January 30, 2025 • 38 mins
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
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Trusted dental care for healthy smiles and stronger communities—building brighter futures daily.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (00:09):
Welcome to the brighter side of education,
research, innovation andresources.
I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler,here to enlighten and brighten
the classrooms in Americathrough focused conversation on
important topics in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
(00:29):
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
student outcomes?
In today's episode, we focus onthe impacts of chronic
absenteeism and how data-driventools can be used to identify
and support these students.
Recent research shows asurprising trend in education.
While 40% of parents prioritizepreparing their children for
(00:51):
the future as their topeducational concern, many aren't
aware of just how importantattendance plays in that
preparation.
In 2023, about one in fourstudents missed enough school to
be considered chronicallyabsent, and that's just missing
two days a month, or about 18days across the entire school
(01:11):
year.
Now these missed moments add upto a serious long-term
consequence, contributing tothose challenges in reading and
math achievement that we'reseeing nationwide.
The Institute of EducationSciences has identified four key
areas that can transform how weaddress this crisis by
leveraging text messaging forfamily communication,
(01:32):
implementing data-driven earlywarning systems, strengthening
family partnerships andfostering positive school
climates.
Among these approaches, thestrategic use of technology and
data stands out as particularlypromising.
When schools use early warningsystems effectively, they can
identify at-risk students beforeoccasional absences become a
(01:52):
pattern.
Now these digital tools aren'tjust about tracking numbers.
They're about creatingcomprehensive support systems
that enable educators to developcustomized interventions, from
individualized learning plans tofamily outreach.
To help us understand how thesedata-driven solutions work in
practice, we're joined today byChris Hull, founder and
president of the educationtechnology company called Otus.
(02:15):
Chris transformed his classroomexperience into a comprehensive
student growth platform thathelps schools leverage data to
support the whole child.
As we tackle this growingchallenge of chronic absenteeism
, we'll explore how educatorsand parents can work together,
using data-driven tools as earlywarning systems to identify
(02:35):
attendance patterns and createpathways for success.
Welcome to the show, chris.
Chris Hull (02:41):
I'm really excited to be here.
Lisa Really glad to be able tojoin.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:44):
Yeah, so let's explore how this technology is
making a difference in schoolsacross the country.
Now you went from teachingseventh grade social studies to
creating a solution used bythousands of schools.
What was the moment when yourealized teachers needed a
better way to understand andsupport their students?
Chris Hull (03:01):
So the moment that I realized the need for this
system really occurred when Iwas helping other educators for
the first time.
So I think, as a lot of teachersunderstand and feel, much of
the job is actually isolating intheir own room.
And so my first two years ofteaching I was able to really
get to know my students and Iwas able to personalize the
(03:23):
curriculum to their needs andinterests.
But it wasn't until my thirdyear, where we were really in
the midst of going one-to-one,where all of a sudden I was in
other classrooms and suddenly Irealized that in my classroom it
was actually I needed thetechnology, I needed that device
to save time.
But in these other classroomsit became really apparent that
(03:46):
not every teacher has the sametechnical ability in terms of
using technology or the samedata literacy ability, and so we
really needed a system and thisis where Otus comes into play
that would be able to simplifythe actions to help a kid, to
help a kid learn, to help tofacilitate learning, but then to
(04:08):
also simplify all of thisinformation we have about a kid
and really streamline it.
And it became a moment whereall of a sudden, this eureka
moment happened, where thedevice alone is not going to
solve it.
You know teachers need to beempowered.
Teachers need to be able to bethe one in control, and if
(04:28):
they're trying to bounce between15, 16 different systems, that
just takes too much time, andthe most valuable resource
teachers have is time, and so itwas a really cool moment to say
, hey, how can we bring all thistogether to make teachers more
efficient and really save themtime, and that will give them
more opportunity to work withtheir kids.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (04:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think any teacher that's hadto run any sort of reports on
students like creating an IEP itbecomes very labor intensive.
And then on top of it there'sall of the passwords that you
have to remember and the loggingin and maybe renewing the
passwords, and I don't haveaccess to last year's data.
I'm going to have to go to thatteacher or go to my
administrator, and so there'sjust a lot of wasted time.
(05:10):
And looking at your Otusplatform, I just noticed that
all of those dots were connectedand 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 ofit.
I was amazed.
Chris Hull (05:25):
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 abouttheir IEP students.
They have this individualizedplan that's carried with them.
They do see some of thosebenchmarks, but that's only 10,
15% of their students.
How do we provide that forevery student?
There should be some profile.
(05:45):
That kind of travels with thekid shows their progress on
whatever the key metrics.
It could be attendance, itcould be behavior, but could
also be NWA scores or SBACscores or Bridges scores, any of
these assessments that arebeing used.
You just want to be able to say, hey, where was this kid, so I
can best help them now, likewhere were they and where are
they?
So we can really get to be ableto say, hey, where was this kid
, so I can best help them now,like where were they and where
(06:06):
are they?
So we can really get to whatneeds to happen.
And that can take teachersseveral weeks of a year to get
to know kids, and Otus reallywants to kind of speed that
process up so that you get thoseinsights faster.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:18):
Studies have shown the importance of
connecting attendance data withother indicators like academic
performance and behavioral data.
How does Otus help educatorscreate a comprehensive picture
of student engagement beyond theattendance numbers and
intervene before patterns becomecritical?
Chris Hull (06:35):
Yeah, I think attendance is this huge buzzword
and it's always out there andit's absolutely critical because
it's oftentimes the first stepright, Are you even showing up
to school?
And that becomes somethingwhere it's like, hey, I need to
get you there.
But there are other elementsthat need to be considered,
which really goes around?
Engagement and are they reallyparticipating?
(06:57):
And Otus allows you to trackand understand some of those
metrics as well.
You're able to see are theyturning in assignments late?
Are they participating in class?
Are they?
You know?
How have they done?
I really think you know.
I have four kids of my own andthe most important piece,
especially in elementary school,is you want kids to love to go
(07:18):
to school so that they can beginto love to learn.
You know learning is not easyand there are going to be bumps
in the way, but getting a kidgoing is really important.
And then, a lot of times, howto engage with a student is
really, really important,because if you know what they
are passionate about and Ibelieve every child has a
(07:40):
passion it's just aboutuncovering it.
Is it a love for sports?
Is it a love for music?
Is it a love for a certainartist or a certain video game.
Once you're able to tap into apassion and you're able to make
relatable these teachable skillsor the curriculum back to that
passion, they're going to beginto feel successful.
And it's amazing when you heara young child or I taught
(08:04):
seventh grade when you hear themtalk about something that they
were passionate about, it isamazing how much they already
know If it's about, likeMinecraft, or, if they're a
little bit older, maybe Fortniteor any of these video games,
like even Mario.
The idea is like they become sopassionate they love to feel
like that expert and when youall of a sudden can tap into
(08:24):
that, you're able to then getthem going and the complete
picture Otus provides allowsthese patterns to be seen so
that you're able to connect witha kid and uncover this, Because
the data is not always going togive you the perfect answer,
but it's going to allow you toask the right questions.
I see that you're struggling tounderstand the motivations of a
(08:47):
character in terms of, like areading standard.
Ok, well, let's relate that tosomething you are passionate
about.
That type of connection isgoing to have them open up and
it allows you to really addressit, and that's really at the
teacher level.
But it can also be a pattern.
Maybe we see something wherethe kids who are in before
school for our morningintervention, where we also
(09:09):
provide breakfast, those kidsare doing better throughout the
day.
Well, that might allow you toask a question like hey, how
many of my students are missingtheir morning meal and all of a
sudden it might be that youmight unlock something, so it's
always being able to ask thoseright questions that can really
uncover some amazing things,questions that can really
uncover some amazing things.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (09:26):
So now we know that every student who
struggles with attendance hastheir own unique story, like
missing breakfast and those whoare coming in early to have that
breakfast.
How does Otus help schoolsunderstand the why behind
attendance patterns and thencreate those personalized
support plans to address thewhole child?
Chris Hull (09:44):
Yeah.
