30% of Ohio students chronically absent from school in 2021-22 school year
More Ohio children were chronically absent from their K-12 classes during the 2021-2022 school year than during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ohio's overall chronic absentee rate, meaning children who miss at least 10% of the school year, is 30%. But that number varies significantly when you delve into who those students are and where they live.
About 24% of white children were chronically absent during the 2021-2022 academic year, but that number doubled for Black children. One in two Black students missed 10% or more of their school year.
Scores on statewide math exams, at least for some grade levels, also continue to decline.
"One of the areas I'm really frustrated with is that we have no idea what’s actually working," Ohio State University professor Vladimir Kogan said. "We don't know which of these (recovery) investments are worthwhile and which of these are a waste of time."
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Kogan, who studies the intersection of politics and education policy, analyzed state test scores for a recent paper called Assessing the Academic Recovery of Ohio Students.
He found many children are on track to recover from their English pandemic learning losses in two to three years. The same wasn't true for statewide math scores though, or for many high school students, or those from urban school districts who spent more days in remote learning.
And when Kogan's data is combined with the new chronic absenteeism rates from Ohio's Department of Education you get a picture of pandemic recovery that's working for some but not for others and has the potential to re-widen achievement gaps that Ohio spent decades trying to close.
"It’s a breakdown in government," Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napolean, said. "And it’s a breakdown in the expectations we have placed on kids."
Who missed class in 2021-2022?
Urban school districts have the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, and in some cases, they were triple or quadruple their suburban counterparts.
About 44% of economically disadvantaged students were chronically absent. And students with learning disabilities were at 40%.
"That's atrocious," Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, said.
Brenner chairs the Ohio Senate's K-12 education committee and sits as a nonvoting member on the Ohio State Board of Education. The data disparity that bothered him the most in ODE's data is the difference between school types.
About 65% of students attending Columbus City Schools were chronically absent during the 2021-2022 school year, according to ODE's data. That's down from 74% in 2020-2021, but it's substantially higher than the Dublin City School District (17%), Olentangy (14%) or New Albany (15%).
The same was true for schools around Cincinnati and Cleveland. The Forest Hills School District in Hamilton County had a chronic absentee rate of 12% while Cincinnati schools were at 53%.
"For the most part, this is an urban school district problem," Brenner said. "And I think this gets down to a school administration problem. They aren’t prioritizing why the kids aren't in school. Don't get me wrong. I think they are trying, but they’ve got to be a lot more forceful at it."
Database: Find the chronic absentee rate for your school district
But chronic absenteeism has long correlated with a school's poverty rates. Unsafe neighborhoods, food insecurity, housing instability, lack of transportation and healthcare barriers are all reasons researchers nationwide say some students miss school.
"Ohio is not unique in that trend," Brittany Miracle, an assistant director at the state education department who focuses on attendance, said during a February interview on the issue. "The barriers to attendance are correlated with poverty."
Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro said the data reinforced his theory that Ohio students are recovering faster academically than socially.
"The sense that I have from talking to educators is that absenteeism, in some ways, is a reflection of socialization and behavioral issues that were created by the disruption of the pandemic," he said.
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Are we failing our high school students?
Overall, Ohio's public and community (charter) school students made "meaningful recoveries" in English, according to Kogan's analysis of statewide test scores.
"If the pace of recovery observed between the 2021 and 2022 school years can be sustained, ELA (English Language Arts) achievement could return to pre-pandemic levels within the next two to three years in most grades," the report states.
But math was another story, especially for middle and high school students.
"People during the pandemic thought, 'Oh, older kids can handle remote learning,'" Kogan said. "That’s really proven not to be correct. They fell behind and aren’t recovering as fast."
About 55% of Ohio's 8th graders tested proficient in math before the pandemic. That dropped to 45% in the 2020-2021 academic year, according to Kogan's study. But unlike the recovery seen in elementary classrooms, the 8th-grade math score dropped again in 2021-2022.
