Academy of Alameda’s AttenDANCE Rewards Success

By Matt Huxley, Academy of Alameda Executive Director

In our ongoing effort to support our students’ in all facets of their education, we have recently implemented a program to inspire them to be on time to class as attendance is closely linked to student performance.

All students who have five or fewer tardies in the second trimester will be invited to the AttenDANCE. The free dance is invitation only and will feature games, food, raffle prizes and more – much of it provided by our parents through the PTA.

We have encouraged students to keep up their good work throughout the trimester in a variety of ways—including staging a teacher flash mob.

The AttenDANCE occurred during lunch on March 1 in front of hundreds of cheering students. Prior to the performance, staff members practiced the surprise dance (choreographed by teacher, Shannon Kayson) together during lunch and after school.

Recent data points to the success of the dance as a motivator for many students to be on time to their classes. Six weeks in to the trimester, tardies are down dramatically (400 fewer) over the six weeks prior.

Part of that success is due to the administration’s close tracking of tardies — including calling in students to warn them that they were close to losing the AttenDANCE privilege.

Our goal is to make the AttenDANCE one of the top “events of the year.” We will
have another AttenDANCE at the end of the third trimester, and we anticipate that even more students will qualify, based on the enthusiasm generated from the first dance.

While we have high expectations of students (academically, socially, and behaviorally) and want them to work hard to achieve success, we want to make sure that we consistently reward the vast majority of students who are successful in those areas.

We also want to make sure that we provide significant support and incentives to those who may be under-performing so that they will have those opportunities in the future.