So I think one of the waysteachers and educators and
administrators are looking atstudents is you do want to find,
you know, you want to know eachindividual kid.
Each individual kid is unique.
They have their own history,their own background, context,
passions we've mentioned.
But there are key groups andtrends that might be emerging.
(10:04):
Maybe there's a social dilemma,maybe there is something
happening with some socialgroups that you're going to be
seeing.
And the way Otus really works isit allows you to look at either
a single student or you cancreate groups of students and
look so you could say, hey, howare my third grade students who
are in my morning interventiondoing versus the ones that are
(10:25):
not?
Or how are my third gradestudents who have an IEP, who
are in an afterschool resourceprogram or participate in a
sport or participate in anextracurricular activity, how
are they doing?
And all of a sudden, becauseyou're able to break down how
different groups are doing, youcan begin to ask those questions
that are going to uncoverwhat's needed.
(10:47):
And once, all of a sudden, yousay, hey, I'm seeing a trend,
not just with one student, andthat's really where teachers
come into play.
When you're talking about asingle student.
I think that's really the roleof the teacher.
The teacher is going to be ableto know how their classroom is
doing, know how your group'sdoing, and the teachers are
really problem solving.
But for the administrator, theteachers are really problem
(11:09):
solving, but for theadministrator, hey, I'm seeing a
trend where all my students inseventh grade who are in a sport
, they're really struggling withhomework completion.
Well, maybe we need to look atwhat is our afterschool practice
policy.
How is that working?
Are we giving them enough timeto do it?
And they're allowing you tothen kind of dig in and once
you're able to group kids, nowyou can all of a sudden say, hey
(11:31):
, we realize these 10 kids don'thave a breakfast every morning.
What can we do?
Hey, let's get them into ourbreakfast program.
Or these students need extrahelp in informational reading.
So what we're going to do thereis with the informational
reading.
We might create a small groupin their ELA class where we can
give them extra practice.
Or maybe there is a extensionblock where we can really target
(11:54):
a fundamental skill that'sgoing to really unlock something
in the future.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (11:58):
Okay, so I'm a teacher.
I'm going into Otus Paint thepicture of what it would look
like for a teacher.
What information?
Because you're talking aboutsports.
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 havebeen?
Are teachers able to like, addnotes in there to say they
really love Minecraft or they'rereally into Legos or something?
(12:20):
So is that data there?
Can you tell us what they wouldsee?
Chris Hull (12:24):
Yeah, so we really work with the district and
there's certain information thatwe get from every district.
So for every district we gettheir rostering information.
So what?
Or orchestra student?
Hey, this student plays a sport.
So we can really get a veryrobust range of these attributes
(12:54):
of a student.
Also, because Otus can worklongitudinally, we can say hey,
this student was an IEP studentin first grade to fourth grade,
but now in fifth grade they wereexited in fourth grade.
Well, that's that's importantinformation.
In addition, we're able to pullin those state assessments or
those local assessments to giveyou kind of that benchmark data,
(13:16):
so longitudinally you can say,hey, this is where they were in
third grade, this is where theywere in fourth grade.
So you can kind of see this isthe progress they've made.
And then you are able to alsoadd notes to a student and those
notes live with that student'sprofile, their time in there,
and so those notes could befiles that you might want to
upload again, some IEPs, butthey could also be just their
(13:38):
passions.
So you know, some of ourdistricts do a really great job
where in like first and secondgrade, they kind of have like a
capstone summary what are theypassionate about, what did they
learn, what was their favoritepart of the grade and they will
actually attach that to theirprofile.
So then those districts kind ofhave this is the first grade
snapshot from that kid's voice.
And so when I open as a teacherI'm able to look at that
(14:00):
student.
I can see their demographicinformation, I can see their
academic information, I can seetheir attendance information.
But then I also have this kindof collection of these past
notes and information that'sgiven from teacher to teacher
and it allows you to again do somuch more.
But those are kind of the keypieces of kind of painting that
complete picture and I can seethat individual student profile.
(14:22):
But the real power is I can thenlook at any of those groups or
attributes and say, hey, whoelse shares that attribute?
And then all of a sudden I cancreate that group of IEP
students 504 students, ellstudents and then I can say, hey
, how are my third grade ELLstudents doing?
Or how are my third grade IEPstudents doing?
(14:43):
And then you could also breakit down by gender, you could
break it down by ethnicity andyou could really even compare.
So you can either look at how agroup's doing or you can
compare several groups and say,how are my different ethnicities
doing in third grade?
Or how are my different schoolbuildings doing?
Maybe one building's crushingit.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (15:00):
It makes me think about teacher files on a
student right and you've gotmaybe the parent notes and stuff
like that, or your notes oryour data that you've collected
over the year Then you pass thaton to the next teacher who's
going to have that child so thatthey have that information.
And sometimes they don't get itin time, Sometimes they don't
look at it or they get lost ormaybe it's not as robust as we
(15:21):
had hoped.
This sounds as though it istaking the place of that, in the
sense that now you don't haveto worry about if the second
grade teacher left and no oneknows where those files are or
whatever happened.
Everything is there.
And when I think about thingsthat you'd want to know about
like there was a death in thefamily, maybe they've had to
move several times, maybe aparent lost their job, so
(15:42):
there's economic hardship,emotional hardship, so trauma,
where later on you see theripples of that effect and as a
teacher that's very importantfor us to know, because then we
have kind of that why tounderstand what it is that
they're experiencing and thenhave better conversations.
Chris Hull (16:00):
I think you nailed it, and so one of the
motivations for me was actuallysomething that you mentioned I
had a seventh grade student thatI really enjoyed and I coached
soccer, and so that was in thefall.
So I coached him in soccer.
He was in my seventh gradesocial studies class.
He was in my lunch, you know.
I used to let students comeinto my room during lunch.
I got to know him really well.
I got to know his littlebrother and little sister and he
(16:22):
then wanted to try out for thebasketball team and he had never
played basketball before and Ireally 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 wewent on a field trip and this is
in January, so we're talking.
I got to know this kid reallypretty well and we're on a field
trip and I was of a pretty loudvoice, uh, and I yelled for
(16:43):
everybody to get ready on thebus and he had been semi near me
because you know, we weretalking, and all of a sudden I
saw him kind of shudder like alittle bit, just like this small
movement, and I was like huh,and after the field trip.
I kind of went to the socialworker and I was like, hey, you
know this student, you know.
He seemed to shudder when Iraised his voice, like, oh yeah,
he lost his father when he wasin fourth grade and all of a
(17:05):
sudden I was like, oh, I'm theonly male teacher at the time
for that grade.
That was like a core teacherthat he had.
I'm like that's why he reallyjust bonded and that's also why
he always had his siblings thereLike okay, and it was funny,
because they're like, oh, didn'tyou know?
And I'm like, well, in fourthgrade it was huge deal.
And in fifth grade, again fourthfifth, that was like a single
(17:26):
building.
They had known that it had beenknown and they had told the
sixth grade team that.
But in that articulationmeeting he'd been doing so well
he wasn't a high flyer, he'dreally turned around.
His engagement with school issuper high in activities like
soccer and basketball, alwaysparticipating, always so good
with the younger kids, lookingout like he was such a good
(17:48):
mentor to these kids.
Because it wasn't thesehigh-flying kids.
There wasn't an issue, thatsuper important information
wasn't articulated from year toyear to year in that game of
telephone and we kind of want toprevent that.
He's one of the students.
I still think about how thisbit of information can really
unlock, and if you have thoseteachers who know you, that's
(18:10):
really where you can really doincredible things.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (18:12):
Yeah, and that brings us to the next part, and
that is how Otus can helpschools manage and coordinate
those various interventionstrategies, those counseling
services, all the way to familyoutreach, to ensure that they're
providing that consistent,effective support.
So can you talk about how Otuscan help?
Chris Hull (18:31):
Yeah, I think that schools and educators have so
much on their plate andoftentimes it's hard to really
know when you're in the midst ofit am I making an impact?
Am I making that difference?
And really what Otus can do isit can really affirm what is
working and what is not.
