Walton Education Foundation

During the 2023-2024 school year, our goal is to increase student attendance across all grade levels. An underlying aspect of improvement is that grades will also increase.

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Missing School = Missing Out!

School:
Paxton School 
Subject:
Low Performing Students 
Teacher:
Samie Wright 
 
Amanda Varnum 
Students Impacted:
787 
Grade:
PreK-12 
Date:
October 4, 2023

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

 

CHELCO - Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative - $1,096.13

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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."

 

 

 
"Using the rewards for students who came to school on time, every day, all day each week, kept students motivated to not only come to school but to stay at school all day. Students did not want to check out, instead they were asking his/her parents to not check them out for appointments. They also loved the element of surprise, not knowing what they would get at the end of each week. One of my students earned a big prize, and she said it's the only thing she has ever won! She was one of the students who typically miss about once a week, and thanks to this wonderful attendance system she was able to win one of the bigger prizes due to her coming to school all week long! A typical Friday, I would have 5-6 students check out and this past Friday I had only 1 student check out. "

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Weekly Grand-Prize Winner

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Attendance was a focus in 3rd grade

 

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Weekly incentive prizes

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Weekly Grand-Prize Winner

 

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Free-time to be creative

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Building during free-time

 

Original Grant Overview

Goal

During the 2023-2024 school year, our goal is to increase student attendance across all grade levels. An underlying aspect of improvement is that grades will also increase.  

 

What will be done with my students

To meet this goal, we create an incentives closet with items students may earn for little to no absences. Students will also earn schoolwide recognition with attendance parties. By having tangible items available and attainable, students work hard to achieve them. During the nine weeks, we will monitor attendance. Once the reporting period ends, students who meet the goal will earn prizes such as a pancake breakfast, school-wide recognition, awards from the incentives closet, a water gun fight, and a kickball game with the faculty.  

 

Benefits to my students

Positive behavior support systems are research-based and have a long track record of changing behavior. Our school incentives closet is a part of our process of changing attendance rates to benefit our students. Students benefit from this grant in numerous ways:
1. Earn tangible rewards for achievement
2. With higher attendance, grades will increase
3. Faculty builds a positive, caring relationship with students
4. Students become responsible for their reward 

 

Budget Narrative

All items from this budget come directly from student responses and requests. The number next to each item is the quantity. All items will be rewarded through the incentives closet or earned recognition based on attendance. Vendor items are all from Amazon, and the total does not include shipping.  

 

Items

# Item Cost
1 Indoor Basketball Hoop $29.99
2 Magnetic Pen Fidget (5) $69.95
3 Formable Fidget Spinner (3) $41.97
4 Caliart Acrylic Paint Set $25.99
5 Large Jenga Game (2) $67.98
6 Small Jenga Game (3) $29.91
7 175 Piece Art Set $35.99
8 Wilson Football (3) $50.85
9 Spalding Basketball (3) $128.91
10 Yazo Shoe Charm $9.99
11 Pencil Topper Decoration $5.99
12 Puzzle Erasers $21.99
13 Lego Creator Helicopter $15.99
14 Lego City Police Car $7.00
15 Lego City Fire Engine $6.49
16 Magnetic Building Blocks $24.99
17 Toss and Catch Paddle Ball Set (3) $83.97
18 Meland Marble Run (2) $113.97
19 Klutz Lego Gear Bot (3) $59.73
20 Lego Gadgets (3) $58.56
21 Boley Crayon Super Soaker - 12 Pk (3) $80.97
22 Champion Sport Kickball $26.99
23 Champion Sports Throwdown Base $16.99
24 Boley 5 Barrel Water Blasters - 4 Pk (3) $80.97
  Total: $1,096.13

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Special Thanks to Our Presenting Partners

CHELCO

The Alys Foundation

St. Joe Community Foundation

Florida Power & Light

30a10k