Data Driven Solutions for Chronic Absenteeism with Innovator Chris Hull

What if a simple tool could improve the way we address chronic absenteeism in schools? Join me, Dr. Lisa Hassler, as I explore this provocative question with Chris Hull, the visionary founder of Otus. In this episode, we uncover how integrating various data points into a single platform can empower educators to swiftly identify at-risk students and create tailored interventions. Discover how technology not only simplifies the teaching process but also enhances a teacher's ability to meet each student's unique needs effectively.

With Chris’s insights, we delve into the capabilities of Otus, a personalized student data management system that not only tracks academic performance but also paints a comprehensive picture of each student. From demographic information to personal interests, teachers gain unprecedented insights, ensuring no detail is lost as students progress through grades. We discuss the importance of connecting attendance data with academic and behavioral indicators, enabling educators to be more proactive in their strategies and ultimately improving educational outcomes.

Through this episode, we emphasize the value of building human connections and taking actionable steps to support student success. 

• Discusses the definition and impact of chronic absenteeism
• Highlights alarming statistics regarding student attendance
• Explores the role of technology in addressing absenteeism
• Provides insights into effective early warning systems
• Emphasizes the importance of family partnerships in education
• Shares success stories of schools improving attendance
• Examines the future of attendance tracking and AI implementation

Chapters

• 0:09 Data-Driven Solutions for Chronic Absenteeism
• 10:12 Personalized Student Data Management System
• 16:10 Enhancing Student Support and Communication
• 22:50 Effective Strategies for Addressing Chronic Absenteeism
• 30:08 AI Technology Enhances Student Success
• 37:05 Building Connections for Student Success

Transcript

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 0:09

Welcome to the brighter side of education, research, innovation and resources. I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler, here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In today's episode, we focus on the impacts of chronic absenteeism and how data-driven tools can be used to identify and support these students. Recent research shows a surprising trend in education. While 40% of parents prioritize preparing their children for the future as their top educational concern, many aren't aware of just how important attendance plays in that preparation. In 2023, about one in four students missed enough school to be considered chronically absent, and that's just missing two days a month, or about 18 days across the entire school year. Now these missed moments add up to a serious long-term consequence, contributing to those challenges in reading and math achievement that we're seeing nationwide.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 1:21

The Institute of Education Sciences has identified four key areas that can transform how we address this crisis by leveraging text messaging for family communication, implementing data-driven early warning systems, strengthening family partnerships and fostering positive school climates. Among these approaches, the strategic use of technology and data stands out as particularly promising. When schools use early warning systems effectively, they can identify at-risk students before occasional absences become a pattern. Now these digital tools aren't just about tracking numbers. They're about creating comprehensive support systems that enable educators to develop customized interventions, from individualized learning plans to family outreach. To help us understand how these data-driven solutions work in practice, we're joined today by Chris Hull, founder and president of the education technology company called Otus. Chris transformed his classroom experience into a comprehensive student growth platform that helps schools leverage data to support the whole child. As we tackle this growing challenge of chronic absenteeism, we'll explore how educators and parents can work together, using data-driven tools as early warning systems to identify attendance patterns and create pathways for success. Welcome to the show, chris.

Chris Hull: 2:41

I'm really excited to be here. Lisa Really glad to be able to join.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 2:44

Yeah, so let's explore how this technology is making a difference in schools across the country. Now you went from teaching seventh grade social studies to creating a solution used by thousands of schools. What was the moment when you realized teachers needed a better way to understand and support their students?

Chris Hull: 3:01

So the moment that I realized the need for this system really occurred when I was helping other educators for the first time.

Chris Hull: 3:09

So I think, as a lot of teachers understand and feel, much of the job is actually isolating in their own room.