And all of a sudden it becomeslike, hey, this program, this
(18:51):
intervention program or thisfamily outreach program is
working.
Again, Otus saves time but italso allows you to focus on
what's going to really make adifference and that allows you
to provide this reallyconsistent and effective support
because you have confidence init, you feel it and there's
nothing more motivating when youcan kind of unlock that in a
(19:12):
kid, when you can feel thatimpact.
It kind of energizes you to domore and Otus really helps you
see that.
And it allows schools to feeltheir success and to really kind
of redouble their efforts wherethey need to be.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (19:25):
So if a child, let's say, was having some
counseling services, or maybethey had behavioral issues and
certain strategies were in place, would those things be in Otus
so that a teacher, who maybe hadnot put those things into place
, had not known about thecounseling service, would know
that?
Chris Hull (19:43):
Yeah.
So those are some notes thatwould definitely be added to the
profile and it's going to allowit to live with that student
and so that's where, if they'rein a certain group, and that's
how a lot of I mean I keep ongoing back to these groups but a
lot of students say, hey, thisstudent was participating in
this group and we'll have thestart date and the end date, and
a lot of times that program'skind of known in the school so
(20:03):
you don't really need all thebackground.
You might just say, hey, thisreading program entails this and
that might live outside Otus,but you know when they're in the
program.
But the real cool part is youmight all of a sudden see this
really great readingintervention.
You see this growth.
They exit the readingintervention.
Right, it's a tier two you knowRTI piece and it's like, hey, or
(20:25):
if it's MTSS, it's like, hey,we're going to now go to a
different tier of support.
Well, unfortunately, somestudents kind of might regress
back into needing it, and thatmight give you some insight a
year later, two years later, tosay, 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 beable to better understand what
(20:47):
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 thosenever-ending pursuits.
That's actually why we're goingto be offering the option for
districts to use some AI toolslater this year, because we
think the AI could be again anassistant for them to help them
save time.
Everything comes back to savingtime, so you can provide those
(21:16):
insights to them, so they canconnect with kids and really
make a difference in their lives.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (21:21):
Absolutely.
How does Otus connect andfacilitate those meaningful
conversations between teachersand families when it comes to
attendance, and can you shareany success stories about how
that homeschool connection hashelped turn around some
attendance challenges?
Chris Hull (21:37):
Yeah, I think the biggest piece comes back to
students when they're strugglingand they feel overwhelmed and
they feel like they're just notsuccessful.
Those are most often whenattendance problems emerge.
They don't feel connected, theydon't feel engaged, they feel
like they're just not successful.
Those are most often whenattendance problems emerge.
They don't feel connected, theydon't feel engaged, they feel
like they're just failing ateverything they do and it's like
they can't get out of it.
It's just like this cycle, andwhere Otus helps with that is it
(22:00):
really can help break down veryspecific skills that are
happening where all of a sudden,hey, we're really struggling
with reading.
You know certain elementarygrades can be tough.
If all of a sudden, now youknow 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 tothe reading intervention.
(22:22):
So much involves with it.
But it can be math too, where,if all of a sudden you really
hit this roadblock and what canhappen is by giving that
information to all stakeholders,you all of a sudden are on the
same page.
So Otus allows this informationto be seen by students and
families and so that familyfeels like they're connected to
(22:42):
this information.
They're connected to this stateassessment information and so
all of a sudden they're betterable to understand.
We do a lot of work withstandards-based grading too.
My favorite anecdote about thisis actually about my own kids.
We didn't quite struggle withattendance, but my oldest
daughter, who's now in fifthgrade this actually happened two
(23:03):
years ago in third they alwaysloved to read, but suddenly they
were becoming a little bit moreapprehensive and we kind of
heard from the teacher that theywere less engaged and again
catching this really early andit was because they felt like
they couldn't get over this humpabout really being able to
understand the key points of atext.
(23:24):
And again I use this example,which is funny because the
motivations of a character andon their actions and they
couldn't do it and they kept ontaking these like quick checks
and pre-checks and they kept ongetting the questions wrong.
And my daughter, who I adore,she began to become a little bit
more withdrawn, a little bitmore isolated.
She didn't want to put herselfout there because she really
(23:45):
couldn't quite figure this out.
We were reading the Harry Potterseries and it was just a simple
question that I was able towith Otus.
I was seeing this struggle on astandard where she had been
attempting it four or five times, just unsuccessfully, and all
of a sudden I know that just wasbeing measured, it had to be
done more unsuccessfully.
And all of a sudden, I knowthat's just what's being
measured, it had to be done more.
Well, suddenly, when we werereading the book, we would pause
(24:05):
like, oh man, why do you thinkHarry Potter did that?
Oh, why did he go to Hagrid'shut when everyone told him he
should stay in his dorm room?
Like, what about him?
Is making him do these choices?
And she loved Harry Potter.
And she could go on and on andit was like it began to click
that all of a sudden she justneeded to understand the
character and now she does itall the time with all of it.
(24:27):
But it was really this extrasubtle practice around something
she was passionate about in asafe space which really unlocked
her.
And then I was talking to herteacher like all of a sudden, oh
, she burst through that walland again, small thing.
But those small obstacles canadd up if we don't overcome them
.
If all of a sudden, oneobstacle becomes 12,.
All of a sudden, those 12obstacles seem insurmountable
(24:51):
and really by unlocking thoselittle 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 lookingat skills and standards, and so
what the system does is itallows them not only to see the
score, but maybe areas that theyneed to be working on, areas
that they're excelling in, areasthat they are needing growth,
and so, as a parent, you wouldbe able to see that data.
Chris Hull (25:18):
Yeah, and you also are able to see that for the
teachers who are givingassessments in their class, you
can kind of see those formativekind of quick check assessments,
so you're able to see that,those state assessments, those
benchmark assessments.
But you're also able to see theinformation on maybe it's just
an observation that the teacherentered into this, or maybe it's
a quiz they took, or maybe it'sa you know two question exit
(25:41):
ticket took, or maybe it's a youknow two question exit ticket.
You're able to kind of see thatinformation and it's broken
down in a way where it's notlike they got an 87% in class.
It's really talking about howdid they do on certain skills,
and that becomes much moreunderstandable for a student.
Like, oh, my student'sstruggling to multiply fractions
, or they're struggling tomultiply fractions, or they're
(26:02):
struggling to divide doubledigit numbers.
Or, in the situation with mydaughter, they're struggling to
understand how a character'smotivations.
Well, if I ask my daughterwhat's going on at school, I'm
going to hear all about recess.
I'm going to hear all about youknow, she's in the school play.
I'm going to hear all aboutthat.
But I'm not really hearing like, hey, what skills are you
learning in math?
(26:22):
It really provides you a muchbetter 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 downwith a family and discuss
attendance patterns that I wasseeing and how it was affecting
the academic side, I might sayyou're struggling in writing.
But let's look back at theattendance In the mornings.
You're consistently 10 minuteslate and missing writing or they
leave early for a service thatthey have to have.
(26:51):
Well, they're missing socialstudies and so now their social
studies grade is being affected.
Saying you're late to a familycan come off as accusatory and
judgmental, but if you're sayinglet's look at the data and I'm
seeing a pattern and thatsubject is taking place, and
then to be able to have thoseconversations, to say how can we
get you to school?
(27:12):
Maybe they're having a problemwith transportation or busing
and the student doesn't want totake 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'sbeen late, okay, like we all
agree to that, but like, what'sthe impact of that?
And really, then you're reallytrying to get to the root cause.
And I think you, you mentionedlike a series of possibilities,
right, is there something goingon at the bus?
Is there something we need todo here?
Or are they showing up toschool right on time but they're
(27:42):
not getting to their firstperiod class because they're
doing X, y, z?
There's so many possibilities ofwhat's happening, very specific
questions.
We all of a sudden can actuallysolve the problem instead of
like, oh, you're late, like, gethere on, like I think a lot of
parents would be like, well, youknow, 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
(28:04):
happening, they can sometimesfeel less threatened because
it's not binary of like late ontime.
