The Principal’s Perspective

Research demonstrates that students who attend school regularly do better in school and graduate from high school. Several years ago our student attendance needed attention and improvement. The Final Exam Exemption Incentive was developed with the help of teachers, students, faculty, and parents. It was important for the incentive to be attractive to students to improve attendance while not be punitive as it is an award for regular attendance or strong performance, not a punishment. Therefore the incentive may be attained by meeting the attendance criteria or by meeting the performance criteria. In large credit to the incentive, Cambridge High School student attendance has improved; the school’s student attendance is the highest in Fulton County Schools. One measure of student attendance is the College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) student attendance score (http://www.gadoe.org/CCRPI/Pages/default.aspx date accessed 11 December 2018).

Our goal for students is to graduate from Cambridge High School equipped to navigate the demands of the real world, and the exam exemption incentive is one of many opportunities for Cambridge High School students to increase their executive functioning skills.