Utah school uses program backed by Oprah Winfrey to reduce chronic absenteeism
Sep 14, 2024, 7:00 AM
Northwest Middle School principal Andrea Seminario talks to Jacqueline Malmaceda in reading class at Northwest Middle School in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. In four years, Seminario has gotten Northwest Middle School's rate of chronic absence to 12-13%, which is half of the state average. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — It’s an age-old problem for schools in Utah: how to get kids excited to come to school and reduce chronic absenteeism. One Utah school found a solution that’s working well.
Northwest Middle School in the Salt Lake School District is using a program backed by Oprah Winfrey to help kids get excited to learn. Principal Andrea Seminario joined Dave and Dujanovic to share their progress.
The program is called the “Ron Clark Academy House System.” It assigns each student a “house” with a given color, and they compete for prizes. Last year one of the prizes was a field trip to the aquarium.
“That’s a big component,” Seminario said. “Like, what can we do to incentivize students to come to school and want to be here?”
Seminario said the program also helps kids who are nervous to start middle school.
“Part of it is they don’t have friends, it’s a new building, it’s larger, so providing a system day one, where they can feel like they belong… It really does help support them.”
The result? Chronic absenteeism at the school fell from 47% the first year to around 10%.
Seminario said the school’s attendance rates rose dramatically, thanks to the program.