It's like, no, your lateness isimpacting your reading or your
lateness is impacting yourengagement here.
Like, what?
What's happening?
Let's uncover it.
And that does.
It's a little bit more of athere's nuance there, but the
information is allowing you toask those really specific
(28:24):
questions to address ways to getbetter.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (28:26):
Yeah, absolutely so, Otus.
Now it's in over 2,500 schools.
What kind of patterns have youobserved in how successful
schools are using the data andtechnology to address chronic
absenteeism, and do you know ofany 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 thinkthat there is no magic bullet to
solve all of it.
I think that's the hardest partof this challenge and when we
work with all of our schools anddistricts, each person, like
they're all not all, but mostare struggling with some form of
this and the question is why.
You know, some we're findingare having teacher absenteeism,
right, and so all of a sudden,when your teachers aren't
(29:11):
showing up, that's actuallyimpacting your student
absenteeism.
And all of a sudden, some ofour districts have had to focus
not as much on the studentthey're going to first tackle
the teacher and again showingthe impact of what happens.
And all of a sudden it becomeslike a cyclical situation to
where, hey, when teachers aren'tthere, then the kids don't feel
(29:32):
as engaged with the teacher, asconnected with the teacher.
So then, hey, if my teacherdoesn't show up.
All again, this is a rippleeffect and the strategies that
are multifaceted are seeming tobe working the best and it
really comes around being ableto engage with your students, to
be able to intervene early.
It's much easier to all of asudden get somebody who's
(29:53):
beginning to be tardy, beginningto be absent versus like
restarting the entire engine.
In addition, I think that incertain situations it is
pre-reduced meals are a factor.
So how can we provide that tobe less stigmatizing?
I think schools do an amazingjob of being able to kind of see
look, this is what happens withsome of our programs.
(30:14):
I also think it helps with someof the extension and
intervention.
I think I've said intervention alot, but it also helps with
some of the extension activitieswhere all of a sudden you might
have a couple of students whoare doing great, but then all of
a sudden they see all the focuson others and it's like well,
what can we do to extend, so youcan expand your knowledge?
It allows districts to see whichlevers to pull more and which
(30:37):
levers they need to kind offocus on, or all of a sudden
they might identify a gap toreally do it.
But it's just like everystudent is unique.
Unfortunately, every schooldistrict has some unique things
and there are patterns in termsof engagement, some of these
small academic situations wherethey have these academic gaps
and they feel like thoseobstacles are just growing.
(30:59):
Right, we were talking aboutgoing from not just two, three
obstacles and skills beingfocused on.
But hey, if it all of a suddenseems insurmountable, breaking
that down so students understandhey, 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 moredoable.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (31:17):
Are the students flagged at all?
How are you notified if thereis a pattern that is being seen
within the system?
Is it their alert?
Does it go to theadministrators?
Go to the teacher.
Chris Hull (31:28):
Yeah, so in our reports you see the groups that
fall within the thresholds, andthat's a key piece is certain
schools have differentthresholds and so you're really
able to build these customreports, being able to give you
those insights.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (31:40):
You mentioned the AI piece.
As an assistant to help theeducators and families support
the students.
Can you share your vision onhow that technology is going to
help create more breakthroughmoments for student success?
Chris Hull (31:52):
Yeah, the AI is really need to be seen as like.
When I was a teacher, I alwayswas jealous of those college
professors that seem to havethose TAs to do some of that
like administrative grunt work,and it's like man.
If I had somebody who could dosome of this research for me or
do some of this prep for me, howmuch time would that save or do
(32:12):
some of this informationgathering and kind of bring all
the pieces together.
And we see Otus as a technologywas starting to do that and it
does it really pretty well where, hey, we're making all of this
information available in oneplace, we're making it as easy
as possible to use and we'remaking our data visualizations
really understandable.
You don't have to be thisexpert.
(32:34):
We really are going to break itdown into groups.
We see AI taking those keyinitiatives just one step
further.
We believe the AI is going tohelp be that technology
assistant being able to help youdo some things that might be a
little harder to build.
Like in Otus, you can build adrag and drop question.
Well, eventually, how coolwould it be just to use natural
(32:55):
language and say I need to builda drag and drop question?
Just describe what you wantbuilt.
That's a little bit furtheraway, but that's something we're
looking at.
What we're starting with isthis ability to again we when I
was mentioning earlier teachershave this isolating job.
They're often looking at allthis data and information alone
(33:15):
or with a colleague or two, andso we're going to have an AI
assistant coming out and justright in the new year, that's
going to allow you to, with theinformation already about kids,
allow you to ask questions whatstudents are struggling on, what
standards, or how can I preparefor parent-teacher conferences?
I was showing my formersuperintendent the other day
(33:36):
this ability because we're inthe testing phase and it's
amazing.
It's like look at this studentand prepare a summary for how
they did and anticipatequestions that I might get from
the parent.
It looked at their grade bookand their student profile.
It had all the informationthere.
I could do this, but it wouldtake me 20, 30 minutes per kid.
(33:58):
All of a sudden, the AIsummarized the skills of how
they were doing, anticipated keyquestions like hey, this
student is struggling on grammarbut they're excelling at
reading comprehension.
Why aren't those two skillslinked?
And I had to think about it.
But in this thing it was likeexplaining the why, and all of a
sudden I still got to factcheck it Again.
(34:18):
We don't want to trust it witheverything, but this idea is it
gets me jump started, it gets megoing and all of a sudden I
could go back and forth.
I'm like, oh yeah, I could seethese students are struggling.
We have this really nice,pretty visualization.
But the confirmation that itwas letting me read what I
thought I saw in a data visual,it was so cool.
I was like this is going to besuch a time saver and it's going
(34:39):
to really help give thoseopportunities to kind of remind
me what happens.
It was talking about thesestandards and what it could do
and it gave me three activities.
I remembered all threeactivities.
It was like pair share, it wascreate a little skit and these
activities that I knew that arein kind of my toolkit.
But sometimes it's nice to havethose recommendations where
(35:00):
it's like, oh, I'm going to pickwhich one that sounds best, but
I don't have to brainstorm, hey, what could I do.
It kind of gave me a starter kitand with that information I
don't have to spend 15, 20minutes a kid preparing for
parent-teacher conferences.
It did it for me and I couldrefine it for five minutes a kid
.
That saves me 15 minutes a kidAll of a sudden.
All that time now I can putinto my lesson planning.
(35:23):
I could put into maybe doingsome other things, and we have
some other great assistantscoming, like a grading assistant
, but we're really starting withthat data analytics assistant
or that insights assistant andthat communication assistant,
because so much of a teacher'sjob is communication and getting
them just off the blank pagewhere everything has to come
themselves really is going toget them to be able to connect
(35:43):
their kids more and more.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (35:45):
The system is unbelievably robust and I love
the comprehensive picture thatit can give on the whole student
.
I think it's what all teachersreally want to be able to have
on their students, so thank youfor making it.
I wish I would have been ableto enjoy it while I was in the
classroom, because I think it'sreally going to be impactful.
So where can educators go tolearn more and possibly sign up
(36:07):
for a demo for Otus?
Chris Hull (36:09):
Definitely so.
If you go to Otus, so O-T-U-Sdot com, and we use that as
organizing technology for us.
So the idea is, all of thistechnology is going to be
organized and it's somethingthat families can use, students
can use, and then teachers andadministrators can use, and so
otuscom is where you can learnmore, you can see some of the
(36:32):
visuals of what it can do.
We also have some great videosthat are kind of these
explainers and then some greatsuccess 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 andvery valuable for teachers, but
especially parents.
So thank you for sharing howeducators and parents can work
together, using data-driventools such as Otus as early
warning systems, to identifyattendance patterns and create
those pathways for studentsuccess.
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 teacherspotting early warning signs or
a parent noticing changes inyour child's engagement, reach
out and start that conversation.
The tools and technology arethere to help, but it's our
human connections that trulymake a difference.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at lisa at
(37:28):
drlisahasslercom, or visit mywebsite at wwwdrlisahasslercom
and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know thebigger 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 thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
(37:49):
in the show notes.
