Dunbar Elementary School is experiencing a surge in student attendance, thanks to an impactful partnership with Norfolk Southern that is specifically designed to provide students with the supports they need most.
Since the beginning of the school year, student attendance at Dunbar has increased from 54% to 72%. The school credits the partnership with Norfolk Southern and a plethora of other community partnerships for helping close the attendance gap.
Principal Lakisha Wright also credits the partnership with improved student behavior and family engagement, as well as increased reading scores.
“It truly changed our infraction system here leading up to the fall, and we had less infractions at that time” she said. “There are attendance parties that students look forward to, and we’ve also increased our family engagement by giving parents a voice. Every event that we have, we talk about the importance of attendance. It’s all about coming to school. The kids can do it. It’s just getting them in the building.”
In fact, Wright said engagement activities have grown to over 100 families. Partnerships with other corporate and community organizations like Nordstorm, Kenley’s, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Sheltering Arms, as well as a local women’s ministry, provide students and families with shoes, clothing, books, and other supports and resources.
Thanks to the support of these partnerships, Dunbar staff is able to feed families and provide reading and math strategies that families can use with their children at home.
“Our parents already know that we want their kids at school everyday,” Wright said. “Everything is about bringing your kids to school. If they bring them to school, we can teach them. But we can’t teach them if they’re at home. That’s been the biggest difference to us. Everybody in the building preaches the importance of attendance.”
Wright said her goal is for Dunbar to achieve an 80% attendance rate. To help achieve that goal, she looks to schools like Barack and Michelle Obama Academy for inspiration and best practices. In addition to posters and t-shirts, Wright incorporates school signage and distributes newsletters emphasizing the importance of attendance and school pride.
“I’m learning that you have to welcome people in, and they have to feel like this is their school in order to take pride in it,” she said. “We want our community to know that we’re just as great and just as grand as everyone else, and it was just welcoming the community in so they know that this is their school.”
Daphney Jeune, development coordinator with the APS Office of Partnerships and Development, said she reached out to Norfolk Southern to determine if Dunbar was a good match for the company’s adopt-a-school model based on data and where the company wanted to move in the education space.
“They loved the idea and wanted to donate $50,000 and move forward with formally adopting the school,” she said of the 2 ½-year partnership.
Jeune added that she’s amazed at Dunbar’s progress and how integral the partnership has been for Wright and her students.
“This is so much more than the partnership… it’s the principal,” she said of Wright. “When we bring in partners and encourage partnerships with different schools, we look at the heart of the principal, where their focus is, and what is going to be a true match. Norfolk Southern particularly was a perfect match for this school and I’m just really excited to see it happening and all the attendance and everything I’m hearing about family engagement. That’s exactly what we’re hoping for.”
Wright also noted that the partnership does not take a cookie-cutter approach. Instead, Norfolk Southern has become part of the Dunbar school family.
“This partnership is specific to the needs of Dunbar, so when a needs assessment is done and you determine what the partnership looks like, it’s different at Humphries [Elementary School] than it is at Dunbar,” Wright explained. “That’s what I love about Partnerships. They look for partners that match the needs of the school, so we won’t have those equity barriers that are pretty evident in the communities that we serve. We never have to worry about backpacks or anything else. That’s a beautiful partnership in and of itself.”