Chris Hull: 3:16

And so my first two years of teaching I was able to really get to know my students and I was able to personalize the curriculum to their needs and interests. But it wasn't until my third year, where we were really in the midst of going one-to-one, where all of a sudden I was in other classrooms and suddenly I realized that in my classroom it was actually I needed the technology, I needed that device to save time. But in these other classrooms it became really apparent that not every teacher has the same technical ability in terms of using technology or the same data literacy ability, and so we really needed a system and this is where Otus comes into play that would be able to simplify the actions to help a kid, to help a kid learn, to help to facilitate learning, but then to also simplify all of this information we have about a kid and really streamline it. And it became a moment where all of a sudden, this eureka moment happened, where the device alone is not going to solve it.

Chris Hull: 4:23

You know teachers need to be empowered. Teachers need to be able to be the one in control, and if they're trying to bounce between 15, 16 different systems, that just takes too much time, and the most valuable resource teachers have is time, and so it was a really cool moment to say, hey, how can we bring all this together to make teachers more efficient and really save them time, and that will give them more opportunity to work with their kids.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 4:47

Yeah, absolutely. I think any teacher that's had to run any sort of reports on students like creating an IEP it becomes very labor intensive. And then on top of it there's all of the passwords that you have to remember and the logging in and maybe renewing the passwords, and I don't have access to last year's data. I'm going to have to go to that teacher or go to my administrator, and so there's just a lot of wasted time. And looking at your Otus platform, I just noticed that all of those dots were connected and it was so easy to read. And what a gift to teachers, honestly, to be able to just look at a student and see all of it. I was amazed.

Chris Hull: 5:25

Yeah, and I think your call out to the IEP students I think is a great one, where teachers know that they have so much information about their IEP students. They have this individualized plan that's carried with them. They do see some of those benchmarks, but that's only 10, 15% of their students. How do we provide that for every student? There should be some profile.

Chris Hull: 5:45

That kind of travels with the kid shows their progress on whatever the key metrics. It could be attendance, it could be behavior, but could also be NWA scores or SBAC scores or Bridges scores, any of these assessments that are being used. You just want to be able to say, hey, where was this kid, so I can best help them now, like where were they and where are they? So we can really get to be able to say, hey, where was this kid, so I can best help them now, like where were they and where are they? So we can really get to what needs to happen. And that can take teachers several weeks of a year to get to know kids, and Otus really wants to kind of speed that process up so that you get those insights faster.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 6:18

Studies have shown the importance of connecting attendance data with other indicators like academic performance and behavioral data. How does Otus help educators create a comprehensive picture of student engagement beyond the attendance numbers and intervene before patterns become critical?

Chris Hull: 6:35

Yeah, I think attendance is this huge buzzword and it's always out there and it's absolutely critical because it's oftentimes the first step right, Are you even showing up to school? And that becomes something where it's like, hey, I need to get you there. But there are other elements that need to be considered, which really goes around? Engagement and are they really participating? And Otus allows you to track and understand some of those metrics as well. You're able to see are they turning in assignments late? Are they participating in class? Are they? You know? How have they done? I really think you know.

Chris Hull: 7:11

I have four kids of my own and the most important piece, especially in elementary school, is you want kids to love to go to school so that they can begin to love to learn. You know learning is not easy and there are going to be bumps in the way, but getting a kid going is really important. And then, a lot of times, how to engage with a student is really, really important, because if you know what they are passionate about and I believe every child has a passion it's just about uncovering it. Is it a love for sports? Is it a love for music? Is it a love for a certain artist or a certain video game. Once you're able to tap into a passion and you're able to make relatable these teachable skills or the curriculum back to that passion, they're going to begin to feel successful. And it's amazing when you hear a young child or I taught seventh grade when you hear them talk about something that they were passionate about, it is amazing how much they already know If it's about, like Minecraft, or, if they're a little bit older, maybe Fortnite or any of these video games, like even Mario. The idea is like they become so passionate they love to feel like that expert and when you all of a sudden can tap into that, you're able to then get them going and the complete picture Otus provides allows these patterns to be seen so that you're able to connect with a kid and uncover this, Because the data is not always going to give you the perfect answer, but it's going to allow you to ask the right questions.