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
change.
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our children's success.
Welcome to the brighter side of education,
research, innovation andresources.
I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler,here to enlighten and brighten
the classrooms in Americathrough focused conversation on
important topics in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
(00:29):
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
student outcomes?
In today's episode, we focus onthe impacts of chronic
absenteeism and how data-driventools can be used to identify
and support these students.
Recent research shows asurprising trend in education.
While 40% of parents prioritizepreparing their children for
(00:51):
the future as their topeducational concern, many aren't
aware of just how importantattendance plays in that
preparation.
In 2023, about one in fourstudents missed enough school to
be considered chronicallyabsent, and that's just missing
two days a month, or about 18days across the entire school
(01:11):
year.
Now these missed moments add upto a serious long-term
consequence, contributing tothose challenges in reading and
math achievement that we'reseeing nationwide.
The Institute of EducationSciences has identified four key
areas that can transform how weaddress this crisis by
leveraging text messaging forfamily communication,
(01:32):
implementing data-driven earlywarning systems, strengthening
family partnerships andfostering positive school
climates.
Among these approaches, thestrategic use of technology and
data stands out as particularlypromising.
When schools use early warningsystems effectively, they can
identify at-risk students beforeoccasional absences become a
(01:52):
pattern.
Now these digital tools aren'tjust about tracking numbers.
They're about creatingcomprehensive support systems
that enable educators to developcustomized interventions, from
individualized learning plans tofamily outreach.
To help us understand how thesedata-driven solutions work in
practice, we're joined today byChris Hull, founder and
president of the educationtechnology company called Otus.
(02:15):
Chris transformed his classroomexperience into a comprehensive
student growth platform thathelps schools leverage data to
support the whole child.
As we tackle this growingchallenge of chronic absenteeism
, we'll explore how educatorsand parents can work together,
using data-driven tools as earlywarning systems to identify
(02:35):
attendance patterns and createpathways for success.
Welcome to the show, chris.
Chris Hull (02:41):
I'm really excited to be here.
Lisa Really glad to be able tojoin.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:44):
Yeah, so let's explore how this technology is
making a difference in schoolsacross the country.
Now you went from teachingseventh grade social studies to
creating a solution used bythousands of schools.
What was the moment when yourealized teachers needed a
better way to understand andsupport their students?
Chris Hull (03:01):
So the moment that I realized the need for this
system really occurred when Iwas helping other educators for
the first time.
So I think, as a lot of teachersunderstand and feel, much of
the job is actually isolating intheir own room.
And so my first two years ofteaching I was able to really
get to know my students and Iwas able to personalize the
(03:23):
curriculum to their needs andinterests.
But it wasn't until my thirdyear, where we were really in
the midst of going one-to-one,where all of a sudden I was in
other classrooms and suddenly Irealized that in my classroom it
was actually I needed thetechnology, I needed that device
to save time.
But in these other classroomsit became really apparent that
(03:46):
not every teacher has the sametechnical ability in terms of
using technology or the samedata literacy ability, and so we
really needed a system and thisis where Otus comes into play
that would be able to simplifythe actions to help a kid, to
help a kid learn, to help tofacilitate learning, but then to
(04:08):
also simplify all of thisinformation we have about a kid
and really streamline it.
And it became a moment whereall of a sudden, this eureka
moment happened, where thedevice alone is not going to
solve it.
You know teachers need to beempowered.
Teachers need to be able to bethe one in control, and if
(04:28):
they're trying to bounce between15, 16 different systems, that
just takes too much time, andthe most valuable resource
teachers have is time, and so itwas a really cool moment to say
, hey, how can we bring all thistogether to make teachers more
efficient and really save themtime, and that will give them
more opportunity to work withtheir kids.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (04:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think any teacher that's hadto run any sort of reports on
students like creating an IEP itbecomes very labor intensive.
And then on top of it there'sall of the passwords that you
have to remember and the loggingin and maybe renewing the
passwords, and I don't haveaccess to last year's data.
I'm going to have to go to thatteacher or go to my
administrator, and so there'sjust a lot of wasted time.
(05:10):
And looking at your Otusplatform, I just noticed that
all of those dots were connectedand 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 ofit.
I was amazed.
Chris Hull (05:25):
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 abouttheir IEP students.
They have this individualizedplan that's carried with them.
They do see some of thosebenchmarks, but that's only 10,
15% of their students.
How do we provide that forevery student?
There should be some profile.
(05:45):
That kind of travels with thekid shows their progress on
whatever the key metrics.
It could be attendance, itcould be behavior, but could
also be NWA scores or SBACscores or Bridges scores, any of
these assessments that arebeing used.
You just want to be able to say, hey, where was this kid, so I
can best help them now, likewhere were they and where are
they?
So we can really get to be ableto say, hey, where was this kid
, so I can best help them now,like where were they and where
(06:06):
are they?
So we can really get to whatneeds to happen.
And that can take teachersseveral weeks of a year to get
to know kids, and Otus reallywants to kind of speed that
process up so that you get thoseinsights faster.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:18):
Studies have shown the importance of
connecting attendance data withother indicators like academic
performance and behavioral data.
How does Otus help educatorscreate a comprehensive picture
of student engagement beyond theattendance numbers and
intervene before patterns becomecritical?
Chris Hull (06:35):
Yeah, I think attendance is this huge buzzword
and it's always out there andit's absolutely critical because
it's oftentimes the first stepright, Are you even showing up
to school?
And that becomes somethingwhere it's like, hey, I need to
get you there.
But there are other elementsthat need to be considered,
which really goes around?
Engagement and are they reallyparticipating?
(06:57):
And Otus allows you to trackand understand some of those
metrics as well.
You're able to see are theyturning in assignments late?
Are they participating in class?
Are they?
You know?
How have they done?
I really think you know.
I have four kids of my own andthe most important piece,
especially in elementary school,is you want kids to love to go
(07:18):
to school so that they can beginto love to learn.
You know learning is not easyand there are going to be bumps
in the way, but getting a kidgoing is really important.
And then, a lot of times, howto engage with a student is
really, really important,because if you know what they
are passionate about and Ibelieve every child has a
(07:40):
passion it's just aboutuncovering it.
Is it a love for sports?
Is it a love for music?
Is it a love for a certainartist or a certain video game.
Once you're able to tap into apassion and you're able to make
relatable these teachable skillsor the curriculum back to that
passion, they're going to beginto feel successful.
And it's amazing when you heara young child or I taught
(08:04):
seventh grade when you hear themtalk about something that they
were passionate about, it isamazing how much they already
know If it's about, likeMinecraft, or, if they're a
little bit older, maybe Fortniteor any of these video games,
like even Mario.
The idea is like they become sopassionate they love to feel
like that expert and when youall of a sudden can tap into
(08:24):
that, you're able to then getthem going and the complete
picture Otus provides allowsthese patterns to be seen so
that you're able to connect witha kid and uncover this, Because
the data is not always going togive you the perfect answer,
but it's going to allow you toask the right questions.
I see that you're struggling tounderstand the motivations of a
(08:47):
character in terms of, like areading standard.
Ok, well, let's relate that tosomething you are passionate
about.
That type of connection isgoing to have them open up and
it allows you to really addressit, and that's really at the
teacher level.
But it can also be a pattern.
Maybe we see something wherethe kids who are in before
school for our morningintervention, where we also
(09:09):
provide breakfast, those kidsare doing better throughout the
day.
Well, that might allow you toask a question like hey, how
many of my students are missingtheir morning meal and all of a
sudden it might be that youmight unlock something, so it's
always being able to ask thoseright questions that can really
uncover some amazing things,questions that can really
uncover some amazing things.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (09:26):
So now we know that every student who
struggles with attendance hastheir own unique story, like
missing breakfast and those whoare coming in early to have that
breakfast.
How does Otus help schoolsunderstand the why behind
attendance patterns and thencreate those personalized
support plans to address thewhole child?
Chris Hull (09:44):
Yeah.
So I think one of the waysteachers and educators and
administrators are looking atstudents is you do want to find,
you know, you want to know eachindividual kid.
