St. Charles School District to Focus on Attendance in 2013

St. Charles school leaders will focus on improving student attendance in 2013-14 school year.
The scores for the 2012 Annual Performance Review were released Friday. The St. Charles School District got 86.8 percent of the 140 points available leaving it shy of the 90 percent needed to rate accredited with distinction.
The rating is comprised of a number of things from academic achievement to graduation rate to attendance, an area in which the St. Charles School District lost points this year.
Superintendent Jeff Marion said that attendance is one of the hardest areas for the district to influence.
"We're not in the home, we can't make someone leave in the morning," Marion said. "We can do our best to make sure they know someone wants them at school."
Absenteeism is the biggest problem at the secondary level, he said. The district relies on counselors, principals and school resource officers to follow up and talk with students when they are out of school. In addition, the district is working with the juvenile court on the issue.
Overall, Marion said the district is on the right track.
"If we could just get a handle on attendance, we'd be almost at the 90 percent needed to have accreditation with distinction," he said.
Looking at just academic achievement, the district received 93 percent of the possible points. He said he considers this the most important indicator because it measures whether kids are learning what they need to learn when they graduate.
"There's a lot of positives, we've got to keep working on that," he said. "It's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm real confident we're heading in the right direction."
Marion said Lincoln Elementary School, the school where Standards Based Grading was first introduced, has been very successful. SBG has been expanded to the other schools in the district and will gradually be used at all grade levels.
"I think we've seen a lot of movement," he said.