01 Apr 6 Reasons Attendance = An Easy A at SET High
Paging all Ferris Buellers…high school attendance can be fun! While we have sympathy for students with uninspiring (and overcrowded) classes, that is NOT the case at the School for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SET High), a tuition-free 9th-12th grade high school in San Diego. Our dynamic California Distinguished School is passionate about engaging students and backs that up with exciting classes and a thriving school culture. Here are six reasons why strong attendance is a win-win-win-win-win-win.
1. Showing Up = Learning
You knew this was coming, but coming to school on a regular basis helps you learn. But what about that homework you didn’t do and now you’re going to fall behind? Grumble a “I forgot” and move on…by being in class, learning the next objective and maybe even turn in your homework tomorrow? Small steps. Build your grit, stay in the game, get help when needed. But show up. It looks good on you…and everyone around you because if your class maintains a high attendance, a class trip is in order!
Coming to class means you’re in the room where the learning is happening (yes that is a weak connection to Hamilton) and as the saying goes, showing up is half the battle (Um, who actually said that? Just English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking).
2. Attendance Makes Money
Set High believes students deserve transparency and that includes school finances. Did you know that California is an “ADA” state, meaning that schools are paid on an average daily attendance? Yup. And did you know that just like students, adults are sometimes incentivized? As in, if your school has a high ADA, your school gets bonus money? Yup. Here’s the formula for how SET High uses this bonus money:
SET Budget = 60% teacher salaries + 40% student services
Therefore, for ADA Bonus money:
60% goes back to teachers (thank you!) and 40% goes to student services.
Which means:
Your Passion Project needs a little cash flow? Sure, we’ll cover it.
Jumpy Castle for our ReSET event? Got the funds!
New tables to give students space to prep lunch? Yep, let’s buy them.
All because students came to school.
3. SET High Teachers Make Learning Fun
Teachers at SET High are all in at our tuition-free school. How?
- They empower students. Classes focus on real-world problems and wild problem-solving is encouraged. And check out the classes they teach (#5)!
- Strong Relationships between students and teachers are important and we make sure students are supported throughout their learning journey here. We’re here for the questions, the tutoring, and even guidance if you want it.
- Students are also encouraged to dig in deeply to subjects that they find interesting. We even use ChatGPT for detailed in-depth study, guided by teachers themselves.
4. Dual Enrollment aka Free College Education
What does dual enrollment have to do with attendance? At our forward-thinking school, we want our students to go the distance and advance as much as they want in high school. SET High students can take college classes for free with Mesa College, and that means you don’t want to miss out. Come get college education while in high school – for free!
5. Unique High School Learning Journey
We mentioned passion projects and we’ll mention them again as passion is our driving force at our WASC accredited school. We believe that if you are passionate about something, you’ll want to come to school to learn more. Students design their own learning journey at SET high because we want students excited to come every day. Lucky for you, SET High is fun…and a diploma includes California’s UC A-G requirements. Classes currently include:
- Conspiracy & Propaganda
- Statistics
- Aerospace Engineering
- Mythology and Religion
- The Wisdom of Star Wars
- Guitar
- Jiu Jitsu
- Making Movies
- Into the Darkness: All Things Poe
- Project You!
- Robotics / Building Cool Stuff
6. Community of Acceptance
At SET, we ensure that all students have access to a safe and effective learning environment. Our Community of Acceptance approach has proven to not only help students find their own place in our academic environment, but also improve their academic achievement and attendance.
Students and faculty at SET High practice full acceptance. We do not just practice tolerance, as tolerating is not fully accepting, but we create an accepting learning environment for everyone. We do not tolerate bullying, and we offer a number of clubs where students can be a part of a support group like LGBTQIA+ and a peer tutoring/peer buddy system.
Don’t miss out – lit-er-al-ly. Join our engaging tuition-free high school and see how school can be exciting. Enrolling now!
About SET High
SET High offers each student individual attention from multi-talented, highly qualified teachers. Students build a healthy camaraderie with classmates inside an intellectually rigorous environment that brings out their talents and personality, helping them develop their individual character and direction in life. With a wide variety of electives, flexible scheduling, dual enrollment college classes and more — our students regularly exceed