A few weeks ago I wrote about a study that showed that Madison public schools are underperforming both state and national averages for math scores. And while everyone is bouncing back a bit after COVID, Madison students’ improvement has severely lagged.
Now comes a Wisconsin State Journal report on absenteeism. It’s bad everywhere but again worse in Madison. The three charts below, from the State Journal story written by reporter Chris Rickert, compare Madison to Middleton and Sun Prairie.
Absenteeism is particularly bad for Black and Hispanic kids in all three districts, but it’s much worse in Madison. Absenteeism for Black students is at 63% in Madison, 51% in Sun Prairie and 54% in Middleton. And while the trends are improving in Middleton and have stabilized in Sun Prairie, they’re still getting worse in Madison.
And this in a district governed by a school board that is just absolutely obsessed with issues of race and gender. Clearly, whether we look at test scores or other measures, like kids just showing up, what MMSD is doing isn’t working. How are high absentee rates and low math achievement helping kids of color?
We won’t get a change at the board level. Two incumbent board members will get new terms in April because — speaking of showing up — nobody is running against them. There is some hope that a new superintendent, Joe Gothard, will help. We’ll see. I’m a bit concerned that Gothard is locked into the same identity-obsessed policies that have gotten us nowhere to this point. But at least compared to his predecessor Gothard has a history of showing up.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Hi Dave – I can tell you were not a parent. I can tell you don’t communicate much with teachers. I am a parent and spouse of an elementary school teacher. The problem of chronic absenteeism by non-white parents is a culture issue and a labor force issue. The school board cannot fix either of these things. Frankly, policies of MMSD cannot solve either of these things. parents need to value school. Parents also need to see their children. Sometimes they make the choice to spend time with their child in the morning or all day rather than send them to school. Or they make the choice to keep their child up late because they don’t get home from work until 10 PM. So they let their kids sleep in so they get some rest. Then they’re late for school. It’s regrettable that choice has to be made…. But I get it. I have a unusual job that requires some days, some nights, some weekends. From your upper middle-class perch, you probably don’t get it. If you look around and see who’s cleaning office buildings at night, who’s working fast food, who’s working kitchens of restaurants, who’s working gas stations… That’s mostly people of color. They are working while you are off if you work a typical middle or upper middle class white collar job. They are off while school is in session. Do you know that chronic absenteeism only takes the equivalent of a couple of weeks worth of non-attendance? Let’s say you choose to keep your kid home once even every couple of weeks in order to see them… That’s chronic absenteeism. Yes, it probably does lead to learning loss. But also, maybe it’s essential for a functioning family system, and for a kid to not feel abandoned by their parent.
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Liz, I don’t buy your argument at all. It doesn’t matter how difficult a job is. Parenting requires doing hard things even when you’re tired. My parents worked hard. They were tired a lot of the time. I never missed school. You’re making excuses for people. Dave
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Dave, I don’t even get your answer at all. What I am saying is a child is perhaps watched by an older sibling between the hours of 4pm and bedtime. Or a neighbor or a friend. The parent comes home after bedtime due to their work schedule. (Do you go to Walgreens on E Washington at 9pm? If you don’t… go see who works those shifts. Or the kitchen at any mainstream restaurant. How bout Qdoba? ) The child goes to school between 745 and 8:30 AM. The child comes home from school at 4 PM. The parent is at work. The parent comes home from work at 10 or 11 PM. Repeat, repeat, repeat. If the parent wants to see the child, the choices are: change jobs ( which jobs are 8-4 or 9-5? Not everyone’s jobs- see above);Keep your child up way past appropriate bedtime ( result: late to school, sleeping in class). Keep your child home from school in the morning for awhile; Keep your child home from school all day on occasion; not see your child; See child only on weekends provided you don’t work weekends. It isn’t about parents being tired. It’s about the hours that the child is home and parent is home. Your reply about your parents indicates again that you don’t understand the modern workforce situation. Give it a day and a re- read before you reply again if you would.
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No really, Liz, I don’t need a day to consider your arguments. I understood you the first time. I just disagree with you. My point is that kids showing up at school should be a parental priority. You do whatever is necessary to make that happen because if you don’t your kids fail.
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