More Research and Expert Opinion

For some of us, the winter weather may seem interminable, but the reality is that spring is just around the corner! However, as the weather gets nicer, it may seem increasingly difficult to motivate students to show up to school. It’s not just you: it’s the Spring Slide. This phenomenon refers to what we all feel fairly intuitively: a decrease in student attendance in the spring semester. Looking for tips to help you get ahead of the Spring Slide phenomenon? Join us for a thirty minute session dedicated to this very topic!

Better attendance strongly hinges on better family engagement. And better family engagement rests heavily on relationships and outreach that can be time intensive for the already time-strapped educator. That’s why both our district partners and the families they serve are especially appreciative of the family support we provide on their behalf. In this post, we’ll explore some insights and trends we’ve seen from conversations that our Family Support Team have had with families across the nation.

In a recent piece from NPR’s On Point, educators, caretakers, and attendance experts weigh in the absenteeism challenges they face. Our Chief Scientist & co-founder Dr. Todd Rogers pops in around the 32 minute mark to share more about the research behind our attendance nudges and truancy notices.

Strong family-school partnerships are critical to better attendance and student outcomes. But building these authentic relationships isn’t easy. In our continued work to better support educators and the families and students they serve, we regularly survey families across the country to learn more about their experiences. If you’re looking to freshen up your communications and help more families and students get to school every day, read on for some great insights!

In a country where every student not only has the right to a free public education, but is also required to attend regularly, it’s no wonder that education is always a hot topic in the political realm. But over the last couple years, culture war and school choice disagreements have taken precedence over an arguably more pressing issue: a startling amount of students are simply not showing up to school to begin with. In this post, we’ll explore how states have been working to understand the challenge, broadcast the importance of attendance, strategically invest in solutions, and effectively incentivize communities to make the shifts necessary for student success.