Are Relationships the Key to Solving America’s School Absenteeism Crisis?

人际关系是解决美国旷课危机的关键吗？

The number of students who’ve gone missing from the classroom has only climbed since the pandemic. These days, 16 million students may be “chronically absent,” according to Hedy Chang, executive director of the nonprofit Attendance Works. That means those students are missing 10 percent of a school year—or more.

自大流行病以来，从教室里失踪的学生人数只在不断攀升。根据非营利组织 "出席工作 "的执行董事张海迪（Hedy Chang）的说法，如今有1600万学生可能是 "长期缺席"。这意味着这些学生每学年有10%的时间缺席或者更多。

Why kids don’t show up to school is a thorny problem, Chang says. But it’s something that states will have to confront if they want to beat back the tide of “learning loss” and inequality catalyzed by the pandemic.

张海迪说，孩子们为什么不上学是一个棘手的问题。但如果各州想要击退大流行病催生的"学习损失 "和不平等浪潮，就必须面对这个问题。

Chang agreed to hop on a call to school EdSurge on some of the complexities of K-12 absenteeism across the country.

张海迪同意打电话给学校EdSurge（美国一家教育科技媒体），讨论全国各地基础教育阶段旷课的一些复杂情况。

The big takeaway? It’s about meaningful relationships. “One of the keys to making sure that kids will show up to school is making sure every child in a district or in a school is connected to a caring adult,” Chang says.

最大的收获是什么？这是关于有意义的关系。张海迪说：“确保孩子们上学的关键之一是确保一个地区或学校的每个孩子都与一个有爱心的成年人联系在一起。

The interview was edited for length and clarity.

采访内容经过编辑，以保证篇幅和清晰度。

EdSurge: We read a lot of reports about missing students across the country, especially since the pandemic, but can you help give us a sense of the scope of chronic absence right now?

EdSurge：我们读到了很多关于全国各地学生失踪的报道，特别是疫情以来，但你能帮助我们了解一下目前长期缺席的范围吗？

Hedy Chang: The short response is that I think chronic absence has probably doubled since before the pandemic. If you look at the 2018-19 data, the national data showed it was about 8 million students who were chronically absent. And now, I think it's probably twice that amount based on the data that I'm seeing… In the data from California, which was released in December, chronic absence went from 12.1 percent to actually around 30 percent of the student population.

张海迪：简短的回答是，我认为长期缺勤可能比大流行前翻了一番。如果你看看2018-2019年的数据，全国数据显示，大约有800万学生长期缺席。而现在，根据我所看到的数据，我认为这个数字可能是这个数字的两倍......在去年12月公布的加州数据中，长期缺勤的学生人数从12.1%实际上升到约30%。

How has absenteeism changed?

旷工现象发生了怎样的变化？

There are some things that remain similar patterns. You still see, certainly, higher levels of chronic absence among kids who are economically disadvantaged or challenged. There's a range and a variation [of chronic absence] by ethnicity, and you see higher levels for kids who are affected by or have a disability...

有些事情仍然保持着相似的模式。当然，你仍然可以看到，在经济困难或面临挑战的孩子中，长期缺席的比例更高。根据种族不同，[长期缺席]有一定的范围和差异，你可以看到受残疾影响或有残疾的孩子的水平更高...

Chronic absence used to be really high in kindergarten, and then it would start to really drop more in second and third [grade], and I am worried that there is a little bit less of a drop [now]. It's more sustaining high. And I think that's because you've got second graders who have had three years of disrupted learning.

过去，长期缺课在幼儿园非常严重，然后在二年级和三年级开始下降得更多，我担心（现在）下降的幅度会小一点。缺课率保持水平更高。我认为这是因为二年级的学生已经有三年的学习中断了。

It also used to be that we saw young English language learners tended to show up to school pretty regularly [prior to the pandemic]. In fact, more regularly than their English-speaking peers. And with the pandemic, we're seeing a much greater rise in chronic absence levels among young English language learners. And I think that's because there have been real challenges in making sure that families who don't speak languages other than English can understand what's going on with school, and it's a whole variety of things.

过去，我们也看到年轻的英语学习者倾向于经常出现在学校（在大流行之前）。事实上，他们比说英语的同龄人出现的更频繁。随着疫情的蔓延，我们看到年轻英语学习者的长期缺席水平大幅上升。我认为这是因为在确保那些不说英语以外语言的家庭能够理解学校发生的事情方面存在着真正的挑战，这是一个非常复杂的问题。

The pandemic has really exacerbated existing inequities. So, kids who are economically challenged are more likely than ever to be faced with housing insecurity, lack of transportation, little access to healthcare and real challenges of facing trauma. They experienced more illness, their families experienced more illness during the pandemic, and certainly have been challenged by a lot more death and trauma that's affected kids and families...

