Skip to Content List

  • Skip to primary content
  • Skip to footer content

Site Navigation Lists

  • Fellowship Application
  • Grantmaking Process
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • About
    • Mission and Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Leadership Council
    • Impact Reports
    • Impact Photo Series
  • Programs and Impact
    • Our Programs and Impact
    • Education and Youth Development
    • Criminal and Juvenile Justice
    • Addiction and Health Equity
    • Community Fellowships
  • Grantees and Fellows
    • Grantee Database
    • Grantmaking Process
    • Community Fellows
    • How to Apply
  • News and Reports
    • Baltimore Justice Report
    • Newsletters
    • Reports
    • Impact Reports
    • Blueprint for Baltimore
    • OSI in the News
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • 20th Anniversary Speaker Series
    • Talking About Race Series
    • Talking About Addiction Series
  • Privacy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Community Guidelines
  • Terms & Conditions
Open Society Institute – Baltimore

Open Society Institute – Baltimore

Open Society Institute (OSI) – Baltimore : Audacious Thinking For Lasting Change

  • Fellowship Application
  • Grantmaking Process
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • EN
    • EN
    • ES
  • About
    • Mission and Vision
    • Staff
    • Board
    • Leadership Council
    • Impact Reports
    • Impact Photo Series
  • Programs and Impact
    • Our Programs and Impact
    • Education and Youth Development
    • Criminal and Juvenile Justice
    • Addiction and Health Equity
    • Community Fellowships
  • Grantees and Fellows
    • Grantee Database
    • Grantmaking Process
    • Community Fellows
    • How to Apply
  • News and Reports
    • Baltimore Justice Report
    • Newsletters
    • Reports
    • Impact Reports
    • Blueprint for Baltimore
    • OSI in the News
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • 20th Anniversary Speaker Series
    • Talking About Race Series
    • Talking About Addiction Series
Giving students time to make friends and socialize during their 9th grade transition would encourage more students to attend school

Featured in
Education and Youth

Next Article
Investing in education innovation

Education and Youth

Giving students time to make friends and socialize during their 9th grade transition would encourage more students to attend school

Content Social Share Links

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter

We have an attendance problem in Baltimore. For the past three school years, over 40% percent of Baltimore City public high school students have missed a month or more of school making them chronically absent1 and last school year 49% of 9th graders missed at least a month of school.2

Imagine what would happen if you didn’t show up for work a couple of days each month.

We know that poor attendance leads to course failure, which very often leads to high school drop out.

While City Schools have begun to address this problem in earnest, I believe something important needs to be added to their efforts.

In the study, Students’ experience of the first term of high school, researchers with Flinders University School of Education asked students transitioning to high school, “What makes you most happy?” Nearly half of the students responded, “Being with friends.”

Friendships matter—fostering them to improve school attendance is my audacious idea.

We know that teenagers want to be with their friends and we know that some teenagers have difficulty making new friends.

What if every high school had a comprehensive program to facilitate friendships amongst their incoming 9th graders? City Schools should consider creating opportunities for new high school students to become friends, during summer transitional programs, through increased after-school opportunities, and by providing socialization time during the school day while also ensuring that students have the opportunity to talk and learn about positive relationships.

In Baltimore our high schools should intentionally schedule students so that they share classes. High schools should also provide students time to socialize through field trips, group learning, peer relationship groups, and pick-up games and sports.

I have it on the best authority, my teenager and his friends, that these kinds of activities and opportunities result in new friendships in new schools; where students should be.

1www.mdreportcard.org
2
The Baltimore City Student Attendance Work Group Presentation

Related Content

Imagining a safe passage

I propose a simple, but powerful, way for Baltimoreans to support the city’s youth and schools.  It won’t cost a lot of money…

Read More

Post navigation

Previous Article Previous A treasure map of Baltimore’s opportunities for youth
Next Article Next Article Using evaluation data to benefit individuals in real time, and real ways
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Youtube

Subscribe to our mailing list

OSI Logo

Open Society Institute-Baltimore
Bold Thinking, Strategic Action, Justice for All.

Quick donate

© 2023 Open Society Institute-Baltimore
  • Privacy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Community Guidelines
  • Terms & Conditions
Skip to top of page