About the Data | Definitions | How It's Reported in WISEdash | Resources
About the Data
WISEdash is an effective tool for monitoring student attendance, especially students who may be at risk for becoming chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism is highly correlated with low student achievement and is a strong predictor of whether a student will fail to graduate. The Absenteeism Early Warning dashboard on WISEdash is designed to assist districts in identifying students who may be at risk of being chronically absent – so that educators can intervene quickly.
The Absenteeism Early Warning dashboard in WISEdash displays the proportion of students at risk for being chronically absent in a school or district. Risk levels are broken down into three levels:
- High risk: Students with 10 or more absences in the given school year
- Medium risk: Students with at least 6 days absent but less than 10
- Low risk: Students with fewer than 6 days absent
Student absences from the entire current school year, regardless of a student’s current school of enrollment, are used to determine the risk levels.
The Absenteeism Early Warning dashboard includes three graphs. The first graph shows the proportion of students in a school or district in each absenteeism risk level in the current year. All students enrolled in a school or district on the Third Friday of September of the current year are used as the denominator, while the numerator is determined based on all students currently enrolled. NOTE: Because of the difference between the numerator and denominator, the sum of the low, medium and high risk percentages will likely not add up to 100%.
The next two graphs show prior year trends of high risk absenteeism rates. These rates represent the percentage of students enrolled in a school or district on the Third Friday of September with 10 or more absences in the given year. Rates from the prior five years are shown for the selected school or district and statewide.
The Absenteeism Early Warning dashboard is intended to be used as a starting point for inquiry. Schools are encouraged to combine a student’s chronic absenteeism risk level with his or her DEWS and CCREWS scores, as well as current local and contextual information, when crafting an action plan. Monitoring a student’s attendance is a first step, but working with the student’s family and other educators in the building should also be planned.
For resources on how to address chronic absenteeism in your school and community, please visit the DPI School Attendance Improvement and Truancy Prevention webpage.
Absenteeism Risk Level: Absenteeism Risk Level provides a short assessment of three years of student risk for chronic absenteeism. Students with a High risk level have 10 or more absences in a given school year. Students with a Moderate risk level have 6 or more but less than 10 absences. Students with a Low risk level have fewer than 6 absences. Absences from the entire school year, regardless of a student’s current school or district of enrollment, are used to determine the risk level.
Days Scheduled: Days of possible attendance for a student in a given school year.
Days Attended: Actual number of days of attendance for a student in a given school year.
Days Absent: Number of absence days for a student in a given school year.
Attendance Rate: Actual days of attendance divided by the possible days of attendance in a given school year, expressed as a percentage (%). For calculation details, see About the Data – Attendance.
Chronically Absent (State Accountability pre-2018-19): A student is chronically absent in the state accountability system (report cards) if s/he has been enrolled at least 45 days in the school during the school year and has been absent 16 percent or more of the time.
Chronically Absent (ESSA/State Accountability): A student is chronically absent in the federal accountability system (reports new, TBD) if s/he has been enrolled at least 90 days in the school during the school year and has been absent more than 10 percent of the time. Starting in 2018-19, the state accountability determination has aligned with the ESSA determination.
Chronically Absent (CRDC Reporting): A student is chronically absent in federally required reports (separate from the state and federal accountability reports) if s/he has been enrolled at least 10 days in the school during the school year and has been absent 10 percent or more of the time.'
How it’s Reported in WISEdash
Students at risk for becoming chronically absent are reported on the Absenteeism Early Warning dashboard in WISEdash for Districts. By navigating to this dashboard and drilling on any metric, schools can receive a student roster where the chronic absenteeism risk levels of current students are reported.
Additionally, a student’s individual attendance and absence days can be looked up easily using the Student Search feature of WISEdash. The Attendance dashboard also provides detailed attendance information.
The Student Detail view provides chronic absenteeism risk level designations for individual students, along with DEWS and CCREWS risk scores. This view also indicates whether a student would be flagged as an absentee under state and federal accountability definitions based on his or her current attendance.