In 2022, Pius XI Catholic High School in Wisconsin, the alma mater of School Technology’s founder, Dan Hoerl, had already upgraded their attendance practices from paper cards to digital collection within Skyward. However, with a modular (mod) schedule where classes can be one or two mods, gathering and keeping track of all the attendance data was a challenge. We spoke with Sister Jane Marie Bradish, Academic Programmer, and Jake Nowak, Dean of Students, to learn how they have used School Technology’s Positive Attendance solution to improve their attendance data.
“Our attendance was a cluster and it was difficult to know what exactly was going on and where our students were at any given moment,” Jake said. Jake visited Nicolet High School, where they saw School Technology’s Positive Attendance devices and Tardy Kiosk for Skyward SMS 2.0 in action. “I saw what they were doing. They don’t have the same schedule as we do, but I thought this could be helpful for us too.”
With Positive Attendance, all students are initially assumed absent until they check-in at a device by typing their PIN or scanning a barcoded ID. Once they check-in, their attendance in Skyward is updated to “present”, along with the room-code and time-stamp. There are two types of Positive Attendance devices: PASS, which connects to a computer via USB that is running Skyward’s Educator Access and PASS+, which connects directly to the Network via WiFi, PoE, or Ethernet. The Tardy Kiosk is a device that connects to a computer via USB running Skyward’s Educator Access along with a printer. When a late student checks-in at a Tardy Kiosk, they are marked tardy in Skyward and a tardy slip is printed automatically.
The Setup
Tardy Kiosk devices on mobile cart
Pius XI moved forward with the Positive Attendance PASS+ devices that connect directly to their Skyward network. “They are everywhere the students could be; all of our classrooms, study halls, and our cafeteria has eight because we have such a high volume of students coming through at one time there,” explained Jane Marie.
Pius XI also uses a Tardy Kiosk on a mobile cart, so it can easily be moved to wherever students are entering the building. “It really came in handy last year when we had a pipe burst in the lobby, so everyone had to come in a different way,” Jane Marie said.
The PASS+ devices are configured so each one enters a code that matches its specific location within Skyward. While there is no “out of building” attendance code option within Positive Attendance, Pius XI has a device at the Main Office for seniors who are allowed to leave campus. Any check-ins and check-outs at that device indicates students leaving and returning to the building. “We can run a report to say, okay, who is out of the building?” said Jane Marie. Pius XI also keeps one extra PASS+ on hand for any special one-off attendance needs that may come up.
The Rollout
PASS+ device at the front office
Once all the devices were set up, Jane Marie did some troubleshooting by setting up test classrooms to make sure everything worked as planned. “We hit the ground running with minimal troubleshooting,” said Jane Marie.
Once the devices were ready and Pius XI had their new attendance policy established, they introduced it to staff. “We set up a dummy day of school and had teachers role-play as students using student IDs to scan in, sit down at the desks, and show teachers what we wanted them to do. For the first few days, we wanted it to be really boring and feel like grade school, lining up single-file, and learning how to do this,” explained Jake.
Over the summer break they sent out communications to the community about the upgrade to the building. “We said that students were going to have a lot more responsibility added to their student life and have a hand in their own attendance… parents were incredibly supportive of it. The message wasn’t all on the student, but that it is now a partnership with Pius XI, that the students are going to be responsible for going where they need to go, scanning in a timely manner, and that it is a good thing for safety across the board,” said Jake.
Jake explained how the new policy was rolled out to students the first day of school: “The expectation was set that this is the first thing you do in every room that you go to.” Teachers followed the routine that had been introduced to them, repeating the instructions every day for the first week so everyone became familiar with the routine. “One thing that worked to our advantage is that we were already using similar devices in the lunch room where students had to key in their ID. So, a majority of students saw that, okay, besides just doing this at lunch, I do this everywhere I go… the learning curve was really not a big deal,” Jake said.
The Results
PASS+ devices in a classroom
With four years of Positive Attendance in place at Pius XI, we asked what changes they have noticed. “Our attendance is much more accurate, and we like the safety and security of being able to find out where a student is: if something happens, we have a situation, or somebody is sick,” said Jane Marie. “I love the accurate attendance piece,” added Jake. “Before using Positive Attendance, some teachers didn’t record their attendance and waited to submit it until the end of the day, which isn’t helpful. We want to be able to do it in real time. With Positive Attendance, being able to go find students that I’m looking for, for disciplinary reasons is way easier and more efficient now for our front office, given that the location of the student is much more accurate,” said Jake.
Looking at the overall culture shift the school has experienced, Jake explained, “Students know now, I have to get to my room and scan in. It creates a sense of urgency. Before we were averaging between 70 to 80 students that were tardy to class in a given day and now we are down to 20 to 30, and we are hoping it will continue trending in the right direction. Classes are getting started faster, students are in the rooms faster, it’s more efficient for teachers too.”
Our final question was what they would say to any other schools considering Positive Attendance. Jake shared, “If you roll it out correctly with your teachers, your families, and with the students, it will enhance your efficiency across the building. It builds a nice added layer of responsibility onto your students, that they have a hand in their own attendance, and there’s a little bit of self-discipline, helping students grow that within themselves. So, if it’s a school community that cares about those things and wants to push for excellence in their building, then this is a good tool that can help students latch onto that goal and feel like they have a part in it.”
Interested in learning more about how your school could utilize Positive Attendance? Reach out to us at sales@k12sta.com.