Chris Hull: 8:44

I see that you're struggling to understand the motivations of a character in terms of, like a reading standard. Ok, well, let's relate that to something you are passionate about. That type of connection is going to have them open up and it allows you to really address it, and that's really at the teacher level. But it can also be a pattern. Maybe we see something where the kids who are in before school for our morning intervention, where we also provide breakfast, those kids are doing better throughout the day. Well, that might allow you to ask a question like hey, how many of my students are missing their morning meal and all of a sudden it might be that you might unlock something, so it's always being able to ask those right questions that can really uncover some amazing things, questions that can really uncover some amazing things.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 9:26

So now we know that every student who struggles with attendance has their own unique story, like missing breakfast and those who are coming in early to have that breakfast. How does Otus help schools understand the why behind attendance patterns and then create those personalized support plans to address the whole child?

Chris Hull: 9:44

Yeah. So I think one of the ways teachers and educators and administrators are looking at students is you do want to find, you know, you want to know each individual kid. Each individual kid is unique. They have their own history, their own background, context, passions we've mentioned. But there are key groups and trends that might be emerging. Maybe there's a social dilemma, maybe there is something happening with some social groups that you're going to be seeing.

Chris Hull: 10:12

And the way Otus really works is it allows you to look at either a single student or you can create groups of students and look so you could say, hey, how are my third grade students who are in my morning intervention doing versus the ones that are not? Or how are my third grade students who have an IEP, who are in an afterschool resource program or participate in a sport or participate in an extracurricular activity, how are they doing? And all of a sudden, because you're able to break down how different groups are doing, you can begin to ask those questions that are going to uncover what's needed. And once, all of a sudden, you say, hey, I'm seeing a trend, not just with one student, and that's really where teachers come into play. When you're talking about a single student. I think that's really the role of the teacher. The teacher is going to be able to know how their classroom is doing, know how your group's doing, and the teachers are really problem solving. But for the administrator, the teachers are really problem solving, but for the administrator, hey, I'm seeing a trend where all my students in seventh grade who are in a sport, they're really struggling with homework completion.

Chris Hull: 11:17

Well, maybe we need to look at what is our afterschool practice policy. How is that working? Are we giving them enough time to do it? And they're allowing you to then kind of dig in and once you're able to group kids, now you can all of a sudden say, hey, we realize these 10 kids don't have a breakfast every morning. What can we do? Hey, let's get them into our breakfast program. Or these students need extra help in informational reading. So what we're going to do there is with the informational reading. We might create a small group in their ELA class where we can give them extra practice. Or maybe there is a extension block where we can really target a fundamental skill that's going to really unlock something in the future.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 11:58

Okay, so I'm a teacher. I'm going into Otus Paint the picture of what it would look like for a teacher. What information? Because you're talking about sports. You're talking about interest. If I open up a file on a child, does it show me what sports that they're in, that they have been? Are teachers able to like, add notes in there to say they really love Minecraft or they're really into Legos or something? So is that data there? Can you tell us what they would see?

Chris Hull: 12:24

Yeah, so we really work with the district and there's certain information that we get from every district. So for every district we get their rostering information. So what? Or orchestra student? Hey, this student plays a sport. So we can really get a very robust range of these attributes of a student. Also, because Otus can work longitudinally, we can say hey, this student was an IEP student in first grade to fourth grade, but now in fifth grade they were exited in fourth grade.

Chris Hull: 13:06

Well, that's that's important information. In addition, we're able to pull in those state assessments or those local assessments to give you kind of that benchmark data, so longitudinally you can say, hey, this is where they were in third grade, this is where they were in fourth grade. So you can kind of see this is the progress they've made. And then you are able to also add notes to a student and those notes live with that student's profile, their time in there, and so those notes could be files that you might want to upload again, some IEPs, but they could also be just their passions. So you know, some of our districts do a really great job where in like first and second grade, they kind of have like a capstone summary what are they passionate about, what did they learn, what was their favorite part of the grade and they will actually attach that to their profile. So then those districts kind of have this is the first grade snapshot from that kid's voice. And so when I open as a teacher I'm able to look at that student. I can see their demographic information, I can see their academic information, I can see their attendance information. But then I also have this kind of collection of these past notes and information that's given from teacher to teacher and it allows you to again do so much more. But those are kind of the key pieces of kind of painting that complete picture and I can see that individual student profile.