The same was true for 9th-grade algebra, 10th-grade geometry and 10th-grade English.
"You've got two years to get those kids back on track...," Kogan said. "There is not enough focus on getting older kids caught up before they have no time left. It’s not gotten the urgency it deserves."
DiMauro agreed with Kogan, but he said keeping children engaging in school as they get older was an issue long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think that fundamentally is one of the challenges we have in education," DiMauro said. "It really is about engagement. When a student disengages, it’s harder to get them back on track."
What about Ohio's most vulnerable children?
Ohio's economically disadvantaged students and those with learning disabilities continue to lag behind their counterparts in both attendance and statewide test scores.
"We saw really big differences across school district types," Kogan said. "Urban areas that were closed more saw scores fall the most."
And according to Kogan's report, "with some exceptions, these student subgroups have not posted larger-than-average growth over the past year, so the achievement gaps that were exacerbated by the pandemic generally remained."
One theory for why is that parents with more means "were probably in a better place to compensate for lack of formal instructions," Kogan said.
Take the third-grade reading exam, for example. Ohio administers the test in the fall and spring. Statewide scores rose from spring 2021 to spring 2022 at rates that showed children were making up for their pandemic learning losses. But the difference between fall 2021 to spring 2022 scores showed average−not extra−growth.
"It suggests that most of that growth did not occur during the school year," Kogan said.
How do we fix it?
Brenner's big idea was to "conscript" an army of tutors who can help struggling students catch up.
It's an idea that Ohio's public colleges and universities are already trying. Rather than putting students in remedial classes, Brenner said they assign tutors who help students pass a regular course.
His plan, which Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law this summer, directed Ohio's superintendent of public instruction to work with the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio to train volunteer tutors and coordinate their placement with participating schools.
"I think it’s an idea worth exploring," DiMauro said. But he doesn't want it to come at the expense or detract from putting qualified educators into every classroom.
"We have to look at the underlying conditions that lead to those results," DiMauro added. "Nonacademic issues do have an impact and correlation on academic outcomes. We can’t address this issue by focusing more on standardized testing."
What is Ohio already doing?
Chris Wollard, the chief program officer for the Ohio Department of Education, said students missing class was on the state's reader long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's a lot of work happening," he said. "It’s a priority for the state and for the department."
Brenner's tutoring program should be up and running later this fall, but ODE started another tutoring partnership this summer with college students who are majoring in education. The department is also evaluating each recovery program to determine their effectiveness.
"These things are going to take some time to be fully implemented," Wollard said. "We’re very much committed to understanding what works."
Academic recovery, like the pandemic, is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.
Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
Area school districts absenteeism rates lower than state average
For the mostly rural districts in Ashland, Wayne and Holmes counties, absenteeism rates are generally lower than the state's urban districts.
Some larger school districts – like Mapleton, Triway and Wooster – come close to the 30% statewide average, and Ashland City Schools is the only are district to have a 30% rate or higher.
The districts with the lowest overall rates are Norwayne, Dalton and Hillsdale with absenteeism rates between 9 and 10.2%.
Ashland County absenteeism rates
Ashland City Schools: 30.9
Black River Local Schools: 15
Crestview Local Schools: 10.6
Hillsdale Local Schools: 10.2
Loudonville-Perrysville Exempted Village Schools: 14.1
Mapleton Local Schools: 24.5
New London Local Schools: 20.6
Holmes County absenteeism rates
East Holmes Local Schools: 12.4
West Holmes Local Schools: 16.3
Wayne County absenteeism rates
Chippewa Local Schools: 14.6
Dalton Local Schools: 9.8
Green Local Schools: 21.4
Northwestern Local Schools: 17.2
Norwayne Local Schools: 9
Orrville City Schools: 12.5
Rittman Exempted Village Schools: 11.6
Southeast Local Schools: 16.8
Triway Local Schools: 22.7
Wooster City Schools: 18.1
Source: Ohio Department of Education
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: See local school percentages: Absences rise post COVID-19 pandemic
