WISEdash for Districts: Snapshot Dashboards - Attendance
About the Data | Definitions of Crosstab Filters | FAQ | Resource Links
About the Data
Attendance is a count of the contact held between a student and a teacher during which district-supervised PK-12 educational services are provided. You will record Actual Days of Attendance and Possible Days of Attendance, as designated by your district’s policies. More detailed information can be found on the Attendance data element page.
The Attendance Snapshot Dashboard includes the following Data Quality Indicators based on the current view of the data. None of the student-level or cohort filters are applied to these indicators.
1. Zero Scheduled Value
This indicator displays the number of students who have the number of 'Days Scheduled' (also known as Possible Days of Attendance) set to zero. Drill into the indicator to review the list of students and determine why the value is zero.
2. Schools with Zero Attendance
This indicator displays the number of schools who have no attendance reported. Drill into the indicator to review the list of schools and determine why the value is zero.
3. Schools with 100% Attendance
This indicator displays the number of schools who have 100% (perfect) attendance reported. While not impossible to obtain, this could indicate an error in reporting. Drill into the indicator to review the list of schools and determine if 100% attendance is accurate. Of note, it is valid for virtual schools to have 100% attendance
Definitions of Applicable Crosstab Data Filters
Refer to FAQ 2 below
Frequently Asked Questions about Snapshot Attendance Data
1. What is attendance data used for? Attendance is an important measure of student engagement and a predictor of student success. As such, attendance data is used for multiple reporting and accountability purposes, including, but not limited to:
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Public reporting via the WISEdash Public Portal (attendance and absenteeism rates)
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School Report Cards (attendance and absenteeism rates)
- District Report Cards (attendance and absenteeism rates)
2.Why isn’t there a Dynamic Crosstab chart for this Dashboard? This dashboard is designed to help districts prepare for the Year-end Attendance Snapshot. The present school year plus one previous year are available. As the snapshot is taken after the school year is over, you will want to use the previous school year (year for which the snapshot is taken) to prepare for the snapshot.
Instead of a dynamic crosstabs option, the Attendance dashboard provides users with two distinct graphs:
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Attendance Rate by [All Students] is the first type of graph on this dashboard. These are the top two graphs (one green, one purple), appearing side by side. They allow for the comparison of attendance rates between the current view (green) to that of the snapshot (purple) of prior years. The charts include all students and attendance counts reported by the selected district/school.
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Agency Absenteeism is the second of the two graph types for this dashboard. These are the larger, bottom two charts, displayed top (green) to bottom (purple). They allow for a current to snapshot comparison of district and school counts and percentages of the chronically absent.
3. What does each column header mean on the Agency Absenteeism chart?
“ESSA/State Denominator” are the number in the 'Student Column' who have met the minimum days enrolled requirement (90 days or more) in order to be considered in the calculation of chronically absent.
“ESSA/State ABS” are the number of students from the 'ESSA/State Denominator' column whose absence days reach the threshold for chronically absent (attendance days < 90% of scheduled days).
“ESSA/STATE ABS%" - is the percentage of chronically absent students (as calculated by taking the toal from the “ESSA/State ABS” column and dividing it by the toal from the “ESSA/State Denominator” column).
NOTE: District totals WILL NOT be the sum of school totals. This is due to scenarios where it is possible for a student to meet the enrollment requirement in a district, but not meet the enrollment requirement of any one school within that district.
4. How is ‘Chronic Absenteeism’ defined? Whereas chronically absent definitions measure the percentage of chronically absent students as a percentage of students who are enrolled in the school or district for 45 and 90 days, "State Denominator" and "ESSA Denominator" dimensions are offered to determine the total number of students who meet these thresholds. "CRDC Denominator" is not currently offered as certified CRDC absenteeism rates are not displayed in the public portal.
The definitions of Chronic Absenteeism include:
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"ESSA/State Abs" - which is the definition used by the current Every Student Succeeds Act, and the State definition of absenteeism (as of the 2018-19 school year). To be considered chronically absent, a student must be enrolled for 90 days or more and have an attendance rate of less than 90%.
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"CRDC Abs" - which is the definition used by the current Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). To be considered chronically absent, a student must be enrolled for 10 days or more and have an attendance rate of 90% or less.
4. What if the district and the schools within the district have different definitions for chronically absent? The count of students meeting a chronically absent definition at the district level will likely be different than the total of students who meet this definition at the school level so both school level and district level information is offered in the absenteeism charts.
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BE AWARE: a student can meet a chronically absent definition at the district level and NOT meet the definition in any one school in that district.
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Further students can meet the definition of chronically absent at more than one school and they will be counted as such while counted only once at the district level.
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Do not attempt to derive district level chronically absent students from school level line items.