Each individual kid is unique.
They have their own history,their own background, context,
passions we've mentioned.
But there are key groups andtrends that might be emerging.
(10:04):
Maybe there's a social dilemma,maybe there is something
happening with some socialgroups that you're going to be
seeing.
And the way Otus really works isit allows you to look at either
a single student or you cancreate groups of students and
look so you could say, hey, howare my third grade students who
are in my morning interventiondoing versus the ones that are
(10:25):
not?
Or how are my third gradestudents who have an IEP, who
are in an afterschool resourceprogram or participate in a
sport or participate in anextracurricular activity, how
are they doing?
And all of a sudden, becauseyou're able to break down how
different groups are doing, youcan begin to ask those questions
that are going to uncoverwhat's needed.
(10:47):
And once, all of a sudden, yousay, hey, I'm seeing a trend,
not just with one student, andthat's really where teachers
come into play.
When you're talking about asingle student.
I think that's really the roleof the teacher.
The teacher is going to be ableto know how their classroom is
doing, know how your group'sdoing, and the teachers are
really problem solving.
But for the administrator, theteachers are really problem
(11:09):
solving, but for theadministrator, hey, I'm seeing a
trend where all my students inseventh grade who are in a sport
, they're really struggling withhomework completion.
Well, maybe we need to look atwhat is our afterschool practice
policy.
How is that working?
Are we giving them enough timeto do it?
And they're allowing you tothen kind of dig in and once
you're able to group kids, nowyou can all of a sudden say, hey
(11:31):
, we realize these 10 kids don'thave a breakfast every morning.
What can we do?
Hey, let's get them into ourbreakfast program.
Or these students need extrahelp in informational reading.
So what we're going to do thereis with the informational
reading.
We might create a small groupin their ELA class where we can
give them extra practice.
Or maybe there is a extensionblock where we can really target
(11:54):
a fundamental skill that'sgoing to really unlock something
in the future.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (11:58):
Okay, so I'm a teacher.
I'm going into Otus Paint thepicture of what it would look
like for a teacher.
What information?
Because you're talking aboutsports.
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 havebeen?
Are teachers able to like, addnotes in there to say they
really love Minecraft or they'rereally into Legos or something?
(12:20):
So is that data there?
Can you tell us what they wouldsee?
Chris Hull (12:24):
Yeah, so we really work with the district and
there's certain information thatwe get from every district.
So for every district we gettheir rostering information.
So what?
Or orchestra student?
Hey, this student plays a sport.
So we can really get a veryrobust range of these attributes
(12:54):
of a student.
Also, because Otus can worklongitudinally, we can say hey,
this student was an IEP studentin first grade to fourth grade,
but now in fifth grade they wereexited in fourth grade.
Well, that's that's importantinformation.
In addition, we're able to pullin those state assessments or
those local assessments to giveyou kind of that benchmark data,
(13:16):
so longitudinally you can say,hey, this is where they were in
third grade, this is where theywere in fourth grade.
So you can kind of see this isthe progress they've made.
And then you are able to alsoadd notes to a student and those
notes live with that student'sprofile, their time in there,
and so those notes could befiles that you might want to
upload again, some IEPs, butthey could also be just their
(13:38):
passions.
So you know, some of ourdistricts do a really great job
where in like first and secondgrade, they kind of have like a
capstone summary what are theypassionate about, what did they
learn, what was their favoritepart of the grade and they will
actually attach that to theirprofile.
So then those districts kind ofhave this is the first grade
snapshot from that kid's voice.
And so when I open as a teacherI'm able to look at that
(14:00):
student.
I can see their demographicinformation, I can see their
academic information, I can seetheir attendance information.
But then I also have this kindof collection of these past
notes and information that'sgiven from teacher to teacher
and it allows you to again do somuch more.
But those are kind of the keypieces of kind of painting that
complete picture and I can seethat individual student profile.
(14:22):
But the real power is I can thenlook at any of those groups or
attributes and say, hey, whoelse shares that attribute?
And then all of a sudden I cancreate that group of IEP
students 504 students, ellstudents and then I can say, hey
, how are my third grade ELLstudents doing?
Or how are my third grade IEPstudents doing?
(14:43):
And then you could also breakit down by gender, you could
break it down by ethnicity andyou could really even compare.
So you can either look at how agroup's doing or you can
compare several groups and say,how are my different ethnicities
doing in third grade?
Or how are my different schoolbuildings doing?
Maybe one building's crushingit.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (15:00):
It makes me think about teacher files on a
student right and you've gotmaybe the parent notes and stuff
like that, or your notes oryour data that you've collected
over the year Then you pass thaton to the next teacher who's
going to have that child so thatthey have that information.
And sometimes they don't get itin time, Sometimes they don't
look at it or they get lost ormaybe it's not as robust as we
(15:21):
had hoped.
This sounds as though it istaking the place of that, in the
sense that now you don't haveto worry about if the second
grade teacher left and no oneknows where those files are or
whatever happened.
Everything is there.
And when I think about thingsthat you'd want to know about
like there was a death in thefamily, maybe they've had to
move several times, maybe aparent lost their job, so
(15:42):
there's economic hardship,emotional hardship, so trauma,
where later on you see theripples of that effect and as a
teacher that's very importantfor us to know, because then we
have kind of that why tounderstand what it is that
they're experiencing and thenhave better conversations.
Chris Hull (16:00):
I think you nailed it, and so one of the
motivations for me was actuallysomething that you mentioned I
had a seventh grade student thatI really enjoyed and I coached
soccer, and so that was in thefall.
So I coached him in soccer.
He was in my seventh gradesocial studies class.
He was in my lunch, you know.
I used to let students comeinto my room during lunch.
I got to know him really well.
I got to know his littlebrother and little sister and he
(16:22):
then wanted to try out for thebasketball team and he had never
played basketball before and Ireally 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 wewent on a field trip and this is
in January, so we're talking.
I got to know this kid reallypretty well and we're on a field
trip and I was of a pretty loudvoice, uh, and I yelled for
(16:43):
everybody to get ready on thebus and he had been semi near me
because you know, we weretalking, and all of a sudden I
saw him kind of shudder like alittle bit, just like this small
movement, and I was like huh,and after the field trip.
I kind of went to the socialworker and I was like, hey, you
know this student, you know.
He seemed to shudder when Iraised his voice, like, oh yeah,
he lost his father when he wasin fourth grade and all of a
(17:05):
sudden I was like, oh, I'm theonly male teacher at the time
for that grade.
That was like a core teacherthat he had.
I'm like that's why he reallyjust bonded and that's also why
he always had his siblings thereLike okay, and it was funny,
because they're like, oh, didn'tyou know?
And I'm like, well, in fourthgrade it was huge deal.
And in fifth grade, again fourthfifth, that was like a single
(17:26):
building.
They had known that it had beenknown and they had told the
sixth grade team that.
But in that articulationmeeting he'd been doing so well
he wasn't a high flyer, he'dreally turned around.
His engagement with school issuper high in activities like
soccer and basketball, alwaysparticipating, always so good
with the younger kids, lookingout like he was such a good
(17:48):
mentor to these kids.
Because it wasn't thesehigh-flying kids.
There wasn't an issue, thatsuper important information
wasn't articulated from year toyear to year in that game of
telephone and we kind of want toprevent that.
He's one of the students.
I still think about how thisbit of information can really
unlock, and if you have thoseteachers who know you, that's
(18:10):
really where you can really doincredible things.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (18:12):
Yeah, and that brings us to the next part, and
that is how Otus can helpschools manage and coordinate
those various interventionstrategies, those counseling
services, all the way to familyoutreach, to ensure that they're
providing that consistent,effective support.
So can you talk about how Otuscan help?
Chris Hull (18:31):
Yeah, I think that schools and educators have so
much on their plate andoftentimes it's hard to really
know when you're in the midst ofit am I making an impact?
Am I making that difference?
And really what Otus can do isit can really affirm what is
working and what is not.