Chris Hull: 14:22

But the real power is I can then look at any of those groups or attributes and say, hey, who else shares that attribute? And then all of a sudden I can create that group of IEP students 504 students, ell students and then I can say, hey, how are my third grade ELL students doing? Or how are my third grade IEP students doing? And then you could also break it down by gender, you could break it down by ethnicity and you could really even compare. So you can either look at how a group's doing or you can compare several groups and say, how are my different ethnicities doing in third grade? Or how are my different school buildings doing? Maybe one building's crushing it.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 15:00

It makes me think about teacher files on a student right and you've got maybe the parent notes and stuff like that, or your notes or your data that you've collected over the year Then you pass that on to the next teacher who's going to have that child so that they have that information.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 15:15

And sometimes they don't get it in time, Sometimes they don't look at it or they get lost or maybe it's not as robust as we had hoped. This sounds as though it is taking the place of that, in the sense that now you don't have to worry about if the second grade teacher left and no one knows where those files are or whatever happened. Everything is there. And when I think about things that you'd want to know about like there was a death in the family, maybe they've had to move several times, maybe a parent lost their job, so there's economic hardship, emotional hardship, so trauma, where later on you see the ripples of that effect and as a teacher that's very important for us to know, because then we have kind of that why to understand what it is that they're experiencing and then have better conversations.

Chris Hull: 16:00

I think you nailed it, and so one of the motivations for me was actually something that you mentioned I had a seventh grade student that I really enjoyed and I coached soccer, and so that was in the fall. So I coached him in soccer. He was in my seventh grade social studies class. He was in my lunch, you know. I used to let students come into my room during lunch. I got to know him really well. I got to know his little brother and little sister and he then wanted to try out for the basketball team and he had never played basketball before and I really got the feeling that, hey, he just wanted to be around me, which was awesome, like super cool kid. And then all of a sudden we went on a field trip and this is in January, so we're talking.

Chris Hull: 16:35

I got to know this kid really pretty well and we're on a field trip and I was of a pretty loud voice, uh, and I yelled for everybody to get ready on the bus and he had been semi near me because you know, we were talking, and all of a sudden I saw him kind of shudder like a little bit, just like this small movement, and I was like huh, and after the field trip. I kind of went to the social worker and I was like, hey, you know this student, you know. He seemed to shudder when I raised his voice, like, oh yeah, he lost his father when he was in fourth grade and all of a sudden I was like, oh, I'm the only male teacher at the time for that grade. That was like a core teacher that he had. I'm like that's why he really just bonded and that's also why he always had his siblings there Like okay, and it was funny, because they're like, oh, didn't you know? And I'm like, well, in fourth grade it was huge deal.

Chris Hull: 17:23

And in fifth grade, again fourth fifth, that was like a single building. They had known that it had been known and they had told the sixth grade team that. But in that articulation meeting he'd been doing so well he wasn't a high flyer, he'd really turned around. His engagement with school is super high in activities like soccer and basketball, always participating, always so good with the younger kids, looking out like he was such a good mentor to these kids. Because it wasn't these high-flying kids. There wasn't an issue, that super important information wasn't articulated from year to year to year in that game of telephone and we kind of want to prevent that. He's one of the students. I still think about how this bit of information can really unlock, and if you have those teachers who know you, that's really where you can really do incredible things.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 18:12

Yeah, and that brings us to the next part, and that is how Otus can help schools manage and coordinate those various intervention strategies, those counseling services, all the way to family outreach, to ensure that they're providing that consistent, effective support. So can you talk about how Otus can help?

