Today, in conjunction with September, recently named by Mayor Muriel Bowser, “Show Up, Stand Out Attendance Awareness Month,” in DC, the attendance program Show Up, Stand Out (SUSO) launched its newest chapter - a campaign focused on helping middle school students improve attendance. The D.C. Justice Grants Administration, the creators of SUSO, also released the findings of an evaluation of the program’s first full year, which reveal that the middle school program is making a positive impact on students.

 

The launch event was held at Kelly Miller Middle School and was led and facilitated by middle school students who have participated in SUSO. Speakers at the event included DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. More than fifty were in attendance, including teachers, nonprofit organizations, students, parents and educators.  

 

The new SUSO Middle School Program uses school-based clubs, mentorship and peer-to-peer support, to reduce unexcused absences and get more kids showing up to school each day. At the event, Kelly Miller Middle School students who had participated in the WISE and MOST Clubs, facilitated by Men Can Stop Rape, and brought to the campus by Show Up, Stand Out, shared what they saw as their biggest takeaways from the experience. Several called the club experience transformative and helpful. All of the students agree that the clubs helped them not only improve attendance but to put their lives on a more positive track.

 

The evaluation of the program found that the majority of youth who participated in the Show Up, Stand Out Middle School Program improved attendance:

• Overall, 86% of middle school youth who were referred to SUSO during Year 1, were not re-referred for poor attendance in the first three terms of the 2014-2015 school year.

• During the 2013-2014 school year, 53% of middle school students who engaged in the SUSO clubs, reduced their truancy from their previous school year. 

• 71% percent of middle school students referred to the SUSO middle school program in the 2014-2015 school year, increased their school attendance before the end of the year. 

 

Because of its positive evaluation results, Show Up, Stand Out, expanded in the 2014-2015 school year to serve students in 58 low performing, high truancy schools, an increase of 41 schools since the 2012-2013 pilot year. This school year, SUSO will reach 67 schools and work with more than 3,000 students. The initiative, in addition to empowering more middle school students to go to school, seeks to raise awareness citywide of the importance of school attendance for children’s success. 

 

“The new Show Up, Stand Out Middle School Program is all about empowering students to come to school every day,” said Mr. Edward “Smitty” Smith, Director of the DC Justice Grants and Show Up, Stand Out. “Through the school-based clubs, operated by our community partners, SUSO is encouraging more students to make education and their futures a priority.”

 

JGA also unveiled SUSO’s first student-focused public awareness campaign, to be seen on metro stations and buses throughout the District this September. The new PSAs highlight all the things that students miss out on when they skip school. Additionally, attendees learned about JGA’s plans to launch a new, by-teens-for-teens, smartphone app to improve student attendance in 2016.