And all of a sudden it becomeslike, hey, this program, this
(18:51):
intervention program or thisfamily outreach program is
working.
Again, Otus saves time but italso allows you to focus on
what's going to really make adifference and that allows you
to provide this reallyconsistent and effective support
because you have confidence init, you feel it and there's
nothing more motivating when youcan kind of unlock that in a
(19:12):
kid, when you can feel thatimpact.
It kind of energizes you to domore and Otus really helps you
see that.
And it allows schools to feeltheir success and to really kind
of redouble their efforts wherethey need to be.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (19:25):
So if a child, let's say, was having some
counseling services, or maybethey had behavioral issues and
certain strategies were in place, would those things be in Otus
so that a teacher, who maybe hadnot put those things into place
, had not known about thecounseling service, would know
that?
Chris Hull (19:43):
Yeah.
So those are some notes thatwould definitely be added to the
profile and it's going to allowit to live with that student
and so that's where, if they'rein a certain group, and that's
how a lot of I mean I keep ongoing back to these groups but a
lot of students say, hey, thisstudent was participating in
this group and we'll have thestart date and the end date, and
a lot of times that program'skind of known in the school so
(20:03):
you don't really need all thebackground.
You might just say, hey, thisreading program entails this and
that might live outside Otus,but you know when they're in the
program.
But the real cool part is youmight all of a sudden see this
really great readingintervention.
You see this growth.
They exit the readingintervention.
Right, it's a tier two you knowRTI piece and it's like, hey, or
(20:25):
if it's MTSS, it's like, hey,we're going to now go to a
different tier of support.
Well, unfortunately, somestudents kind of might regress
back into needing it, and thatmight give you some insight a
year later, two years later, tosay, 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 beable to better understand what
(20:47):
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 thosenever-ending pursuits.
That's actually why we're goingto be offering the option for
districts to use some AI toolslater this year, because we
think the AI could be again anassistant for them to help them
save time.
Everything comes back to savingtime, so you can provide those
(21:16):
insights to them, so they canconnect with kids and really
make a difference in their lives.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (21:21):
Absolutely.
How does Otus connect andfacilitate those meaningful
conversations between teachersand families when it comes to
attendance, and can you shareany success stories about how
that homeschool connection hashelped turn around some
attendance challenges?
Chris Hull (21:37):
Yeah, I think the biggest piece comes back to
students when they're strugglingand they feel overwhelmed and
they feel like they're just notsuccessful.
Those are most often whenattendance problems emerge.
They don't feel connected, theydon't feel engaged, they feel
like they're just not successful.
Those are most often whenattendance problems emerge.
They don't feel connected, theydon't feel engaged, they feel
like they're just failing ateverything they do and it's like
they can't get out of it.
It's just like this cycle, andwhere Otus helps with that is it
(22:00):
really can help break down veryspecific skills that are
happening where all of a sudden,hey, we're really struggling
with reading.
You know certain elementarygrades can be tough.
If all of a sudden, now youknow 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 tothe reading intervention.
(22:22):
So much involves with it.
But it can be math too, where,if all of a sudden you really
hit this roadblock and what canhappen is by giving that
information to all stakeholders,you all of a sudden are on the
same page.
So Otus allows this informationto be seen by students and
families and so that familyfeels like they're connected to
(22:42):
this information.
They're connected to this stateassessment information and so
all of a sudden they're betterable to understand.
We do a lot of work withstandards-based grading too.
My favorite anecdote about thisis actually about my own kids.
We didn't quite struggle withattendance, but my oldest
daughter, who's now in fifthgrade this actually happened two
(23:03):
years ago in third they alwaysloved to read, but suddenly they
were becoming a little bit moreapprehensive and we kind of
heard from the teacher that theywere less engaged and again
catching this really early andit was because they felt like
they couldn't get over this humpabout really being able to
understand the key points of atext.
(23:24):
And again I use this example,which is funny because the
motivations of a character andon their actions and they
couldn't do it and they kept ontaking these like quick checks
and pre-checks and they kept ongetting the questions wrong.
And my daughter, who I adore,she began to become a little bit
more withdrawn, a little bitmore isolated.
She didn't want to put herselfout there because she really
(23:45):
couldn't quite figure this out.
We were reading the Harry Potterseries and it was just a simple
question that I was able towith Otus.
I was seeing this struggle on astandard where she had been
attempting it four or five times, just unsuccessfully, and all
of a sudden I know that just wasbeing measured, it had to be
done more unsuccessfully.
And all of a sudden, I knowthat's just what's being
measured, it had to be done more.
Well, suddenly, when we werereading the book, we would pause
(24:05):
like, oh man, why do you thinkHarry Potter did that?
Oh, why did he go to Hagrid'shut when everyone told him he
should stay in his dorm room?
Like, what about him?
Is making him do these choices?
And she loved Harry Potter.
And she could go on and on andit was like it began to click
that all of a sudden she justneeded to understand the
character and now she does itall the time with all of it.
(24:27):
But it was really this extrasubtle practice around something
she was passionate about in asafe space which really unlocked
her.
And then I was talking to herteacher like all of a sudden, oh
, she burst through that walland again, small thing.
But those small obstacles canadd up if we don't overcome them
.
If all of a sudden, oneobstacle becomes 12,.
All of a sudden, those 12obstacles seem insurmountable
(24:51):
and really by unlocking thoselittle 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 lookingat skills and standards, and so
what the system does is itallows them not only to see the
score, but maybe areas that theyneed to be working on, areas
that they're excelling in, areasthat they are needing growth,
and so, as a parent, you wouldbe able to see that data.
Chris Hull (25:18):
Yeah, and you also are able to see that for the
teachers who are givingassessments in their class, you
can kind of see those formativekind of quick check assessments,
so you're able to see that,those state assessments, those
benchmark assessments.
But you're also able to see theinformation on maybe it's just
an observation that the teacherentered into this, or maybe it's
a quiz they took, or maybe it'sa you know two question exit
(25:41):
ticket took, or maybe it's a youknow two question exit ticket.
You're able to kind of see thatinformation and it's broken
down in a way where it's notlike they got an 87% in class.
It's really talking about howdid they do on certain skills,
and that becomes much moreunderstandable for a student.
Like, oh, my student'sstruggling to multiply fractions
, or they're struggling tomultiply fractions, or they're
(26:02):
struggling to divide doubledigit numbers.
Or, in the situation with mydaughter, they're struggling to
understand how a character'smotivations.
Well, if I ask my daughterwhat's going on at school, I'm
going to hear all about recess.
I'm going to hear all about youknow, she's in the school play.
I'm going to hear all aboutthat.
But I'm not really hearing like, hey, what skills are you
learning in math?
(26:22):
It really provides you a muchbetter 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 downwith a family and discuss
attendance patterns that I wasseeing and how it was affecting
the academic side, I might sayyou're struggling in writing.
But let's look back at theattendance In the mornings.
You're consistently 10 minuteslate and missing writing or they
leave early for a service thatthey have to have.
(26:51):
Well, they're missing socialstudies and so now their social
studies grade is being affected.
Saying you're late to a familycan come off as accusatory and
judgmental, but if you're sayinglet's look at the data and I'm
seeing a pattern and thatsubject is taking place, and
then to be able to have thoseconversations, to say how can we
get you to school?
(27:12):
Maybe they're having a problemwith transportation or busing
and the student doesn't want totake 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'sbeen late, okay, like we all
agree to that, but like, what'sthe impact of that?
And really, then you're reallytrying to get to the root cause.
And I think you, you mentionedlike a series of possibilities,
right, is there something goingon at the bus?
Is there something we need todo here?
Or are they showing up toschool right on time but they're
(27:42):
not getting to their firstperiod class because they're
doing X, y, z?
There's so many possibilities ofwhat's happening, very specific
questions.
We all of a sudden can actuallysolve the problem instead of
like, oh, you're late, like, gethere on, like I think a lot of
parents would be like, well, youknow, 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
(28:04):
happening, they can sometimesfeel less threatened because
it's not binary of like late ontime.
It's like, no, your lateness isimpacting your reading or your
lateness is impacting yourengagement here.
