Bullhead City, Arizona School-Based Partnership (SBP) Project

Working with Truants: The Miami School-Based Partnership1

By Shellie E. Solomon and Craig D. Uchida 21st Century Solutions, Inc.

Booker T. Washington High School in Miami-Dade County has a long history rich in meaning for the residents of its community. So in 1967, when the Miami-Dade School Board decided to convert the high school into a middle school, alumni steadfastly lobbied against the change. More than thirty years later, in 1999, its status as a senior high school was restored. Shortly afterward, work began on a $30 million comprehensive construction and renovation project at the school.

Booker T. Washington is a designated Title I school, meaning that 75 percent of students come from families that qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches -- the highest student poverty rate in the area. In 1996-97 (while still a middle school), the school had the county’s worst attendance record. In 1998, the Miami Police Department and the school entered into a School-Based Partnership (SBP) to try to address truancy, absences and other related problems.

The Miami SBP Project

Funding for this effort came from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), U.S. Department of Justice. The Miami SBP team applied the SARA methodology -- scanning, analysis, response and assessment -- to structure their project:

Scanning. In the early 1990s law enforcement had repeatedly identified truancy as a significant factor in juvenile delinquency. Booker T. Washington had the worst attendance in the district, so the SBP team began with the assumption that truancy was heavily linked to area crimes such as petty theft, vandalism, burglary and drug sales. In addition, school administrators believed that students stayed away from school because of teen pregnancy and the need to take care of younger siblings. (By conducting a thorough analysis, however, these assumptions were proven to be incorrect.)

Analysis. The SBP team collected relevant data from a number of sources including state, police, school and family service records, literature reviews, surveys of truant and non-truant students, student and parent interviews, and an environmental survey. High school student leaders were involved in administering surveys and response discussions.

The data yielded some surprises with respect to truancy. For instance, 70 percent of truants were ninth graders. There were no significant differences among ethnic groups, but truants were nearly twice as likely to be male. Students were slightly more likely to skip school alone rather than with friends or family members; the majority said that when they skipped school, they went home or to a friend’s home.

21st Century Solutions, Inc. Page 1 Few loitered on the street or at malls. Most students leaving school prematurely walked to their destinations; a few used the bus. Well over half of truant students claimed to skip school because they disliked being there or disliked their teachers; 17 percent said they were fearful or lonely at school; another 17 percent reported not having appropriate clothing or having conflicting family responsibilities. Not all parents of truants responded to the team’s efforts to collect information from them; of those that did, approximately half admitted to being aware of their children’s truancy.

Response. The team developed and implemented multiple responses focused on potential truants. The majority of time was spent focusing on the specific “at-risk” population – incoming 9th graders with a track record of truancy. A number of measures were recommended and implemented to help the new class feel welcome and well-informed about their new school, its opportunities and their responsibilities. With the strong recommendation of the School Resource Officer, the team emphasized pragmatic responses based on the analysis phase – home visits by police and teachers; one-on-one discussions with truant students; the purchase of alarm clocks for students who claimed that they had none; and the purchase of new clothes for students who said they had little to wear. (Private donations helped fund supplemental activities and resources that fell outside the reach of the COPS grant.)

Assessment. Unexcused absences, both in the aggregate and per student, clearly dropped somewhat in several categories. Anecdotal evidence suggested that borderline students may have been helped individually to maintain attendance; clarity about graduation requirements and help with social problems were reported by some students to have made a difference. Non-truant students involved in project research and mentoring also reported their engagement as a meaningful experience.

Conclusion

The Miami School Based Partnership grant program was successful on a number of levels. First, it was a key part of a comprehensive effort to improve the educational focus of a school in a poverty-stricken, diverse immigrant community. A number of misconceptions about truancy and truants were corrected during the analysis phase, making future efforts to reduce the problem more likely to be effective. Statistics do not suggest that the overall problem improved significantly, but they do support the anecdotal evidence that individual students may have been helped by the project. Meanwhile, the police department and the school learned to work together, which will benefit the community for future problem- solving efforts.

21st Century Solutions, Inc. Page 2 1 This report and project were supported by Grant No. 1999-CK-WX-K005 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice to 21st Century Solutions, Inc. Points of view in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the law enforcement agency involved in the study. Copyright © by Craig D. Uchida and 21st Century Solutions, Inc. The U.S. Department of Justice reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable license to reproduce, publish or otherwise use, and to authorize others to use, this document for Federal Government purposes. No part of this document may be reproduced in any forms, by any means (including electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the U.S. Department of Justice and the authors.