[The following article appears in the September 1995 edition of
_Public_Sector_Quality_Report_, pages 2 and 3.]


                    APPLYING SPC TO THE ABCS

     Baboquivari Middle/Senior High School in Sells, AZ, was
experiencing a serious attendance problem two years ago. Or, to
be more accurate, a serious lack of attendance problem.

     Teachers complained of spending too much time preparing
lessons for absent students. Administrators were seeing
noticeable declines in attendance-based state funding.

     Efforts to boost attendance through a system of rewards
(fast-food restaurant coupons) and punishments (suspensions)
basically resulted in the kids who normally attended school
getting free hamburgers, while the kids who were chronically
absent missed even more time as they served their suspensions.

     It was about this time that Principal Sharron Walker decided
to go searching for root causes of the problem, applying the
principles of systems thinking.

     Walker describes her school's experience in the September
issue of Quality Digest magazine, in what she calls as an attempt
to "test the utility of profound knowledge through the
application of SPC (statistical process control) to a school
attendance problem."

     As a first step, an attendance task force was established,
including teachers, students, parents and administrators. The
task force examined attendance data from 1988 to 1994, searching
for variation or stability in truancy rates.

     Using a series of p charts and Pareto diagrams, the team
probed the data to determine whether attendance patterns were
random (indicative of a predictable, stable system that would
need to be changed in order to improve attendance) or non-random
(indicative that "special causes" were behind the attendance
problem, causes that would need to be identified and corrected in
order to boost attendance).

     The task force found a definite non-random, or what Walker
calls "roller coaster," pattern to attendance, with a peak at the
school year's start (August and September), followed by a
decline, then a spike at the end of the first semester and the
start of the second semester (January and February), followed by
a gradual drop once again.

     Further data analysis found Monday, Friday and Tuesday
(respectively) to be the days when students were most likely to
be absent, followed by Thursday and Wednesday.

     Even more careful analysis allowed the team to develop a
profile of the most severely truant student--one who misses a
half semester or more. More than 20 percent of those chronic
truants fit the following profile: male, ninth grade, 16.1 years
of age, resident of the city, parents unemployed.

     Eventually the task force also surveyed students to find out
they missed school. Their top reasons included: illness, death in
family, oversleeping, sick children, no babysitter,
transportation problems, medical appointments, "ditching,"
suspensions, jail, and hospital treatment for substance abuse or
pregnancy related services.

     Using a check sheet, the task force discovered that students
with children of their own were four times more likely to be
absent than students who were not parents.

     Having discovered a number of non-random causes for the
school's attendance problems, the task force recommended several
improvement strategies, including developing an in-school
suspension program, offering more lunch-time activities for
students, and adding a certified nurse on campus to administer to
students' medical needs.

     Although it's too early to report results, Walker writes
that she's confident the task force has taken the critical first
steps toward understanding, analyzing and attempting to solve the
problem based on facts.

[For further information about PSQR or to subscribe, contact:
Public Sector Quality Report
17733 Kingsway Path
Lakeville, MN 55044-5209
Phone: (612) 898-5058
Fax:   (612) 892-7710
e-mail: 74363.3644@compuserve.com]