Chris Hull: 18:31

Yeah, I think that schools and educators have so much on their plate and oftentimes it's hard to really know when you're in the midst of it am I making an impact? Am I making that difference? And really what Otus can do is it can really affirm what is working and what is not. And all of a sudden it becomes like, hey, this program, this intervention program or this family outreach program is working. Again, Otus saves time but it also allows you to focus on what's going to really make a difference and that allows you to provide this really consistent and effective support because you have confidence in it, you feel it and there's nothing more motivating when you can kind of unlock that in a kid, when you can feel that impact. It kind of energizes you to do more and Otus really helps you see that. And it allows schools to feel their success and to really kind of redouble their efforts where they need to be.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 19:25

So if a child, let's say, was having some counseling services, or maybe they had behavioral issues and certain strategies were in place, would those things be in Otus so that a teacher, who maybe had not put those things into place, had not known about the counseling service, would know that?

Chris Hull: 19:43

Yeah. So those are some notes that would definitely be added to the profile and it's going to allow it to live with that student and so that's where, if they're in a certain group, and that's how a lot of I mean I keep on going back to these groups but a lot of students say, hey, this student was participating in this group and we'll have the start date and the end date, and a lot of times that program's kind of known in the school so you don't really need all the background. You might just say, hey, this reading program entails this and that might live outside Otus, but you know when they're in the program. But the real cool part is you might all of a sudden see this really great reading intervention. You see this growth. They exit the reading intervention.

Chris Hull: 20:22

Right, it's a tier two you know RTI piece and it's like, hey, or if it's MTSS, it's like, hey, we're going to now go to a different tier of support. Well, unfortunately, some students kind of might regress back into needing it, and that might give you some insight a year later, two years later, to say, hey, this student's been kind of gone in and out twice, let's keep them in a little longer. Therefore, you're going to be able to better understand what is working, what's not. To be more proactive.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 20:50

Yes, it's very user-friendly, visibly easy to understand and nicely laid out.

Chris Hull: 20:56

Yeah, we really pride ourselves in our ease of use, but it's one of those never-ending pursuits. That's actually why we're going to be offering the option for districts to use some AI tools later this year, because we think the AI could be again an assistant for them to help them save time. Everything comes back to saving time, so you can provide those insights to them, so they can connect with kids and really make a difference in their lives.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 21:21

Absolutely. How does Otus connect and facilitate those meaningful conversations between teachers and families when it comes to attendance, and can you share any success stories about how that homeschool connection has helped turn around some attendance challenges?

Chris Hull: 21:37

Yeah, I think the biggest piece comes back to students when they're struggling and they feel overwhelmed and they feel like they're just not successful. Those are most often when attendance problems emerge. They don't feel connected, they don't feel engaged, they feel like they're just not successful. Those are most often when attendance problems emerge. They don't feel connected, they don't feel engaged, they feel like they're just failing at everything they do and it's like they can't get out of it. It's just like this cycle, and where Otus helps with that is it really can help break down very specific skills that are happening where all of a sudden, hey, we're really struggling with reading. You know certain elementary grades can be tough. If all of a sudden, now you know you turn from where it's, you're asked to read everything, reading is a struggle. How do we do that? And so what we're able to do is, hey, let's help those students with again, I go, go back to the reading intervention. So much involves with it. But it can be math too, where, if all of a sudden you really hit this roadblock and what can happen is by giving that information to all stakeholders, you all of a sudden are on the same page. So Otus allows this information to be seen by students and families and so that family feels like they're connected to this information. They're connected to this state assessment information and so all of a sudden they're better able to understand. We do a lot of work with standards-based grading too.

Chris Hull: 22:54

My favorite anecdote about this is actually about my own kids. We didn't quite struggle with attendance, but my oldest daughter, who's now in fifth grade this actually happened two years ago in third they always loved to read, but suddenly they were becoming a little bit more apprehensive and we kind of heard from the teacher that they were less engaged and again catching this really early and it was because they felt like they couldn't get over this hump about really being able to understand the key points of a text. And again I use this example, which is funny because the motivations of a character and on their actions and they couldn't do it and they kept on taking these like quick checks and pre-checks and they kept on getting the questions wrong. And my daughter, who I adore, she began to become a little bit more withdrawn, a little bit more isolated. She didn't want to put herself out there because she really couldn't quite figure this out.