这一流行病确实加剧了现有的不平等现象。因此，经济困难的孩子比以往任何时候都更有可能面临住房不安全，缺乏交通工具，很少有机会获得医疗保健和面对创伤的真正挑战。他们经历了更多的疾病，他们的家人在大流行期间经历了更多的疾病，当然也受到了更多的死亡和创伤的挑战，这些都影响到了孩子和家庭...

We're also seeing some chronic absence among more middle-class, non-high-needs kids, especially this past fall… And I think that's because there are some issues—kids’ concerns about schools, physical health and safety, and emotional health and safety and just a lot of anxiety—that is affecting more kids of all backgrounds, though the biggest challenges tend to be kids who are more economically challenged.

我们也看到更多的中产阶级、非高需求的孩子长期缺席，尤其是在去年秋天.... ——我认为这是因为一些问题--孩子们对学校、身体健康和安全、情感健康和安全的担忧以及大量的焦虑--正影响着更多来自各种背景的孩子，尽管最大的挑战往往是那些经济状况更差的孩子。

You’re pointing to mental strain as a factor driving middle-class chronic absence. How’s it affecting those who are also experiencing housing insecurity and other fundamental issues?

你指出精神紧张是导致中产阶级长期缺席的一个因素。它如何影响那些同样面临住房不安全和其他基本问题的人？

It just means they have it on top of all those things. The concerns about health, sometimes missing school and having anxiety about coming back, affects all kids. But then on top of that, low-income kids have even these additional challenges.

这只是意味着他们把它放在所有这些事情之上。对健康的担忧，有时缺课和对返校感到焦虑，影响着所有的孩子。但除此之外，低收入家庭的孩子甚至还有这些额外的挑战。

One of the things I think that's been really hard is that there are more kids who not only are affected by attendance challenges, but they've missed school, so there are challenges of how do you make up for the lost time in the classroom. And last year's quarantines—which might have been important for health reasons—didn't always have good mechanisms for keeping kids connected to what was being taught in the classroom, as well as making sure that they can stay connected to their peers...

我认为真正困难的一件事是，有更多的孩子不仅受到出勤率挑战的影响，而且他们错过了学校，所以你面临着如何弥补在课堂上失去的时间的挑战。而去年的隔离--出于健康原因可能是重要的--并不总是有很好的机制让孩子们与课堂上所教的内容保持联系，以及确保他们能够与同龄人保持联系......

One of the things that can affect kids of any background is that you miss school, and if you can't find ways to stay up on the learning, then you don't want to come to school, because you don't know what's going on. And you feel embarrassed. That’s happened much more. Kids with fewer resources are much less likely [to be able to]—and this was true even before the pandemic—make up for lost time in the classroom, and so it affects them even more.

有一件事会影响任何背景的孩子，那就是你错过了学校，如果你找不到方法坚持学习，那么你就不想去学校了，因为你不知道发生了什么。你会感到尴尬。这种事经常发生。资源较少的孩子更不可能（有能力）--甚至在大流行之前就是如此--弥补失去的课堂时间，因此大流行对他们的影响更大。

Have—or should—the ways chronic absence is being addressed change?

解决长期缺席的方式是否已经或者应该改变？

I think we realize [the importance of providing support] when you see really high levels of chronic absence, like 30-40-50 percent of your kids chronically absent. It means that the positive conditions for learning these things actually have been eroded for lots of kids. And improving attendance requires us to invest in those positive conditions for learning.

我认为，当你看到真正高水平的长期缺席，比如30-40- 50%的孩子长期缺席时，我们就会意识到（提供支持的重要性）。这意味着对很多孩子来说，学习这些东西的积极条件实际上已经被削弱了。提高出勤率需要我们投资于那些积极的学习条件。

There's a much greater understanding, I think, about the critical importance of relationship-building in schools. One of the keys to making sure that kids will show up to school is making sure every child in a district or in a school is connected to a caring adult, making sure that that's built into how the classrooms operate, and making sure that the structure of school emphasizes relationship building.

我认为，人们对在学校建立关系的至关重要性有了更深刻的理解。确保孩子们来上学的关键之一是确保一个地区或学校的每个孩子都能和一个有爱心的成年人联系在一起，确保这一点被纳入课堂运作方式，确保学校的结构强调建立关系。

But then I think that this isn't just because of the pandemic. It's also because of the adoption of chronic absence as part of accountability metrics, and more districts than ever have data systems that allow you to notice which kids are chronically absent. But then you can not only invest in relationship-building, but you can use your data on a chronic absence to figure out, are there some kids who need extra engagement, extra support, for that relationship building to occur?

