Attendance Spotlight: Hillsboro Updates
We are excited to share some inspiring updates from Lincoln Street Elementary School regarding ongoing efforts to support student attendance and engagement. At Greater Than, we know that every day in school matters, and we are committed to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to excel academically and socially.
Weekly Collaborative Efforts
Our Programs & Partners Administrator at Lincoln Street, along with the dean of students and a school counselor, meet weekly to review attendance data. During these meetings, we identify students who are below 90% attendance, paying special attention to those who are below 70%. Together, we analyze individual student situations, noting any factors contributing to low attendance, such as illness or transportation challenges.
Intervention Strategies
Our intervention process begins by reaching out to the teachers of students with low attendance, requesting their assistance in connecting with parents or legal guardians before the week concludes.
Recognizing transportation challenges faced by families, particularly those with multiple children or caregivers working late hours, we take proactive steps to support them. Our Program & Partners Administrator schedules motivational interviews with students, providing incentives such as snacks or lunch meetings with their friends to offer encouragement and support.
Community Partnerships
We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with the City of Hillsboro to launch a bike education event for Lincoln Street and Evergreen Middle School students. This initiative, tentatively scheduled for May, will provide over 60 bikes to students, offering a sustainable transportation option.
Exciting bike education event in partnership with the City of Hillsboro coming soon!
Prompting Positive Culture
At Lincoln Street, we’ve implemented creative strategies to promote a positive and welcoming school culture. We’ve created an attendance board that prominently displays student attendance by grade level, encouraging friendly competition and recognition for improvement.
At Evergreen Middle School, our Student Success Specialist goes above and beyond to support students by handing out goodie bags filled with candy and chips for students with good attendance.
Student Engagement Initiatives
We're thrilled to partner with Glencoe High School, where their students serve as volunteers at Lincoln Street, contributing to a warm and inclusive environment for our elementary school students. These volunteers:
Go the extra mile by greeting students at the door
Organize special events to foster a welcoming community
Conduct culture surveys to foster self-awareness and positive social interactions. Prompts used in the culture surveys include questions like: “When's a time a friend stood up for you or made you feel good?”
Additionally, our Glencoe volunteers have crafted thoughtful cards for students to commemorate special occasions like Winter Break, Valentine's Day, and Spring Break.
These initiatives help create a supportive and uplifting atmosphere for all students at Lincoln Street.
Visualizing Progress: LSES Attendance Board in Action!
Your support makes initiatives like these possible. Consider donating today to help us continue our work of promoting student attendance and engagement at Lincoln Street Elementary School and beyond.