Chris Hull: 23:47

We were reading the Harry Potter series and it was just a simple question that I was able to with Otus. I was seeing this struggle on a standard where she had been attempting it four or five times, just unsuccessfully, and all of a sudden I know that just was being measured, it had to be done more unsuccessfully. And all of a sudden, I know that's just what's being measured, it had to be done more. Well, suddenly, when we were reading the book, we would pause like, oh man, why do you think Harry Potter did that? Oh, why did he go to Hagrid's hut when everyone told him he should stay in his dorm room? Like, what about him? Is making him do these choices?

Chris Hull: 24:16

And she loved Harry Potter. And she could go on and on and it was like it began to click that all of a sudden she just needed to understand the character and now she does it all the time with all of it. But it was really this extra subtle practice around something she was passionate about in a safe space which really unlocked her. And then I was talking to her teacher like all of a sudden, oh, she burst through that wall and again, small thing. But those small obstacles can add up if we don't overcome them. If all of a sudden, one obstacle becomes 12,. All of a sudden, those 12 obstacles seem insurmountable and really by unlocking those little things, those little wins add up to really great success.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 24:57

Yeah, so what you're referring to is state assessments and they're looking at skills and standards, and so what the system does is it allows them not only to see the score, but maybe areas that they need to be working on, areas that they're excelling in, areas that they are needing growth, and so, as a parent, you would be able to see that data.

Chris Hull: 25:18

Yeah, and you also are able to see that for the teachers who are giving assessments in their class, you can kind of see those formative kind of quick check assessments, so you're able to see that, those state assessments, those benchmark assessments. But you're also able to see the information on maybe it's just an observation that the teacher entered into this, or maybe it's a quiz they took, or maybe it's a you know two question exit ticket took, or maybe it's a you know two question exit ticket. You're able to kind of see that information and it's broken down in a way where it's not like they got an 87% in class. It's really talking about how did they do on certain skills, and that becomes much more understandable for a student. Like, oh, my student's struggling to multiply fractions, or they're struggling to multiply fractions, or they're struggling to divide double digit numbers.

Chris Hull: 26:06

Or, in the situation with my daughter, they're struggling to understand how a character's motivations. Well, if I ask my daughter what's going on at school, I'm going to hear all about recess. I'm going to hear all about you know, she's in the school play. I'm going to hear all about that. But I'm not really hearing like, hey, what skills are you learning in math? It really provides you a much better stepping stone to connect with your kids.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 26:28

On an attendance level, if I had a concern and wanted to sit down with a family and discuss attendance patterns that I was seeing and how it was affecting the academic side, I might say you're struggling in writing. But let's look back at the attendance In the mornings. You're consistently 10 minutes late and missing writing or they leave early for a service that they have to have. Well, they're missing social studies and so now their social studies grade is being affected. Saying you're late to a family can come off as accusatory and judgmental, but if you're saying let's look at the data and I'm seeing a pattern and that subject is taking place, and then to be able to have those conversations, to say how can we get you to school? Maybe they're having a problem with transportation or busing and the student doesn't want to take the bus because of a bullying situation.

Chris Hull: 27:20

And I really think that you that touching upon the impact, right, yes, the child's been late, okay, like we all agree to that, but like, what's the impact of that? And really, then you're really trying to get to the root cause. And I think you, you mentioned like a series of possibilities, right, is there something going on at the bus? Is there something we need to do here? Or are they showing up to school right on time but they're not getting to their first period class because they're doing X, y, z?