但我想这不仅仅是因为流行病。这也是因为采用了长期缺课作为问责制指标的一部分，而且比以往任何时候都多的地区拥有数据系统，可以让你注意到哪些孩子长期缺课。但是你不仅可以投资于建立关系，还可以利用长期缺席的数据来了解，是否有一些孩子需要额外的参与和支持，才能建立关系？

Another thing that I think [there is] some promising activity around is a greater recognition that we have to create more supports to address health issues in schools. So more schools are making sure that they actually have a school nurse or investing in telehealth, because there became really clear health issues during a pandemic. Health issues can make kids not show up to school.

我认为还有一件事是，人们更加认识到，我们必须为解决学校的健康问题提供更多的支持。因此，越来越多的学校正在确保他们实际上拥有一名学校护士或投资于远程医疗，因为在大流行期间出现了非常明显的健康问题。健康问题会使孩子们无法上学。

So part of going to school is making sure that we support the health and well-being of students, whether that's making sure that students have access to needed services in screening, whether that's making sure that chronically absent kids have a service plan, whether that's making sure that you have a school nurse who can help to assess what are the big health-related barriers going on and address them as part of your improvement plan for a district.

因此，上学的一部分是确保我们支持学生的健康和福祉，无论是确保学生在筛查中获得所需的服务，还是确保长期缺课的孩子有服务计划，还是确保你有一名学校护士，可以帮助评估与健康相关的主要障碍，并将其作为一个地区改善计划的一部分加以解决。

I want to take a step back for a second while I wrap my brain around that. Can you help me spell out some of the consequences of chronic absence over a long period?

我想退一步想一想我的脑子里在想什么。你能帮我详细说明长期缺席的一些后果吗？

Well, certainly we know that when kids are chronically absent they're less likely to, for example, read well in kindergarten.

当然，我们知道，当孩子们长期缺课时，他们不太可能，例如，在幼儿园读得很好。

Chronic absence can affect kids' learning, as well as their social-emotional development. And if chronic absence persists, it can affect your ability to read and count well, in [say] third grade. It can affect your middle school achievement, and it actually gets connected to an increase in suspensions or behavioral challenges.

长期缺席会影响孩子的学习，以及他们的社会情感发展。如果长期缺课持续下去，可能会影响你的阅读和计算能力，比如说三年级。长期缺课会影响你的中学成绩，实际上长期缺课与停学或行为挑战的增加有关。

And by high school, chronic absence can be an early warning sign that you're more likely to drop out.

而到了高中，长期缺席可能是一个早期预警信号，表明你更有可能辍学。

There’s been a fair bit of reporting about suspensions being used as a punishment for absences. But I don’t have a sense of how common that is across the country. How common is it?

有相当多的报道称，停课被用作对缺勤的一种惩罚。但我不知道这在全国有多普遍。这有多普遍？

I know in California—I live in California—we passed a law that was about treating alternatives to suspension. [The law] specified that schools need to really find alternatives to suspension for kids who are truant. So I don't hear about suspensions in California very often.

我知道在加州，我住在加州，我们通过了一项法律，是关于处理停学的替代办法。[法律]规定，学校需要真正为逃学的孩子找到停学的替代办法。因此，在加州我不经常听到停课的消息。

I know that in Rhode Island—this was like 15 years ago—some superintendent got really horrified when she saw that a lot of the reasons why kids were being suspended was truancy. And so she actually put a stop to that and passed a state law to make it illegal in Rhode Island to suspend kids for truancy.

我知道在罗得岛州——大概是15年前——一些主管看到很多孩子被停学的原因都是逃学，她感到非常震惊。所以她实际上制止了这种行为，并通过了一项州法律，规定在罗德岛州因逃学而停学是非法的。

So there's been a long debate about positive versus punitive and what works better, and I think people would have been moving some away from taking a punitive approach. But there are certainly some places that might do it...

所以，关于积极和惩罚以及哪种方法更好的争论已经持续了很长时间，我认为人们已经开始远离惩罚方法。但肯定有一些地方可能会这样做……

In any case, I would say that I don't know. There are some places that do that. I don't know how common it is. And I think there are some places who thought to reform and avoid the use of suspensions for truancy.

无论如何，我会说我不知道。有些地方就是这么做的。我不知道这有多普遍。我认为有一些地方想要改革，避免对逃学使用停学。

What’s Attendance Works’ view on that?

考勤工作组对此有何看法？

Our view is that you need to start with positive prevention, and not punitive approaches. And there's never been any research that would suggest that punitive approaches work. In fact, there is research from South Carolina—this isn't suspension—but that showed that kids who ended up in the legal system, actually, their attendance got worse compared to kids who didn't end up in the legal system.

我们的观点是，你需要从积极的预防开始，而不是惩罚性的方法。从来没有任何研究表明惩罚性方法有效。事实上，有一项来自南卡罗来纳州的研究--这不是停学--但研究表明，那些最终进入法律体系的孩子，实际上，他们的出勤率比那些没有进入法律体系的孩子更差。

The legal system and legal strategies are both more expensive and generally less effective. A legal strategy is assuming that the problem is the kids missing school because they don't want to be there and deterrence works.

