Tool Helps Harlem School Increase Attendance

A Harlem school combats chronic absenteeism with a new tech tool.

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By Astrid Landon

P.S. 154 Harriet Tubman school in Harlem is a diverse place. The main office is covered with colorful children’s paintings and posters, including one on the front desk that says, in 31 languages, “The interpreter is provided at no cost to you.”

Despite its vibrant atmosphere, Harriet Tubman, at 250 W. 127th St., has faced a number of challenges, particularly high absentee rates among its students, who mostly live below the poverty line.

To reduce truancy and increase parental involvement and student performance, Harriet Tubman partnered with Columbia Teachers College in 2016 to subscribe to KiNVO*, a technology tool that monitors student attendance, punctuality and class progress. In New York, a yearly subscription costs $1,500 to $8,000*, depending on the number of students, but Teachers College covers the expense for Harriet Tubman. And, so far, the tool is working.

Since P.S. 154, which serves students Pre-K to 5th grade, implemented the program, school attendance has increased by 20%, says Monique Kennedy, the parent coordinator. In 2017-2018, 72% of Tubman students attended more than 90% of classes, according to the Department of Education’s School Quality Guide, which reports school performance.

KiNVO is also available in 80 languages to help non-English speaking parents become more involved in school.

“Kinvolved is linked to all teachers, students and parents,” says Kennedy, explaining that parents receive a text if their kid is missing or late to class. “It’s easier to reach parents like that as opposed to leaving them a message. They can reply straight away.” (Although Kinvolved is the company that produces KiNVO, parents and administrators at P.S. 154 also call the tool Kinvolved.)

To get messages from Kinvolved, P.S. 154 parents use their cellphones, though some schools also provide updates via voice or email*. The tool automatically generates individual and class reports. Parents can check their children’s progress, from green (satisfactory) to red (severe chronic absence).

Jahmesha Ellies, 28, has three kids at Harriet Tubman. A recent text she received from Kennedy said, “Are the kids returning to the school? I know they were not here today… Please text me back.” Ellies replied right away.

Cenita Thigpen, a mother of eight who has three children at the school, says she only uses the tool to check if P.S. 154 has sent any texts. Before KiNVO, Harriet Tubman relied on SchoolMessenger, an automated messaging service that notified parents if a student was absent.

Ellies remembers what communication at Harriet Tubman was like before. “You’d be left out mostly,” she says. “When Kinvolved came, we know exactly what’s going on. Like, is he behaving, is he on time?”

One of the tool’s most important features is helping parents see the consequences of absenteeism, says Kennedy. “We can show parents and kids how much instruction they are missing and the impact it can have on their grades,” she says. “If they miss 40% of elementary school, by 12th grade they can be a grade behind.”

The National Center for Education, which gathers statistics on education, links absenteeism to dropout rates. Students who miss school in first grade are more likely to drop out of high school, according to one of the center’s reports.

Last year, a report from New York University Steinhardt School showed that 30.3% of black and 27.6% of Latino students skip school, more than twice the absentee rate for white students. According to the Department of Education, half the kids at P.S. 154 are black and a third Hispanic.

The Steinhardt report also revealed that 29.4% of students suffering from high poverty rates are regularly absent. At Harriet Tubman, 45.6% students live below the poverty line, and 35% in temporary housing, including with relatives or shelters.

“They are not allowed to stay in shelters more than 29 days,” says Michelle Jeter, a P.S. 154 teacher who monitors attendance. “Some are moving to a new city to find permanent housing, or the grandmother lives in another borough, the parent is sick. Others move to Brooklyn, Queens.”

With KiNVO, school staff can identify patterns and provide solutions, says Kennedy. “By monitoring attendance, we find other things we didn’t know.” For example, Jeter says that parents created a buddy system with other parents from the same building when a mother broke her leg and couldn’t take her children to school. Also, P.S. 154 can make busing accommodations depending on the circumstances.

Miriam Altman, the CEO of Kinvolved, is a former New York high school teacher. “When I was teaching, there was often just not any communication between schools and parents,” she says, citing outdated contact information, missed robocalls or parents who couldn’t take calls at work as the main obstacles. With KiNVO, she says, “Simple personal outreach to them shows that someone cares if you’re not there.”

Jasmine Perez, 32, has four kids at Harriet Tubman. “I see the teachers every single day so I know what’s going on,” she says. “I was always involved, so Kinvolved is just a plus.”

(Photos by Astrid Landon)

*CORRECTION: The story originally misidentified the tool as Kinvolved, actually the name of the company that sells it, and omitted the option to receive messages via email and voice. After publication, the company clarified its local price structure.

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