Attendance Innovation: Menchville High School

In 2022–23, Menchville High School (Newport News, Virginia) saw chronic absenteeism rates climb to 33.3% among their English Learner (EL) students. School leaders knew they needed to try something new—something that centered student voice and community.

Their solution: the ESL Soccer League—a student-led, attendance-linked initiative that is already showing promising results.

A Team Effort to Improve Attendance

The league ties soccer participation to quarterly attendance goals and is designed to be inclusive beyond the players on the field. Students can serve as announcers, statisticians, team managers, and more—giving a wide range of students a role in the effort. Jeremy Wall, an attendance specialist from Menchville shared, "So I think that one of the things that stuck out to me, it's not just that you have students that are playing soccer, students are kind of running this whole league. So each of them gets leadership positions and has a place to feel involved and valued and engaged."

Games are strategically scheduled on days when attendance is historically low. By turning those days into game days, the school creates events that students look forward to and want to show up for. Staff also join the activity as coaches, providing opportunities for more student-staff connection. And, community organizations attend, helping the school to connect families to needed resources, such as housing and food banks.

In the first year of the program:

• Chronic absenteeism among EL students dropped from 33.3% to 28.8%
  
  
• Average daily attendance on targeted days rose from 88.7% to 92.2%
  
  

An important aspect of this work is that the ESL Soccer League came from student suggestions. Staff surveyed students and found that there was significantly more interest in playing soccer than their school team could support. This is where the idea for the league began, and likely a big part of its success.

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Want to learn more about Menchville's work to improve student attendance? Tune in on Thursday, August 14 to hear from Jeremy Wall and 4 other outstanding educators who won a 2025 Attendance Innovation Award!