Community Programs for Increasing Attendance in Oakland Unified School District
Oakland Natives Give Back Fund Inc. (ONGB), is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) that is headquartered in Oakland, CA, a city whose Unified School District faces an epidemic of truancy and chronic absenteeism. In partnership with Assemblymember Rob Bonta, The Office of the Mayor, Oakland Parks & Recreation, Oakland Unified School District, (OUSD) and other local leaders, ONGB enacts innovative programs, like the Every day Counts Attendance Initiative, to combat this epidemic.
This past 2015–2016 school year, Oakland Natives Give Back (ONGB) partnered with the Oakland Unified School District to introduce the Every Day Counts Attendance Challenge, a program designed to reduce truancy and chronic-absenteeism from kindergarten through high school.
The attendance challenge includes several phases. During Phase I, ONGB awarded $500 to 20 of the OUSD students with nearly perfect attendance between October 19th and November 19th. The winners participated in a ceremony at the Oakland Natives Give Back office while surrounded by family, friends, OUSD staff and local dignitaries.
During Phase II, which occurred between January and May of 2016, ONGB selected five elementary schools with higher-than-average absenteeism to receive funding for school-wide programming focused on improving attendance. The selected schools, which were chosen on the basis of attendance data, were Hoover Elementary, Lafayette Elementary, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, Parker K-7, and PLACE@Prescott Elementary.
Phase II involves two Challenges: an Individual Challenge and a Classroom Challenge. During the Individual Challenge, registered students at each of the five elementary schools had a chance to win $500 through a lottery drawing. At the start of each month between February and May, Oakland Natives Give Back selected one student from each school for the $500 award. During the Classroom Challenge, the classroom with the lowest absenteeism rate at each of the five Select Schools won a taco party.
The third phase of programming was the first successful Assemblymember Rob Bonta Attendance Challenge, which gave site administrators at schools across OUSD the chance to submit a comprehensive proposal to lower chronic absenteeism at their respective school sites. A panel of local and regional community leaders evaluated the proposals between the months of June and August 2016. Brookfield Elementary School was selected as the challenge winner. Oakland Natives Give Back Executive Director, Nyeisha DeWitt, notes that Brookfield’s winning proposal stood out because of the creative ways that Brookfield leaders had already started working toward improving attendance at their school.
The 2016–2017 academic school-year will serve as a continuation of Phase I-III. ONGB recently developed a new strategy for working with high school age youth to reduce chronic absenteeism — our upcoming Attendance Competition and Celebrity Concert will allow one high school with the most improved attendance over the course of the school year to win a day of academic-achievement-themed programming, a series of individual awards, and a chance to attend a free concert.
For more information about the programs of Oakland Natives Give Back, please visit: www.oaklandnatives.org