Chris Hull: 27:45

There's so many possibilities of what's happening, very specific questions. We all of a sudden can actually solve the problem instead of like, oh, you're late, like, get here on, like I think a lot of parents would be like, well, you know, there's so much going on in the morning. There's so much happening where, if all of a sudden you can really engage with the students, like we're realizing this is happening, they can sometimes feel less threatened because it's not binary of like late on time. It's like, no, your lateness is impacting your reading or your lateness is impacting your engagement here. Like, what? What's happening? Let's uncover it. And that does. It's a little bit more of a there's nuance there, but the information is allowing you to ask those really specific questions to address ways to get better.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 28:26

Yeah, absolutely so, Otus. Now it's in over 2,500 schools. What kind of patterns have you observed in how successful schools are using the data and technology to address chronic absenteeism, and do you know of any strategies that seem to be working best?

Chris Hull: 28:48

Yeah, I think that the biggest way is addressing that. It's multifaceted and I think that there is no magic bullet to solve all of it. I think that's the hardest part of this challenge and when we work with all of our schools and districts, each person, like they're all not all, but most are struggling with some form of this and the question is why. You know, some we're finding are having teacher absenteeism, right, and so all of a sudden, when your teachers aren't showing up, that's actually impacting your student absenteeism. And all of a sudden, some of our districts have had to focus not as much on the student they're going to first tackle the teacher and again showing the impact of what happens. And all of a sudden it becomes like a cyclical situation to where, hey, when teachers aren't there, then the kids don't feel as engaged with the teacher, as connected with the teacher. So then, hey, if my teacher doesn't show up. All again, this is a ripple effect and the strategies that are multifaceted are seeming to be working the best and it really comes around being able to engage with your students, to be able to intervene early. It's much easier to all of a sudden get somebody who's beginning to be tardy, beginning to be absent versus like restarting the entire engine. In addition, I think that in certain situations it is pre-reduced meals are a factor. So how can we provide that to be less stigmatizing?

Chris Hull: 30:08

I think schools do an amazing job of being able to kind of see look, this is what happens with some of our programs.

Chris Hull: 30:14

I also think it helps with some of the extension and intervention.

Chris Hull: 30:18

I think I've said intervention a lot, but it also helps with some of the extension activities where all of a sudden you might have a couple of students who are doing great, but then all of a sudden they see all the focus on others and it's like well, what can we do to extend, so you can expand your knowledge?

Chris Hull: 30:33

It allows districts to see which levers to pull more and which levers they need to kind of focus on, or all of a sudden they might identify a gap to really do it. But it's just like every student is unique. Unfortunately, every school district has some unique things and there are patterns in terms of engagement, some of these small academic situations where they have these academic gaps and they feel like those obstacles are just growing. Right, we were talking about going from not just two, three obstacles and skills being focused on. But hey, if it all of a sudden seems insurmountable, breaking that down so students understand hey, you don't need to take 12 steps. We're taking one step today, one step the next day and it's making that progress seem more doable.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 31:17

Are the students flagged at all? How are you notified if there is a pattern that is being seen within the system? Is it their alert? Does it go to the administrators? Go to the teacher.

Chris Hull: 31:28

Yeah, so in our reports you see the groups that fall within the thresholds, and that's a key piece is certain schools have different thresholds and so you're really able to build these custom reports, being able to give you those insights.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 31:40

You mentioned the AI piece. As an assistant to help the educators and families support the students. Can you share your vision on how that technology is going to help create more breakthrough moments for student success?

