A new tactic was born to relieve East of its high number of daily tardies. Known as T-passes, these little buddies were conceived to aid teachers with first block classes to keep a tight rein on who’s tardy and who’s not, but one question remains… will it even work.
The goal of this tiny paper is kind of a blur as students are not too happy and don’t see the point and teachers….. well they either use the method or they don’t, so no one really knows what to think of these sheets of paper, except that their really annoying.
“They’re made to make students on time but students don’t care about the t-passes,” sophomore Kathy Le said.
“It makes students later and there is no point, I think the system will fall flat,” Le said.
Despite what students may think there are high hopes by the district and administration that this is a good way to track consecutives trends of tardiness.
“The T-pass is a district initiative to count how many kids are late and the times they are late to keep track of time trends,” Mr. Niebaam said
There has been a slight decrease of tardy students in the first week of the new system. With this new strategy, there is hoped to be a continuous decrease in the student demography. It is a way to hold students accountable and also for students to hold themselves accountable and make an attempt to be on time to prepare better habits for the future.
“This is your job right now if you’re late 20 minutes to school every day you’ll be 20 minutes late to work every day,” Niebaam said.
The T-passes were made to spread benefit amongst teachers and students as well as take responsibility for the duty of each party. It helps teachers have more accuracy when taking attendance without having to remember faces and it avoids bias’ teachers may have towards students. Students take being on time seriously to avoid the nuisance of getting a T-passes and being bombarded by hall monitors.
“I think it’s good for system,” Niebaam said.
This is a strategy that must have taken meticulous work for staff like Mr. Niebaam to be so supportive and dedicated to its progress but who could come up with such an idea to turn attendance around.
The vision of the t pass is inspired to help students take hold to their education and be accountable in a space of growth, learning, and preparation for a bright future.
“For the system it’s worth it, “Niebaam said.