My friend Mark Douglas, a reporter at WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla., has turned an impressive body of work on teacher absenteeism.

Mark's investigation, limited to Hillsborough (Tampa) and Pinellas (St. Petersburg/Clearwater) counties here in Florida, has set off something of a firestorm. Mark tells me that he has gotten a lot of angry messages from teachers who say they deserve to take sick days, even when they are not sick. Mark found that Fridays are the most popular day for teachers to ditch class. Look at Mark's list of peak days for substitute teachers. Of the top 12 days in Hillsborough County last year, 10 of them were Fridays. Of the top 10 in Pinellas County, eight were on Friday.

Peak Days For Substitutes

Hillsborough

Date	Number of Substitutes	Day of Week
11/7/2007	853	Wednesday
12/7/2007	763	Friday
11/2/2007	748	Friday
12/14/2007	736	Friday
11/9/2007	731	Friday
10/12/2007	727	Friday
10/26/2007	723	Friday
11/30/2007	720	Friday
11/20/2007	714	Tuesday
11/16/2007	713	Friday
09/28/2007	708	Friday
10/5/2007	700	Friday

Pinellas

11/02/2007	686	Friday
11/09/2007	633	Friday
10/22/2007	629	Thursday
10/12/2007	624	Friday
10/26/2007	619	Friday
10/18/2007	612	Thursday
09/28/2007	597	Friday
10/05/2007	566	Friday
11/16/2007	557	Friday
11/30/2007	540	Friday

You should keep in mind, we are talking about millions of dollars in sick pay for these counties.

I asked Mark about the project via e-mail:

Tompkins: During your investigation, what did you learn about how closely schools track teacher sick days? Why does it matter?

Mark Douglas

Douglas: Every school system has to budget for substitutes, and the budget in Hillsborough County, for example, amounts to $10 million. But when we asked for a school-by-school breakdown of teacher absences, neither Hillsborough nor Pinellas (where the budget is $5 million) had that information readily available. My takeaway from that and from speaking with principals and administrators is that there is some informal monitoring by principals, but it only becomes a disciplinary issue in extreme cases.

I found only about 20 disciplinary cases at the school board level so far this year for about 23,000 teachers in Hillsborough and Pinellas. No one within each school system seems to be looking closely at the big picture or searching for trouble spots in the school system.
This matters because learning suffers when teachers are absent. Substitutes in Hillsborough need only a high school diploma, and in Pinellas a two-year college degree will do. It also costs taxpayers a
bundle to replace teachers in the classroom. In Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, the substitute budgets could pay for a total of 414 full-time teachers.
Tompkins: Why should parents care if teachers call in sick?

Douglas: Because they pay, and so do their kids. A study published last August by a group of Harvard researchers indicates a definable impact on math performance for every 10 days a teacher is absent. Florida teachers anecdotally say "every day counts" for kids preparing for standardized tests such as Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test. Teachers and students tell us that in many cases learning slows or stops when a substitute takes over the classroom. Even when teachers leave lesson plans, they have low expectations. Elementary level substitutes are probably more prepared to takeover than in high school, where the subject matter is more advanced.

Tompkins: Is there a provable link between teachers/schools with high absenteeism and student achievement?

Douglas: The scientific research is limited, but there are specific studies such as the one noted above that claim to measure lower achievement. In Pinellas schools we noted that none of the schools with the highest teacher absenteeism are "A" schools as defined by the state of Florida. This link appears more pronounced at the high school level. Educators say school performance also depends on many other factors not related to teacher attendance. We cannot summarily say teachers skipping school cause failing schools. But it seems logical that if schools are failing for other reasons, it is even more important for teachers to show up for class.

Tompkins: Is there anything schools can do to reduce teacher absenteeism?

Douglas: Researchers and others who've looked at the problem say there are many things that boost attendance: increased pay, incentives for not using sick leave, tightening labor agreements to limit days off or personal days and improving the professional culture of schools. There are also things that don't cost anything, such as making teachers call in sick directly to the principal and fostering teamwork so that teachers cover for each other when they are absent.

Tompkins: What did you learn about which days teachers are most likely to call in sick?

Douglas: We found that Friday is the day of choice in eight out of 10 peak days for substitute demand. The other two peak days were a Thursday and Monday surrounding a Friday professional development day. A flurry of angry responses after our story aired included admissions by a number of teachers that they take days off due to stress, and feel they deserve them. State law in Florida allows 10 sick days, and local union contracts say four or six of those days can be personal days for which no excuse or reason for absence is necessary. In other words, if teachers choose to take off four or six Fridays for
any reason, that's fine with the school systems.

Tompkins: What has the reaction been to this project?

Douglas: Judging by the e-mail response, many teachers are furious. They say they are already overworked, underpaid and under-appreciated, and now they think we are implying they are lazy. We have received a smaller response from parents and teachers who say we've pinpointed a legitimate problem and encourage us to continue our investigation.

The superintendent of Pinellas schools says teacher absenteeism was not something his administrators thought much about until we started asking for data. Now he wants his staff to look at absenteeism more closely to see where it can improve, and how. We're still waiting for a response from Hillsborough's superintendent and are looking at fresh data that the school system has just supplied to us.

At first blush, the Hillsborough data shows a much bigger problem with absenteeism than in Pinellas County. We're asking the Hillsborough schools' IT staff to verify the data's validity before we publish it on our Web site as an interactive database along with the Pinellas data.

In short, this story has become a real fire starter. Viewers have very strong opinions when you start talking about the impact of teachers "marked absent."

NOTE: Our data is based on the first half of this school year. One educator suggests we need to take a longer look back. We went for the must current info.


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