementary
- Kayson Jones, Park Avenue Elementary
"We will continue to promote the importance of daily attendance throughout the year to ensure all students and families are aware of the connection between attendance and academic achievement. Additionally, we want to make sure all stakeholders are informed of the supportive resources that are available to remove the barriers students may be facing to attending school all day, every day! We are here to help and serve all MNPS scholars because Attendance Matters," Brown said.
Students who are present in school progress faster than students that are absent or late. Metro Schools wants the best for our students and their families, and also recognizes there are many reasons why students miss school. MNPS has made attendance one of its focused outcomes, one of the main goals of the district. Literacy, numeracy, social-emotional learning, transition preparation and graduation are also focused outcomes from MNPS.
Schools offer a wide range of programs and services to support students and families, in and out of the classroom. Please reach out to the Family Information Center to learn more.