Attendance Equals Success

Attendance matters! “Every school day counts!” is the mantra at the forefront of Long Island City High School teacher Ms. Melissa Diaz’s work as an educator. She is a Social Studies Teacher in the Global Languages Academy, who began working at Long Island City High School in 2001 and is dually licensed to teach Social Studies and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages).

She believes that an attendance rate of less than 90% negatively impacts a student’s chance at passing his/her classes and even being able to graduate on time. She reminds students daily that being present in class is vital to their success. In the event a student is absent, Ms. Diaz does not hesitate to reach out to parents with phone calls home.

She also connects with parents during parent-teacher conferences. During these conferences, Ms Diaz uses the opportunity to keep parents aware of their child’s performance and attendance. Teaching parents how to use PupilPath gives parents a detail account of their child’s grades and attendance.

Finally, Ms. Diaz shared, “Last year, I taught a period 10 class that had 34 students. My parent outreach guaranteed that every day we either had perfect attendance or close to it. My students all knew their attendance counted. As a result, every student in that class achieved success. Attend today…achieve tomorrow!” Ms. Diaz strongly believes that “when parents and teachers work together, student growth and success becomes evident.”