Chris Hull: 31:52

Yeah, the AI is really need to be seen as like. When I was a teacher, I always was jealous of those college professors that seem to have those TAs to do some of that like administrative grunt work, and it's like man. If I had somebody who could do some of this research for me or do some of this prep for me, how much time would that save or do some of this information gathering and kind of bring all the pieces together. And we see Otus as a technology was starting to do that and it does it really pretty well where, hey, we're making all of this information available in one place, we're making it as easy as possible to use and we're making our data visualizations really understandable. You don't have to be this expert. We really are going to break it down into groups. We see AI taking those key initiatives just one step further. We believe the AI is going to help be that technology assistant being able to help you do some things that might be a little harder to build. Like in Otus, you can build a drag and drop question. Well, eventually, how cool would it be just to use natural language and say I need to build a drag and drop question? Just describe what you want built. That's a little bit further away, but that's something we're looking at. What we're starting with is this ability to again we when I was mentioning earlier teachers have this isolating job. They're often looking at all this data and information alone or with a colleague or two, and so we're going to have an AI assistant coming out and just right in the new year, that's going to allow you to, with the information already about kids, allow you to ask questions what students are struggling on, what standards, or how can I prepare for parent-teacher conferences? I was showing my former superintendent the other day this ability because we're in the testing phase and it's amazing. It's like look at this student and prepare a summary for how they did and anticipate questions that I might get from the parent. It looked at their grade book and their student profile. It had all the information there. I could do this, but it would take me 20, 30 minutes per kid. All of a sudden, the AI summarized the skills of how they were doing, anticipated key questions like hey, this student is struggling on grammar but they're excelling at reading comprehension. Why aren't those two skills linked? And I had to think about it. But in this thing it was like explaining the why, and all of a sudden I still got to fact check it Again.

Chris Hull: 34:18

We don't want to trust it with everything, but this idea is it gets me jump started, it gets me going and all of a sudden I could go back and forth. I'm like, oh yeah, I could see these students are struggling. We have this really nice, pretty visualization. But the confirmation that it was letting me read what I thought I saw in a data visual, it was so cool. I was like this is going to be such a time saver and it's going to really help give those opportunities to kind of remind me what happens.

Chris Hull: 34:44

It was talking about these standards and what it could do and it gave me three activities. I remembered all three activities. It was like pair share, it was create a little skit and these activities that I knew that are in kind of my toolkit. But sometimes it's nice to have those recommendations where it's like, oh, I'm going to pick which one that sounds best, but I don't have to brainstorm, hey, what could I do.

Chris Hull: 35:05

It kind of gave me a starter kit and with that information I don't have to spend 15, 20 minutes a kid preparing for parent-teacher conferences. It did it for me and I could refine it for five minutes a kid. That saves me 15 minutes a kid All of a sudden. All that time now I can put into my lesson planning. I could put into maybe doing some other things, and we have some other great assistants coming, like a grading assistant, but we're really starting with that data analytics assistant or that insights assistant and that communication assistant, because so much of a teacher's job is communication and getting them just off the blank page where everything has to come themselves really is going to get them to be able to connect their kids more and more.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 35:45

The system is unbelievably robust and I love the comprehensive picture that it can give on the whole student. I think it's what all teachers really want to be able to have on their students, so thank you for making it. I wish I would have been able to enjoy it while I was in the classroom, because I think it's really going to be impactful. So where can educators go to learn more and possibly sign up for a demo for Otus?

Chris Hull: 36:09

Definitely so. If you go to Otus, so O-T-U-S dot com, and we use that as organizing technology for us. So the idea is, all of this technology is going to be organized and it's something that families can use, students can use, and then teachers and administrators can use, and so otuscom is where you can learn more, you can see some of the visuals of what it can do. We also have some great videos that are kind of these explainers and then some great success stories all there and you can also request a demo. So definitely the place to go.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 36:42

And I love the transparency between home and school that's so important and very valuable for teachers, but especially parents. So thank you for sharing how educators and parents can work together, using data-driven tools such as Otus as early warning systems, to identify attendance patterns and create those pathways for student success.

Chris Hull: 37:01

Really appreciate the time and it was a joy to be here.

Dr. Lisa Hassler: 37:05

Supporting student attendance and success starts with small steps. Whether you're a teacher spotting early warning signs or a parent noticing changes in your child's engagement, reach out and start that conversation. The tools and technology are there to help, but it's our human connections that truly make a difference. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at lisa at drlisahasslercom, or visit my website at wwwdrlisahasslercom and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know the bigger impact it will have. Subscribe and tell a friend, the more people that know the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast, consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads, affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our children's success.