National Afterschool Association 24th Annual National Convention: Day 1, Part 1

For the first time ever, I attended the National Afterschool Association (NAA) Annual Convention held in Grapevine, Texas.The weather is beautiful, the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center is AMAZING and I am somewhat prepared for the information overload.

Workshops I attended on Monday, April 2, 2012:

Morning - Attendance Matters: Afterschool Can Improve School Day Attendance presented by Ellie Mitchell, Maryland Out of School Time Network and Kacy Conley, Pennsylvania Statewide Afterschool/Youth Development Network

Workshop Blurb: Chronic absence from school has a negative affect on student achievement and outcomes. Research indicates regular participation in out of school time programs can improve attendance. The workshop will offer practical strategies to strengthen program and school day attendance practice.

Lessons Learned:

• Students should miss no more than 9 days of school each year to stay engaged, successful and on track to graduation.
• Absences can be a sign that a student is losing interest in school, struggling with school work, dealing with a bully or facing some other potentially serious difficulty.
• By 6th grade, absenteeism is one of three signs that a student may drop out of high school.
• By 9th grade, regular and high attendance is a better predictor of graduation rates than 8th grade test scores.
• Missing 10%, or about 18 days. of the school year can drastically affect a student's academic success.
• Students can be chronically absent even if they only miss a day or two every few weeks.
• Attendance is an important life skill that will help a child graduate from college and keep a job.
• Most schools only track Average Daily Attendance and Truancy. Both can mask Chronic Attendance.

Practical Strategies:

1) Create a culture of attendance starting in your afterschool program -

• Take roll everyday in s caring/creative manner
• Reach out to students/families with poor attendance
• Make the case to students, parents and referring teachers about the benefits of participating regularly in afterschool
• Establish and communicate clear expectations about regular attendance
• Offer incentives for attendance
• Analyze program attendance data to identify areas in need of improvement; involve youth in program planning.

2) Request and use school day attendance data -

• Ask schools if they can provide names of chronically absent students to target recruitment.
• Ask for data on levels of chronic absence for schools overall, grade and ethnic population to identify areas of program expansion/outreach.
• Find out partner schools are already doing about chronic absence and join school-based teams that address attendance.
• Seek parent/guardian consent to see attendance and grades.
• Regularly get data on in-school attendance for program participants (report cards or data sharing agreement with school).
• Identify if program is serving students with problematic attendance.
• Talk with school partners about working together to assist poor attenders.
• Refer students and parents to additional support services.

Other considerations:

• Peer to Peer Influence - engage youth as ambassadors for attendance, support and facilitate youth led campaigns.
• Use a family focused event to educate parents/guardians about chronic absence and the importance of attendance.
• Consider including education about common health problems (i.e. asthma) in after school program and build partnerships with health providers.
• Homeless/foster care youth and youth with disabilities have more attendance challenges.

My Thoughts - 
I can honestly say that at times during these presentations I kept forgetting that this was about after school programs. It seemed like the information was geared towards actual school programs, but some of these programs are actually in the schools. Being in the schools is something that I would like to eventually happen, so it's possible that I might encounter this situation. I chose this workshop because it ties in to the mentored Program Planning and Evaluation course I'm taking this semester. TWZ plans to conduct weeks-long workshops, so we plan to make it known that if students sign up for a workshop, they need to come every week to build on information covered during the previous week. One of the strategies was to "offer incentives for attendance." Since the outcome will be a tangible product (published book that will include a public reading and book release party), I would hope that that would be incentive enough to attend each week and see the process through until the end.

I also think that Strategy #2, the sharing of data between schools and after school programs, is very important during the evaluation process. One of the programs that I hope to offer at TWZ is the Write Mentor: juniors and seniors who maintain a specific GPA will be partnered one-on-one with a professional writer for a whole semester. This will be seen as a privilege and the only way for a student to participate is to uphold a certain GPA. This will also hold true for any youth who have a seat on the BoD and the Youth Advisory Council. This type of data sharing will be very useful during the grant process.

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Mid-Morning: General Session and Keynote Address
Truths, Lies and an Opportunity, presented by Jim Harris, MSW, Ed.S, Opportunities Consulting Services, LLC.

Keynote Blurb: If you work with youth today you don't need anyone to tell you that it can be overwhelming to say the least. Even the most resilient professionals may find themselves paralyzed by the complexities of today's society. In this presentation Jim gets back tot he basics about our work with young people. He confronts the hard facts of working with youth by providing you with a perspective that will help you see the importance of your work on a daily basis. You will walk away from this session with some good laughs and your "batteries" recharged!

Lessons Learned:

Truth #1 - Kids are designed to upset you!

Truth #2 - You are designed to outsmart kids!

Lie #1 - We are a second rate professional! 

• Learned Helplessness is our arch-nemesis 

Lie #2 - We are in the miracle business!

• True success comes from real-life moments
• The Law of the Nudge - changes that occur in small, seemingly insignificant ways

The Opportunity - is to serve youth

My Thoughts:  

Jim told some really great personal stories and when the blurb said that the session would have some "good laughs", they were definitely delivered. I have yet to encounter the "learned helplessness" that Jim talked about, but I know that that statement really resonated with the other attendees. So many obstacles can block your path, the push-back on a professional level, parental-level, etc., and being beaten over the head with "can't, can't, can't", that you start to wonder if you're really making--or can ever--make a difference in a young person's life. But Jim tells us that we are, and we can, but it's not going to happen right away. It's going to start slow, build over time, until the end result will be HUGE(i.e. high school diploma, entrance to college, or in my case, a book deal). The opportunity we get is to serve youth, and that in itself, is a privilege.

Stay tuned for Day 1, Part II...