Di-Naviya Ray, 18, works on an algebra problem with Mr. David, who asked that his last name not be used, at Dewey Academy in Oakland on May 15. She is one of 93 students who participated in this year’s Equitable Design Project. year.
Hannah Poukish/Special to the Chronicle
A few months ago, Ashley Cruz barely came to school. The high school junior felt frustrated by the frequent fights with students in her classes and constantly argued with her teachers. She couldn’t bear the drama, so she stopped coming to class.
Cruz showed up three days a week at most.
Ultimately, she fell too far behind in classes to continue at Oakland High. She transferred to Dewey Academy, an alternative high school in the Oakland Unified School District, in hopes of making up lost credits and getting back on track to graduate next year.
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There she found the motivation to come to class, in the form of weekly $50 checks.
In early March, Cruz and 92 other Oakland Unified high school students enrolled in a pilot program designed to reduce skyrocketing absenteeism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2023-2024 school year, nearly 32% of the district’s students were chronically absent, defined as missing at least 1 in 10 days of school.
To get students back into classrooms, Oakland Unified decided to try a simple solution: Pay students for perfect attendance.
How it works
The Equitable Design Project, which just completed its second pilot year at Oakland Unified, gives students $50 every Friday if they attend classes five days a week. If high school students are late, cancel class or don’t go to school at all, they lose money for the week.
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For the past two years, the pilot program has run during the last ten weeks of the school year. Each day, enrolled students were required to check in and out of school through a brief meeting with a key adult. They also completed a brief assessment about their mental health and classroom experience once a week.
School administrators at seven different Oakland Unified high schools enrolled students who had a history of severe chronic absenteeism. Most students identified as African American or Latino, and many were unhoused or in unstable living conditions.
The program aimed to increase students’ presence and connectedness at school. Encouraging students to attend class can help maintain a routine for some program participants, said Zaia Vera, project leader and director of social-emotional learning at Oakland Unified.
“The money is a hook that allows them to go to school. It is the relationships, being valued, that keeps students in school,” she said.
Oakland Unified tracked student outcomes, but they were unable to provide a rigorous data analysis of the program. Officials are optimistic the program has been a success, but there isn’t yet strong evidence to support that.
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Di-Naviya Ray, 18, meets Azlinah Tambu, the transition specialist at Dewey Academy, during algebra class on May 15. Ray participated in the Equitable Design Project this year and said the weekly $50 checks motivated her to get to class on time.
Hannah Poukish/Special to the ChronicleChronic absenteeism experts say research shows districts need multiple approaches to get more kids into the classroom. Any truant student may have a plethora of reasons why attending school is a constant challenge, and COVID-19 has only exacerbated this problem.
Strengthening the bond between students and school is part of the solution to reducing chronic absenteeism. Last spring, state lawmakers asked the Policy Analysis for California Education, a research center led by Stanford University faculty, to recommend strategies to encourage students to return to school. The center identified five issues that can make schools critical to improving attendance: meeting students’ basic needs, creating a safe school environment, engaging students in learning, helping students feel valued feeling at school and building meaningful relationships between students and school adults.
Chronic absenteeism at Oakland Unified
Chronic absenteeism has plagued Oakland Unified and schools across California since before the pandemic, though COVID-19 worsened the situation. While many districts experienced high rates of chronic absenteeism after the pandemic, Oakland saw an alarming increase. A whopping 61% of Oakland Unified students missed at least 1 in 10 days of school in 2022-2023, compared to 32% in 2018-2019.
A recent study from the American Enterprise Institute found that students who are frequently absent are struggling to recover from learning loss due to the pandemic and are at greater risk of failing classes and dropping out of high school. In addition to children being harmed, district budgets are also hurt by chronic absenteeism because government funding is tied to daily attendance.
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The most recent statewide data from the 2022-2023 school year shows that 25% of students remain chronically absent, compared to 12% of students in the year prior to the pandemic.
Among the Bay Area’s largest school districts, Fremont Unified had a lower rate with just 13% of students absent, while San Francisco and San Jose Unified were nearly on par with all of California at 26%.
New data from this year shows that Oakland Unified has cut its absenteeism rate by nearly half to 32%, but is still higher than the state average.
The district has thrown several incentives at students to entice them back to the classroom. It distributed gift certificates, T-shirts and Golden State Warriors tickets for participation achievements and provided many students with backpacks and essential school supplies. Case managers conducted home visits and check-ins for students with serious attendance issues. The district’s African American Male Achievement project has also sought to improve academic and life outcomes for Black students.
Administrators saw success in one-on-one meetings with students, where they were able to explore the individual challenges students faced in attending school.
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During distance learning, the idea of school changed from a place where a student showed up every day to a virtual environment where children logged in. Many parents started working from home and lost their usual routines of dropping children off at school while on their way to work. For some students and parents, it became less convenient to go to school, an old habit that was forgotten.
Robert White Jr., center, meets two students during lunch at Dewey Academy in Oakland on May 15. He is one of the key adults who helped run the Equitable Design Project this year.
Hannah Poukish/Special to the ChronicleAfter COVID-19, families prioritized health and well-being. Now, many parents are less likely to send their students to school if they show signs of illness, even if the symptoms are mild.
Some students have also started working while attending school via Zoom and don’t want to give up the income they need.
A new plan
AJ Goines, who helps high school students navigate academics, attendance and social-emotional growth in Oakland Unified, witnessed high school students struggling in recent years with issues beyond the district’s ability to solve.
“There are families and students where there are enormous barriers that cause truancy. … Literally, “I don’t have money for the bus,” or in some cases, “I don’t have a good coat, and it’s cold and it’s raining,” he said. “Those were the things we just didn’t have the answers for.”
In response, Goines and Vera created the Equitable Design Project, believing that $50 a week could be enough of an incentive.
The program uses funds from a $200,000 grant from Education First, a national education policy organization, with funding from the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and the NoVo Foundation.
After nearly three years of planning, the district enrolled 45 students from three Oakland Unified schools in the first pilot program in March 2023. Nearly half of those enrolled identified as homeless and all were students of color.
This year, the program has been expanded to seven school locations and doubled in size to almost 100 students. Most students decided to save or spend the $50 they earned on toiletries, food or gas.
But for some students, weekly checkups were still not enough to overcome the burdens at home. Many still struggled with transportation issues, housing instability, or watching younger siblings during the day.
“There are so many things happening to different kids at home, outside of school, that exceed the education they’re getting,” said Jenell Marshall, an English teacher at MetWest High School involved in the program.
Of the seven students Marshall helped enroll and mentor in the program this year, only three consistently attended.
Others thought the program might be more successful if it started earlier in the school year, rather than in the last ten weeks. The program has only run during this period for the past two years because management and funding were not prepared in time for an August start date.
“The sooner we get support or the sooner we get support from students. That really helps at the beginning of the school year,” said Carmen Jimenez, a key adult and community education manager at Fremont High School.
Hannah Poukish is a freelance writer.
