Key factors:
At ISTE this summer time, I misplaced rely of what number of occasions I heard “AI” as the reply to each instructional problem possible. Pupil engagement? AI-powered personalization! Trainer burnout? AI lesson planning! Dad or mum communication? AI-generated newsletters! Persistent absenteeism? AI predictive fashions! However after moderating a panel on bettering the highschool expertise, which targeted squarely on human-centered approaches, one district administrator approached us with gratitude: “Thanks for NOT saying AI is the answer.”
That second crystallized one thing necessary that’s getting misplaced in our rush towards technological fixes: Whereas we’re automating attendance monitoring and constructing predictive fashions, we’re lacking the basic fact that exhibiting as much as college is a human choice pushed by genuine relationships.
The true drawback: College students going by the motions
The scope of scholar disengagement is staggering. Problem Success, affiliated with Stanford’s Graduate College of Schooling, analyzed knowledge from over 270,000 highschool college students throughout 13 years and located that solely 13 p.c are totally engaged of their studying. In the meantime, 45 p.c are what researchers name “doing college,” going by the motions behaviorally however discovering little pleasure or which means of their training.
This isn’t a post-pandemic drawback–it’s been constant for over a decade. And it immediately connects to attendance points. The California Protected and Supportive Colleges initiative has recognized college connectedness as elementary to attendance. When excessive schoolers have even one sturdy reference to a instructor or employees member who understands their life past lecturers, attendance improves dramatically.
The districts which are addressing this are utilizing knowledge to allow extra significant grownup connections, not simply including extra tech. One California district noticed 32 p.c of at-risk college students enhance attendance after implementing focused, relationship-based outreach. The important thing isn’t automated messages, however utilizing knowledge to assist educators determine disengaged college students early and attain out with real assist.
This isn’t to low cost the affect of know-how. AI instruments could make project-based studying extremely significant and thrilling, precisely the sort of genuine engagement which may tempt chronically absent excessive schoolers to return. However AI works greatest when it amplifies private bonds, not seeks to exchange them.
Mapping scholar connections
As an alternative of beginning with AI, begin with relationship mapping. Harvard’s Making Caring Frequent challenge emphasizes that “there could also be nothing extra necessary in a baby’s life than a optimistic and trusting relationship with a caring grownup.” Slightly than depart these connections to likelihood, relationship mapping helps districts systematically determine which college students lack that essential grownup bond in school.
The method is simple: Employees determine college students who don’t have optimistic relationships with any college adults, then volunteers decide to constructing stronger connections with these college students all year long. This combines the perfect of each worlds: Know-how gives the insights about who wants assist, and genuine relationships present the motivation to point out up.
True school-family partnerships to fight continual absenteeism want constructions that prioritize scholar consent and company, present scaffolding for underrepresented college students, and have a variety of experiences. It requires seeing college students as complete individuals with advanced lives, not simply knowledge factors in an attendance algorithm.
The selection forward
As we head into one other college 12 months, we face a selection. We will proceed chasing the shiny startups, constructing ever extra refined methods to trace and predict scholar disengagement. Or we are able to keep in mind that attendance is in the end about whether or not a youngster feels linked to one thing significant in school.
The simplest districts aren’t selecting between high-tech and high-touch–they’re utilizing know-how to allow extra significant private connections. They’re utilizing AI to determine college students who want assist, then deploying caring adults to supply it. They’re automating the logistics so academics can deal with relationships.
That ISTE administrator was proper to be thankful for a non-AI answer. As a result of whereas synthetic intelligence can optimize many issues, it may well’t substitute the basic human have to belong, to really feel seen, and to consider that exhibiting up issues.
The answer to continual absenteeism is in {our relationships}, not our servers. It’s time we began measuring and investing in each.
