I am currently doing my fieldwork at Kearny High School and the high school takes attendance of the students electronically. They do this by having the students scan into school with their student ids. The teachers also have to take attendance in each of their classes and submit it through a program called Genesis. Doing this keeps track of the students who cut class. They can check this because if a student is signed into school but not in class means they cut class. Online attendance cuts down on the amount of class cutting because the students know they will easily get caught through the online attendance program. It also helps monitor who is in the building at all times in case of an emergency.
I think that this system works well and it should be implemented in more schools because it is quick and effective. No longer does someone have to walk around and collect the attendance from each room in the morning and manually record the absences in a computer. It is also beneficial because it automatically keeps track of how many days a student is absent or tardy to school. They can keep track of this and try to stop to many absences if it becomes an issue for a student.
Having students scan into school also reinforces that they need to be on time. No longer can students sneak in after the bell rings and get away with it. Since they have to scan in everyday the scanner clocks what time they got to school. They cannot come to school late and get away with it because the scanner will point it out right away. In the past a students first period teacher might let them get away with being late to school, but the scanner will not.
I have never seen another school using an attendance system like this. All the schools that I have been to and substituted in still use paper attendance. Has anyone else seen an attendance system like this? I would love to hear your comments and if you agree or disagree with taking attendance in this fashion.
Michelle, this is so cool! I have not had the chance to witness any kind of attendance system like this, but I'm so glad something like this is being used! This is a great tool to teach students the importance of punctuality. This is a big issue in music; there's even a saying "to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be unacceptable" and the minutes late can certainly add up and serve as a distraction to those in rehearsal or performance. I wish this system was being used more often!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I like this system. My thinking is that kids are going to skip class regardless of consequences. It is irrelevant if they are caught or not because it isn't the lack of ramifications that are keeping the students out of class. This reaffirms my belief that schools are turning more and more into prisons than educational facilities. When is compulsory, mandated education a good thing? It's either, learn or else. This system does not promote students to make good decisions on their own and definitely does not reward them for those good choices. I do not know what a better system is, but it can't be that.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this kind of attendance in a school. I'm not too sure how effective it would be either unless the goal of the school is to make students afraid of the administration. I think the convenience is great for keeping records of attendance, but for being late or skipping class not such a great idea. Everyone may be in need of a day or two of forgiveness for being late, and unless their records at the end of the year are not weighed heavily this system seems a bit harsh.
ReplyDeleteI too have never seen this in a school before. I like that it gets students into the mindset of the real world. Clocking into work late is unacceptable, and inexcusable. Student' who are use to a non-forgiving system like this are a step ahead of the rest when they get to the workplace. Very interesting blog. I most likely will be student teaching the first half of next semester at Kearny High school, so I will probably get a chance to see this in action.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of this scanning system before, although it doesn’t surprise me much. I recall seeing ids being scanned at the cafeteria to keep track of the food.
ReplyDeleteI am against it but at the same time for it. Against it because we are all humans and not machines, additionally if a student wants to skip class they will find the way to do, they will ask a friend to scan their id for themselves.
And I am for it because plenty of time is spent taking attendance considering that most classes last 45 minutes, I thought another solution to it was to make sure that the teacher gets exit cards every day as an attendance and formative assessment tool, or use clickers to answer MCQ's they also provide an attendance.