A 2-year-old school is using hands-on experiential learning to help reduce the high chronic absence rate across Colorado, defined as when a student misses more than 10% of a school year or at least 18 days of an academic year.
The Field Academy supports students who are at risk of not graduating and those who have failed at least one class by bringing them to community activities around Colorado in the morning before they apply the experience to an academic lesson that afternoon.
The Field Academy appears to be the only hands-on, mobile, experiential school of its kind in Colorado. That’s a problem, Field Academy leaders said, because the chronic absence rate has increased in the state and country since the pandemic. The only options to regain credit are online or in school, they said.
“If they’re not even walking in the door at all, then it doesn’t matter that there’s amazing services at school,” said Anna Graves, co-founder and director of The Field Academy. “They’re not even showing up to even attempt graduation or attempt online programming.”
‘It’s not your typical class’
About a dozen Aurora Central High School seniors who have failed classes and are working to graduate on time in May are getting a second chance at education through the academy, which shows them why math, science, English and social studies matter for them now and long into adulthood.
On Dec. 18, the school took those 13 students to CSU Spur, a free public science and research center at the National Western Complex in Denver, where they watched veterinarians spay and neuter animals and also learned about ecosystems.
The hands-on part of the course was used later that day to help them earn math credit through mapping and geometry lessons.
The next morning, they paired a climbing experience with a trigonometry lesson. And on the last day of the program, the students visited a co-working space in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood to talk to entrepreneurs before creating their own business plans. Then they built math equations to determine how they could profit from their make-believe business concepts.
By the end of the three-day course, the students had a 100% attendance rate and everyone earned the math credit they were seeking, Graves said. That’s important to note because none of the students had attended school for more than 60% of this academic year, she said.
“It’s not your typical math class but it’s a way they can get engaged,” said Kelsey Tucker, an instructor at The Field Academy. “My main goal is to help build relationships with these kids. I want them to know that you can go through a lot and still succeed in life and I want to teach them new ways to learn.”
Aurora Central High School placed in the bottom 50% of all Colorado schools for overall test scores in math and reading during the current school year, according to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Colorado Department of Education data.
The percentage of students who achieved proficiency in math was 5% during the 2020-21 current academic year, lower than the Colorado average of 33% during that same school year, according to the data. This academic school year, the school’s math proficiency level was the same.
The percentage of students who achieved proficiency in reading and language arts during the 2020-21 school year was 17%, which is lower than the state average of 47% during the 2020-21 school year, according to the NCES data and Colorado Department of Education data.
The graduation rate for the school is 70%, compared with 82% for the state, according to the Colorado Department of Education. The truancy rate at the school is 18.3% and the dropout rate is 4.5%, according to the data.
Aurora Central High School was the first school in the state to partner with The Field Academy to offer experiential credit recovery programming.
Missing too much school
Truancy, which refers to unexcused absences, is different from chronic absence, which includes excused and unexcused absences as well as suspensions.
During the 2021-22 school year, 10,524 Colorado students dropped out, equating to 2.2% of the public school population, according to the Colorado Department of Education data.
Data from the 22-23 school year is expected to be released this week.
“We also want to prevent dropouts,” Graves said. “Once students have failed classes, they may just drop out if they don’t see hope for a diploma.”
Before the pandemic, 8 million students were chronically absent nationwide, and the number has more than doubled since then, according to Attendance Works, a nonprofit that works with schools and organizations to find solutions to chronic absenteeism.
The social, emotional and academic impact of missing too much school is highest among students and families most affected by educational inequities, and if left unaddressed, chronic absence dramatically increases the number of students struggling with core academic subjects and escalates dropout rates, according to the organization.
Beyond test and class scores, irregular attendance is also linked to poor labor market prospects, diminished health for students and increased risk of involvement in the criminal justice system.
The lack of credit recovery options and high pressure on teachers who are already stretched thin make it hard to get students back on track after they’ve failed classes, Graves said.
