Proven Attendance and Engagement Strategies: The Keystone of Student Success

Presented by Dr. Carletha Shaw-Rolle, Cadre Director CS 1, Broward County Public Schools (FL); Chelsea Montgomery, Executive Director, Office of Student Supports, Fulton County Schools (GA); and Dr. Erin Simon, Assistant Superintendent of School Support Services, Long Beach Unified School District (CA)
​​Moderated by Diane H. Pappas, Esq., Chief Strategy Officer, EveryDay Labs

Sponsored by EveryDay Labs

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As districts align resources to help accelerate student learning, engagement, and wellness, they invest in innovative, evidence-based solutions, practices, and school models. However, the success of all of these efforts, programs, and systems is dependent on students being present to participate.

Attendance begets discovery, exploration, learning, and achievement. But data shows the attendance gap between students from traditionally marginalized communities and those from economically advantaged communities widened during the pandemic, making the need for targeted, proven absenteeism interventions and family engagement more critical than ever.

Watch our panel of forward-thinking district leaders to learn about how they are pulling families into the learning community to support attendance along with other proven strategies to support student success.

This recorded edLeader Panel will be of interest to preK-12 district leaders.

About the Presenters

Dr. Carletha Shaw-Rolle is the Cadre Director CS 1 in the Broward County Public Schools (FL). She is a 28-year educator who works with principals and school staff to help enrich organizational culture to improve school performance. She is a Barbara L. Jackson Scholar and has presented her work on the relationship among leader influence actions, organizational culture, and performance outcomes at the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA) and the American Educational Research Administration (AERA). She served as President of the Broward County Chapter of the National Alliance of Black School Educators for more than a decade, fighting for equitable treatment, resources, and opportunities for students of African descent. In 2015, Legacy Magazine named her one of 40 Most Influential Women in Florida. Most recently, Dr. Shaw-Rolle served on the crisis response team for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where several people lost their lives to a school shooter. Dr. Shaw-Rolle holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in education from the University of Florida. She recently earned a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Florida Atlantic University.

Chelsea Montgomery is the current executive director of the Office of Student Supports in Fulton County Schools. She leads the work in the areas of MTSS, dropout prevention, social and emotional learning, homeless and foster student supports, disproportionality, crisis and care team, employee incidents, and supports related to school psychologists, school social workers, and school counselors. Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from East Carolina University, a graduate certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis from Penn State University, and an Educational Specialist degree in school psychology from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Prior to this position, Chelsea has worked in multiple states and in various roles such as a classroom teacher, interventionist, school psychologist, and district office administrator. Chelsea has also been an adjunct professor for five years at the University of South Carolina-Aiken and is a current doctoral student in educational leadership at Georgia State University. Her research interests include Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, evidence-based education, and implementation science.

Dr. Erin M. Simon leads major reform efforts in school districts. In her current role as the assistant superintendent of school support services for the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Dr. Simon oversees more than 300 staff members and manages a $65,000,000 budget. Dr. Simon leads the direction of the special education and student support divisions, and the Family Resource Centers, which provide social, emotional and behavioral health-related support to students within a cluster of schools in LBUSD. She also provides guidance to the district’s 85 schools, with over 69,000 students, on specialized services that cover compliance and policy, to name a few. Dr. Simon has been recognized and praised for increasing student achievement and school attendance, closing the opportunity gaps between identifiable and pronounced groups of students, and advocating for equitable, robust educational programs, social-emotional interventions and resources to ensure students can reach their potential. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to policy and practice.

About the Moderator

Diane H. Pappas is a nationally recognized executive leader known for implementing cohesive and high-performing strategies for large-scale, complex organizations. She has led several high-profile investigations and successfully managed complex litigations. She recently led a team of more than 300 people in turning around one of the most significant student data projects in the country, My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS), at the nation’s second-largest school district, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Following the success of that initiative, she was appointed Senior Advisor to the Superintendent of LAUSD where she was instrumental in leading the districtwide attendance initiative. A long-time champion for children’s rights, she is passionate about the education and safety of all children. She is also a prolific writer and has published 18 children’s books.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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We unite behavioral science, data science, and evidence-based family outreach to deliver personalized messages that are proven to prevent absences district-wide.