East High Joins National “Get Schooled Attendance Challenge”
This week, East High School begins participation in a national competition to increase student attendance. East is one of 90 middle and high schools from across the nation in the Get Schooled Attendance Challenge, which runs through November 18, to engage students, teachers and their community in an effort to improve attendance rates.
East, the state’s largest high school, is the only Iowa school taking part in the challenge. They join schools from Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. The winning school earns scholarship money and more for their students. Additional information is available at www.getschooled.com.
“Attendance is the critical factor in improving student achievement and increasing graduation rates,” said East High principal Steve Johns. “This effort is one of the positive steps we are taking at East this year to raise awareness of this issue and improve the education for all of our students.”
During the challenge, schools will earn points for increases in attendance and in student participation in a series of Get Schooled sponsored activities throughout the six week period, including:
• Teachers Who Inspire: Students nominate the teachers who most inspire them to stay focused on school – and earn public recognition for those men and women.
• Listen to Me! What makes a teen want to come to school? Is it the food? The classes? The sports? Their friends? Young people will tell the world what motivates them.
• You Know What? Students will earn point by showing what they know about pop culture, history, sports, science and more.
“The Attendance Challenge will increase awareness about the importance of attendance while giving schools strategies to improve student engagement – using the tools youth prefer when engaging with the world around them”, said Carol Rava Treat, Director of Strategy and Programs at the Get Schooled Foundation. “We are excited to be working with schools all over the country and eager to support their efforts to improve attendance.”
ABOUT GET SCHOOLED: An independent non-profit organization, the Get Schooled Foundation’s founders include Viacom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with significant support from AT&T. Get Schooled engages and empowers Americans to help improve high school graduation rates, improve college readiness and raise college completion rates. It is the only consumer-facing education initiative that aims to complement and support the work of the broader education reform community by leveraging the creative talent, digital and media assets and resources of the country’s top media and consumer brands to truly connect with Americans. To learn more, go to www.getschooled.com or follow Get Schooled at facebook.com/getschooledfoundation or twitter.com/getschooled.