To make it easier, The Field Academy has a three-pronged approach to helping students across the country.
It has a three-day program to help students who need a semester-worth of credit recovery in math, English, science or history. During three 10-hour days of studying, students learn what they would in about 60 to 100 hours of one entire academic semester at their respective school, she said.
The second program is for students who are so far behind in school that their next choice is to work through a GED. But that often doesn’t happen for these students because they’re not motivated by traditional school, Graves said.
For those students, The Field Academy runs a longer-term program that picks them up from home and provides hands-on activities where they use those lessons to help them get a GED, job or high school diploma.
The last program is for young people who are truant before they turn 17 and are court-ordered to attend The Field Academy, Graves said.
“We’re trying to figure out how to re-engage them and get them into the workforce or get them to re-enter school,” she said. “The hope is that all of these students are still attending regular school in addition to working with us.”
Re-engaging students
Englewood High School was the first school to partner with The Field Academy to support students involved in truancy court. A small number of Englewood students with serious truancy issues, who were not attending school at all, even after several interventions, recently finished their first course with The Field Academy, said Callan Ware, executive director of student services at Englewood Schools.
“The Field Academy clearly strives to get students who are at risk for dropping out excited about learning and then helps students transition back to a more traditional high school setting so they can continue to complete the credits they need to move toward graduation,” Ware wrote in an email.
She said Englewood Schools are committed to meeting the needs of every student they serve. “The Field Academy is one more way that we can meet that commitment.”
Englewood High School has a 72% graduation rate, a 5% truancy rate and a 3% drop-out rate, according to Colorado Department of Education data.
Aurora Central High School leaders did not respond to multiple requests for comment made during their winter break from Dec. 18 to Jan. 1 or after their return to school.
The Field Academy works with school leaders who ensure their curriculum meets state standards. In Colorado, school leaders can decide what options students have for credit recovery in courses they previously attempted to pass but failed.
Many of the students in the academy miss school because they are dealing with other challenges that feel more urgent than attending class, such as taking care of a sibling or working to help support themselves or their families, Graves said.
Other students who got used to learning online at home during the pandemic are not motivated enough to return to learning full-time again at school, she said.
“But a student who misses even one day of school can easily fall behind,” she added. “Most students we work with have missed 30 to 80 days of school in one year. So we’re talking about people who are missing school more than once a week or multiple times per week.”
Still, students are finding success through the academy’s unique hands-on technique, Graves said.
Since the academy’s inception in 2021, there has been a 99% attendance rate for students who historically have attended no more than 40% of classes during their previous school year.
The credit recovery rate at the academy is 100%, meaning all students who seek credit are successful and pass the class they had previously failed, Graves added.
The academy has served about 120 students over the past two years and is working to partner with more schools and spread awareness about its programs to help more young people statewide, especially those living in rural areas.
Attendance and credit recovery are two ways The Field Academy measures success. But students who find jobs through the program or get access to social services such as food benefits are also considered a successful part of the program, Graves said.
“When they get engaged in their own local community and see what’s possible, they start realizing where they live is a place to be proud of,” she said. “This is important because, right now, we don’t have a mobile response to chronic absenteeism.”
The academy serves only public school students.
Evelyn, a 17-year-old at Aurora Central High School who is failing math, science and English, was at the most recent credit recovery program last month.
On the first day of the course, she said she was interested in the structure of the lessons and hoped she could recover her math credits.
When Evelyn struggles to understand concepts in school, she said she procrastinates because she’s embarrassed to ask for help, which means she falls further behind in her coursework.
Late last month, Graves said Evelyn was among the students who passed the three-day course to regain math credit.
After graduation, Evelyn said she wants to focus on physical training to help her eventually join the Marines.
“At first it wasn’t really appealing, mostly because it was pushed onto me by my parents,” she said of military service. “But after a while, I started to realize that it’s actually very important and it can help me be something else.”