Like, what?
What's happening?
Let's uncover it.
And that does.
It's a little bit more of athere's nuance there, but the
information is allowing you toask those really specific
(28:24):
questions to address ways to getbetter.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (28:26):
Yeah, absolutely so, Otus.
Now it's in over 2,500 schools.
What kind of patterns have youobserved in how successful
schools are using the data andtechnology to address chronic
absenteeism, and do you know ofany 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 thinkthat there is no magic bullet to
solve all of it.
I think that's the hardest partof this challenge and when we
work with all of our schools anddistricts, each person, like
they're all not all, but mostare struggling with some form of
this and the question is why.
You know, some we're findingare having teacher absenteeism,
right, and so all of a sudden,when your teachers aren't
(29:11):
showing up, that's actuallyimpacting your student
absenteeism.
And all of a sudden, some ofour districts have had to focus
not as much on the studentthey're going to first tackle
the teacher and again showingthe impact of what happens.
And all of a sudden it becomeslike a cyclical situation to
where, hey, when teachers aren'tthere, then the kids don't feel
(29:32):
as engaged with the teacher, asconnected with the teacher.
So then, hey, if my teacherdoesn't show up.
All again, this is a rippleeffect and the strategies that
are multifaceted are seeming tobe working the best and it
really comes around being ableto engage with your students, to
be able to intervene early.
It's much easier to all of asudden get somebody who's
(29:53):
beginning to be tardy, beginningto be absent versus like
restarting the entire engine.
In addition, I think that incertain situations it is
pre-reduced meals are a factor.
So how can we provide that tobe less stigmatizing?
I think schools do an amazingjob of being able to kind of see
look, this is what happens withsome of our programs.
(30:14):
I also think it helps with someof the extension and
intervention.
I think I've said intervention alot, but it also helps with
some of the extension activitieswhere all of a sudden you might
have a couple of students whoare doing great, but then all of
a sudden they see all the focuson others and it's like well,
what can we do to extend, so youcan expand your knowledge?
It allows districts to see whichlevers to pull more and which
(30:37):
levers they need to kind offocus on, or all of a sudden
they might identify a gap toreally do it.
But it's just like everystudent is unique.
Unfortunately, every schooldistrict has some unique things
and there are patterns in termsof engagement, some of these
small academic situations wherethey have these academic gaps
and they feel like thoseobstacles are just growing.
(30:59):
Right, we were talking aboutgoing from not just two, three
obstacles and skills beingfocused on.
But hey, if it all of a suddenseems insurmountable, breaking
that down so students understandhey, 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 moredoable.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (31:17):
Are the students flagged at all?
How are you notified if thereis a pattern that is being seen
within the system?
Is it their alert?
Does it go to theadministrators?
Go to the teacher.
Chris Hull (31:28):
Yeah, so in our reports you see the groups that
fall within the thresholds, andthat's a key piece is certain
schools have differentthresholds and so you're really
able to build these customreports, being able to give you
those insights.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (31:40):
You mentioned the AI piece.
As an assistant to help theeducators and families support
the students.
Can you share your vision onhow that technology is going to
help create more breakthroughmoments for student success?
Chris Hull (31:52):
Yeah, the AI is really need to be seen as like.
When I was a teacher, I alwayswas jealous of those college
professors that seem to havethose TAs to do some of that
like administrative grunt work,and it's like man.
If I had somebody who could dosome of this research for me or
do some of this prep for me, howmuch time would that save or do
(32:12):
some of this informationgathering and kind of bring all
the pieces together.
And we see Otus as a technologywas starting to do that and it
does it really pretty well where, hey, we're making all of this
information available in oneplace, we're making it as easy
as possible to use and we'remaking our data visualizations
really understandable.
You don't have to be thisexpert.
(32:34):
We really are going to break itdown into groups.
We see AI taking those keyinitiatives just one step
further.
We believe the AI is going tohelp be that technology
assistant being able to help youdo some things that might be a
little harder to build.
Like in Otus, you can build adrag and drop question.
Well, eventually, how coolwould it be just to use natural
(32:55):
language and say I need to builda drag and drop question?
Just describe what you wantbuilt.
That's a little bit furtheraway, but that's something we're
looking at.
What we're starting with isthis ability to again we when I
was mentioning earlier teachershave this isolating job.
They're often looking at allthis data and information alone
(33:15):
or with a colleague or two, andso we're going to have an AI
assistant coming out and justright in the new year, that's
going to allow you to, with theinformation already about kids,
allow you to ask questions whatstudents are struggling on, what
standards, or how can I preparefor parent-teacher conferences?
I was showing my formersuperintendent the other day
(33:36):
this ability because we're inthe testing phase and it's
amazing.
It's like look at this studentand prepare a summary for how
they did and anticipatequestions that I might get from
the parent.
It looked at their grade bookand their student profile.
It had all the informationthere.
I could do this, but it wouldtake me 20, 30 minutes per kid.
(33:58):
All of a sudden, the AIsummarized the skills of how
they were doing, anticipated keyquestions like hey, this
student is struggling on grammarbut they're excelling at
reading comprehension.
Why aren't those two skillslinked?
And I had to think about it.
But in this thing it was likeexplaining the why, and all of a
sudden I still got to factcheck it Again.
(34:18):
We don't want to trust it witheverything, but this idea is it
gets me jump started, it gets megoing and all of a sudden I
could go back and forth.
I'm like, oh yeah, I could seethese students are struggling.
We have this really nice,pretty visualization.
But the confirmation that itwas letting me read what I
thought I saw in a data visual,it was so cool.
I was like this is going to besuch a time saver and it's going
(34:39):
to really help give thoseopportunities to kind of remind
me what happens.
It was talking about thesestandards and what it could do
and it gave me three activities.
I remembered all threeactivities.
It was like pair share, it wascreate a little skit and these
activities that I knew that arein kind of my toolkit.
But sometimes it's nice to havethose recommendations where
(35:00):
it's like, oh, I'm going to pickwhich one that sounds best, but
I don't have to brainstorm, hey, what could I do.
It kind of gave me a starter kitand with that information I
don't have to spend 15, 20minutes a kid preparing for
parent-teacher conferences.
It did it for me and I couldrefine it for five minutes a kid
.
That saves me 15 minutes a kidAll of a sudden.
All that time now I can putinto my lesson planning.
(35:23):
I could put into maybe doingsome other things, and we have
some other great assistantscoming, like a grading assistant
, but we're really starting withthat data analytics assistant
or that insights assistant andthat communication assistant,
because so much of a teacher'sjob is communication and getting
them just off the blank pagewhere everything has to come
themselves really is going toget them to be able to connect
(35:43):
their kids more and more.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (35:45):
The system is unbelievably robust and I love
the comprehensive picture thatit can give on the whole student
.
I think it's what all teachersreally want to be able to have
on their students, so thank youfor making it.
I wish I would have been ableto enjoy it while I was in the
classroom, because I think it'sreally going to be impactful.
So where can educators go tolearn more and possibly sign up
(36:07):
for a demo for Otus?
Chris Hull (36:09):
Definitely so.
If you go to Otus, so O-T-U-Sdot com, and we use that as
organizing technology for us.
So the idea is, all of thistechnology is going to be
organized and it's somethingthat families can use, students
can use, and then teachers andadministrators can use, and so
otuscom is where you can learnmore, you can see some of the
(36:32):
visuals of what it can do.
We also have some great videosthat are kind of these
explainers and then some greatsuccess 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 andvery valuable for teachers, but
especially parents.
So thank you for sharing howeducators and parents can work
together, using data-driventools such as Otus as early
warning systems, to identifyattendance patterns and create
those pathways for studentsuccess.
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 teacherspotting early warning signs or
a parent noticing changes inyour child's engagement, reach
out and start that conversation.
The tools and technology arethere to help, but it's our
human connections that trulymake a difference.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at lisa at
(37:28):
drlisahasslercom, or visit mywebsite at wwwdrlisahasslercom
and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know thebigger 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 thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
(37:49):
in the show notes.
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
change.
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our children's success.
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