法律制度和法律战略都比较昂贵，而且一般都不太有效。法律策略是假设问题是孩子们因为不想上学而逃学，而威慑是有效的。

That may be true for some kids, but the vast majority of kids miss school because they face a barrier. Yeah, the key to solving and improving attendance and solving chronic absence is understanding the barriers and then addressing them.

对一些孩子来说，这可能是真的，但绝大多数孩子旷课是因为他们面临障碍。是的，解决和提高出勤率和解决长期缺勤的关键是了解障碍，然后解决它们。

Do you have a feeling or a sense for whether this issue is being treated as seriously as it deserves across the country?

你是否感觉到这个问题在全国范围内是否得到了应有的重视？

I think heightened numbers and levels of chronic absences are creating a much greater sense of awareness, and the fact that chronic absences are an accountability metric in 36 states is causing a ton of attention on this.

我认为，长期缺勤的数字和水平的提高正在创造一种更大的意识，而长期缺勤在36个州是一种问责指标的事实正在引起人们对这个问题的关注。

Now, whether it's sufficient? I think that solving it is going to require that we work across departments, and we work as a whole community to address it. But I think it is certainly on the radar screen in a way that it hasn't been before. Whether that's going to translate into sufficient cross-departmental and cross-agency collaboration, I don't know.

现在，这是否足够？我认为，解决这个问题需要我们跨部门合作，需要我们作为一个整体来解决这个问题。但我认为，这个问题肯定以前所未有的方式出现在雷达屏幕上。我不知道这是否会转化为充分的跨部门和跨机构合作。

How should your average educator—who’s interested in doing what they can to alleviate this problem—be engaging with chronic absence?

普通教育者--他们有兴趣尽他们所能来缓解这个问题--应该如何应对长期缺席吗？

You need to take a look at data, see where is chronic absence a challenge (who's most affected?). Second, you need to reach out and figure out what the causes are. What are the things that are getting in the way of kids coming to school?

你需要看看数据，看看长期缺席在哪里是一个挑战（谁受到的影响最大？）第二，你需要主动出击，找出原因。是什么阻碍了孩子们上学？

Is it about barriers in the community? For your kids, what's going on? Are they facing barriers of housing insecurity or transportation or community violence? Is it that they're feeling so nervous about showing up to school that the school isn't offering what they need, that they're experiencing aversion, or that you are using punitive approaches like suspension or other things that seem unfair, and then the kid doesn't want to come to school when they can come to school? Is it that school isn’t interesting and they're not able to forge connections to peers or adults? Or is it that kids don't really recognize the value of what they're learning at school?

是关于社区内的障碍吗？对于你的孩子，发生了什么？他们是否面临住房不安全或交通或社区暴力的障碍？是不是他们对出现在学校感到非常紧张，以至于学校没有提供他们所需要的东西，他们正在经历厌恶，或者你正在使用惩罚性的方法，如停课或其他似乎不公平的事情，然后孩子在可以来学校的时候却不想来学校？是学校不有趣，他们无法与同龄人或成年人建立联系？或者是孩子们没有真正认识到他们在学校所学的价值？

You need to be able to unpack what's going on, to figure out what your solutions are… And my last thing is: You need to have a team to do this. You need to have a team that will look at the data with you, will unpack the challenges and the assets with you and make sure that everyone's working together to put in place a prevention-oriented, tiered support system.

你需要能够解开正在发生的事情，找出你的解决方案是什么...我最后要说的是：你需要有一个团队来做这件事。你需要一个团队，与你一起查看数据，与你一起解决挑战和资产，并确保每个人都在共同努力，建立一个以预防为导向的分层支持系统。

Is there anything else you want to say?

你还有什么要说的吗？

I would just say that a key in all of this is going to be relationship-building. Kids are more likely to come to school when they feel connected to an adult who cares. Kids are more likely to tell you—and [their] families are more likely to tell you—what's going on if they feel like they're in a relationship with you.

我只想说，所有这一切的关键是建立关系。当孩子们感觉到与一个关心他们的成年人有联系时，他们更有可能来上学。孩子们更有可能告诉你——他们的家人也更有可能告诉你——发生了什么。

And so, however [educators] carry out this work, you’ve got to invest in the relationship-building that's so critical to motivating kids to show up and to actually being able to generate the trust that allows kids and families to share with you what's really keeping them from getting to school.

因此，无论教育工作者如何开展这项工作，你都必须投资于关系建设，这对激励孩子们去上学至关重要，也能真正产生信任，让孩子们和家人与你分享真正阻碍他们上学的原因至关重要。