Missing School = Missing Out!

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 75

Thank you so much for allowing us to use this grant to incentivize attendance.  We focused on 3rd grade, although some of our older students in credit recovery classes were rewarded as well for increased school involvement and attendance.  

Students who were at school on-time and did not check out early each week received 2 incentives:  1) a ticket for a weekly grand-prize drawing and 2) a prize from the incentives chest.  Students absolutley bought into this and teachers instantly saw improvement in attendance.  Along the way, students would be allowed "free-time" to play with the marble runs, basektballs, footballs, magnetic tiles, jenga sets etc. as an incentive for being at school all the time. 

Our culmination event will be held May 9 when all the students who received a ticket at anytime are allowed to play in a student/faculty kickball game.  They are really looking forward to this!

The overarching goal was to have students in class - all day everyday because Missing School is Missing Out.  3rd grade testing is happening now and we can't wait to see how their scores improved from the beginning of the year to the end.  

Below are some quotes from a couple of the 3rd grade teachers.

"Our third-grade attendance incentive was a huge success! The goal was to have students attending school all day every day without checking out early and/or coming to school tardy. Third grade teachers chose the month of April due to reviewing and preparing for our Florida FAST assessments. Students loved the rewards that they were given on each Friday afternoon for being present at school, not checking out early, or coming in tardy. The result of this incentive was:

· Students not wanting to miss school

· Students who have a habit of being tardy for school coming to school on time

· Students who habitually get checked out early stayed in school all day

· Increase in student effort

· Increase in student grades

· Increase in student motivation

Prior to this April Attendance Incentive, 2-5 students in my classroom checked out early on a regular basis. Early checkouts were reduced significantly during this past month. I am 100% sure that our award system for attendance was successful and had a positive impact on my classroom attendance."